It’s no longer convenient for things to be convenient. Now, convenience is required, otherwise, we can take our business to somewhere that is convenient. We live in a world where virtually anything can be purchased from the couch, and things like verification and authentication are as simple as ever.
But why do we relegate these expected conveniences to our personal lives, when we could be taking full advantage of them in our professional lives, too?
Case in point: digital signatures.
Traditionally, describing what it takes to get necessary document signatures on original documents, and get those documents archived and processed as a process is an understatement. When it comes to closing a deal, this can take several days, weeks even, and potentially damage your customer experience, not to mention the headaches it can create for the person who actually has to chase all this required information (a study completed by Capgemini and the ELFA notes that the average equipment lease application goes through 25 manual handoffs before it is done!).
Think of it this way: it would be a rather poor business model to make a customer wait for a printed receipt to be mailed to them requiring their signature before an online purchase was sent out for delivery. And by the way, that purchase won’t even be confirmed until the receipt has been received, signed by another party and archived away for safe keeping.
Digital signatures essentially take you from Point A to Point D (or E, F, etc.) without all of the stops in between. Using a finger or stylus, customers can sign electronic documents via a touchscreen and complete a transaction in seconds, rather than dealing with delivering times and long-awaited confirmations. In addition to generally making life easier for all parties involved, here are some of the other benefits you get with digital signatures:
- Efficiently Reduce Costs: as they say, time is money. Not only does utilizing digital signatures greatly reduce your paper costs, but it also positively impacts the manpower required throughout the contract life cycle and eliminates your mailing costs. Your document management processes suddenly become unrecognizable, in a good way.
- Heightened Security: some of the early concerns regarding digital signatures had to do with security functionality, or lack thereof. In reality, digital signatures validate the authenticity and integrity of an electronic document. And instead of storing an original hard copy in what you hope is a fire and water resistant file cabinet, the original signed document is stored for eternity in an electronic vault that is secure, tamper-proof and easy to access.
- Keep Your Customers Satisfied: like we said before, time is money, and if your customers feel like their time is being wasted, they won’t be spending their money with you. Employing digital transactions gives your customers the power to virtually give their signature from anywhere there is an internet connection. This feature alone can shorten customer response times and reduce the chance that costly errors could creep in.
Want to see digital signatures in action? Check out the case study we did with eOriginal (disclaimer: eOriginal is an ASPIRE integration partner with LeaseTeam) on how a client is using this technology to take their business to new levels.
