Signatures are a critical element in many workflows. From customer contracts to employment agreements, they’re a necessary step for any business.
Unfortunately, documents requiring signatures can also be time consuming, costly, and frustrating. And if they are simply being emailed back-and-forth, these sometimes sensitive documents are potentially vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Electronic signatures (or e-signatures) have recently become popularised due to the pandemic and the increased demand for remote capabilities and reduced contact.
However, considering the mound of other benefits that e-signatures bring, businesses now don’t have much of an excuse for not utilising them.
Here are some of the reasons why your business would benefit from using e-signatures:
Reduce time
While picking up a pen and signing a piece of paper doesn’t initially seem like a time-waster, it actually includes a host of steps that end up eating into a person’s day.
Physical documents need to be printed out. Then they need to be delivered by a team member, posted through the mail, or faxed. Once your customer finally gets around to opening, signing, and then getting you back your document, you could have potentially lost days or weeks, not to mention the money that went into the paper, stamps, or travel time.
E-signing can be done in a matter of seconds. Documents can be sent with the touch of a button, signed, and instantly flicked back without losing momentum.
Staff satisfaction
Time spent managing the printing, delivering, signing, and returning of documents can be extremely tedious for employees. It’s one of the micro (yet vital) responsibilities that can take up a chunk of a team member’s busy day, leaving them feeling frustrated or unfulfilled.
E-signatures eliminate these frustrations by allowing employees to get documents signed off remotely. Whether they’re busy on the road, in the office, or working from home, they can check ‘get contract signed’ off of their to-do list.
Customer convenience
Along with improving employee satisfaction, adopting e-signatures will also be more convenient to your customers and enhance their experience.
The easier it is for customers to work with you, the more likely they’ll stay happy and loyal to your business.
Improves security
One of the main concerns around anything digital is security. And if you’re a business that often deals with sensitive information, this can be especially worrying.
However, digitalised signed documents can be sent and stored under lock-and-key. Sensitive materials can be password protected or can be set to allow only specific users to have access.
E-signatures are also considered legally binding signatures and are no different than hand-written signatures in the eyes of the law. Moreover, e-signatures are much more difficult to forge. A user’s identification, location, and time will be tracked at the time of signing, so you’ll know exactly where the document was signed and by whom.
Better view of your business
Stacks of paperwork or filing cabinets flooded with a mix of signed and un-signed documents can create confusion that can cause you to lose sight of what’s happening within the business.
By using paperless workflows, you can receive notifications when documents have been signed, need to be signed, or even when a document has been opened, so you’ll always be aware of what’s happening.
Using Formitize’s Smart Forms module, businesses can instantly improve their document signing processes, improve staff and customer satisfaction, keep documents more secure, increase workflow and productivity, and be able to have a better idea of what’s happening within the business.
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