I do my best to write articles about e-signatures on this blog that will inspire business owners to begin using them to make their paper workflows more efficient. But, every now and then, and maybe more so lately, I get a bit perturbed when companies that I do business with continue to delay my business due to a signature on a document requirement.
I’m certainly not saying that signing my intent to do business is not important. My frustration comes when I encounter a grossly inefficient process that makes doing business with particular company more difficult and ultimately delays my business activity.
Case in point. Almost 2 weeks ago I registered online with my bank to start doing online banking. I know, for someone complaining about efficiency, you’d think I had been banking online for years.
Anyway, I gave the bank my information and was told someone would contact me in 2 business days. I then received an email saying they are “snail mailing” me a document to sign confirming my intent to enter the program, and that I’d be able to log in 3 business days after they receive the signed document.
Due to the bank’s inefficient process, they are basically saying, “thank you for signing up for electronic banking to reduce the cost of paying bills and make bill paying more efficient. We see you are a progressive type that is unafraid of technology and instead use it to make your life easier. However, we are not. You must first wait for us to complete our inefficient process because we still do things the old way, a way that is much more costly and cumbersome to our employees and patrons. We’d prefer to delay your progress by collecting a handwritten signature, then file it away in our massive document storage room instead of taking advantage of e-signature so we can begin doing business right away.”
I sent an email to the person who sent me the document to sign letting her know by simply using electronic signatures, she could save both of us time, and save her bank money by eliminating needless tasks, postage, and paperwork, but she never replied to my email.
Update – Jan 15, 2008:
I received a call today from my bank’s Executive VP of Retail thanking me for this blog article. He informed me that they are indeed in the process of implementing e-signature technology within their bank to make their customer’s experience more efficient. I know for sure that once they implement e-signatures and adjust to the new workflow they will be rewarded with greater customer satisfaction and cost reduction. Congratulations! 
If you are a small business that cannot afford to hire a full-time IT staff to implement e-signature technology in your own business, give us a call and we can provide you a cost affective e-signature solution.
Posted by Jay 
