We at DocuSign listen to our customers when they talk about their electronic signature needs. This weekend, we stumbled across some comments about DocuSign and our free eSignature customer support. They were just too good not to share! Without further ado:

DocuSign’s Electronic Signature Customers Comment on Customer Support

The first story shares the experience of signing up for DocuSign’s eSignature service:

The reason I joined DocuSign was because of their AMAZING customer support. I joined on a Saturday night around 6pm and by 9pm I was having issues and needed to get a contract done that night. I asked if anyone knew the answer on twitter and within 5 minutes I had both their twitter account and the owner of the company talking to me on twitter and walking me through it. Then An, who is behind the twitter account, called me to make sure everything was ok. THAT IS SERVICE.

OK so they don’t offer free phone support. I have NEVER had a problem getting an immediate answer with them on chat or twitter. The support is some of the best I have ever seen. If you had a problem with any product in the world and put something out there on Twitter what do you think the chances of anyone, never mind the Founder and Vice President of Product Strategy of the company, offering help at 9pm on a Saturday night?

You have free email support and also free support via chat, the product is amazing, the support is amazing.

- Dean Ouellette, Tempe Real Estate

The second story details the robust support options DocuSign offers to its eSign customers:

I’ve used DocuSign for over two years and never needed to call them. Not once. Twice I had a question about how to do something (that if I’d taken a few minutes on my own to find the answer, I could have. It was on their site) and was immediately answered via email and Twitter. I also have agents that have been using DocuSign for two years — never needed to make a phone call for support for two reasons: 1) The product is robust and easy to use; and 2) there are many other ways to get support beside the telephone.

Lots of companies charge for extended (read phone) customer support. DocuSign isn’t the only one, not by a long shot. I’d rather them charge for extended support than raise my rates so they can handle all the “I forgot my password” and “It’s broken” (when it’s not) phone calls.

Have you tried the [free] chat, email, twitter, forums, webinars, blog, and/or FAQs for support? They work, and work well.

- Jay Thompson, Phoenix Real Estate Broker

The third comment explains a customer’s experience with how easy and intuitive DocuSign’s electronic signature service is for his clients:

I have used the DocuSign service hundreds of times over the past couple of years and I love it. More importantly, my clients LOVE it. The recent enhancements to their system helped an already great product become even more beneficial to my business.

My experience has been that anyone that can log on to the internet and do even the most basic of tasks have great success with the DocuSign service. From young to old, computer savvy to “old school,” I have never had a complaint.

- Nick Bastian, Tempe Real Estate Agent

The fourth comment discusses how one DocuSign user has worked with DocuSign on eSign policy issues and product feedback while turning to online help and web content:

I’ve been a Docusign user for several years now and have been really pleased with the technology. I enjoy being able to sign ANYTHING. I’m pretty technically inclined and have only had to contact customer service a couple times with help on policy issues, like FHA not recognizing e-signatures.

I’ve spoken with their Chief Legal Counsel and they’re now working with FHA and lenders to gainer wider acceptance of electronic signatures. I consider that responsive.

When I call in about product limitations or ideas, my requests are acknowledged and supposedly added to the feature request for future releases. I hope they don’t charge for these types of call. [ed. note: We don't charge for feedback-type calls, but as a best practice, email or chat works better discuss product limitations or ideas - we can log and track these communications and share them more effectively with the Product team!]

On the other hand, their online help has always been responsive and there’s a lot of material published on the website that’s gotten me through most issues.

- Derec Shuler, Denver Real Estate Broker

Do you have a story similar to Dean, Jay, Nick, or Derec’s? Do you have your own story about how DocuSign’s eSign service you want to share? Leave a comment to share your thoughts – we welcome them!

We’ve rolled out many new changes since the start of 2010, including the release of Version 10.1, the exclusive DocuSign REALTOR® Edition, and a new phone system. If you subscribe to DocuSign’s electronic signature service, you get access to new features every time we do a new release – this means you can always use the newest features and have access to the latest innovations in electronic signature technology.

Where do we get our feature ideas? We often solicit feedback from you, our users, about new feature ideas. You can follow @DocuSign on Twitter or become a fan on the DocuSign Facebook Page for announcements when we look for user feedback. We’ve even hosted focus groups such as the Mix and Mingle at the Keller Williams Family Reunion, to determine what features and functionality you, our users, deem most important so we can prioritize them on the product roadmap.

DocuSign is committed to providing industry-leading electronic signature solutions to real estate professionals as the exclusive and official ESIGN provider through the NAR Member Benefits® program. Our commitment is such that we just released the exclusive DocuSign REALTOR® Edition along with a real estate-specific electronic signature service because we understand that you have unique business needs, different from those needs of our other customers, and we want to accommodate your business needs.

ESIGN Support

When you purchase DocuSign, adding phone support is always an option. This is not new. When you sign up for DocuSign, we offer phone support as a premium option. Instead of charging everyone for phone support, we’ve chosen to charge only those who use phone support. This enables us to keep our prices down and offer the robust features and plans that we do.

If you want to upgrade your account and add phone support, you can contact support (service@docusign.com) with your preferred contact information (phone, email, etc.) and let them know that you want to add phone support, so they can work with you to help you choose the DocuSign plan with phone support that best fits your business needs.

However, our commitment to customer service means that support is NOT a premium option. We have many FREE support options.

Free ESIGN Support Options

Email (service@docusign.com) has a service level agreement of two hours during support hours. Because I work remotely, I often email support with questions and receive a response almost instantaneously, so it’s possible to get almost real time response. Emailing support means that you can also send them screen shots of what you’re seeing on your screen, so they can see what the issue is and can help you effectively.

Instant Messenger enables you to copy and paste any messages that trigger the question you want to ask support. It also provides you the benefit of real time conversation, similar to what you’d experience on the phone. With the ability of our support personnel to read your messages and gain an understanding of your issue, they can effectively help you.

Forums are great for questions and feedback you have for our engineers, product managers, and professional services folks that aren’t time sensitive. You can see if someone has already had a similar issue or question or ask and someone from the technical side of the house will respond.

DocuSign’s YouTube Channel provides informational how-to videos that walk you through the various standard and premium features of DocuSign. We’re continually adding new videos and if you don’t see one that you want, let us know! We’ll add it to our editorial calendar.

Weekly Free Webinar eSign Trainings that you can sign up for and attend from the comfort of your home or office enable you to learn how to use DocuSign’s eSignature services.

DocuSign’s eSignature Blog provides how-to’s, tips and tricks, product announcements, in-person events, industry news and more. We continually seek to share information about what we’re working on and how you can leverage eSignature to close deals faster, increase your customers’ satisfaction, and save time.

Sender FAQ and Signer FAQ provide the answers to the most common questions from senders and signers, since we know they’ll have different questions. We also offer sender demos,signer demos, sender user guides & documentation, signer documentation and other resources on the DocuSign web site.

Additionally, we do not charge for signers who call support – we understand that signers are using DocuSign because senders have requested that they sign documents using DocuSign. Please do leave comments with your questions, concerns and thoughts as we’d like to work with you to help you understand how customer support works at DocuSign!

During Thanksgiving, we discussed how you can use DocuSign Electronic Signature Services during your holiday travels. Today, on Christmas Eve, we’d like to highlight various resources we’ve made available, in case you have any questions about electronic signature during the holidays:

DocuSign Senders Support: Provides Senders Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), demos, documentation and user guides as well as product downloads. If you have some common questions about specific features, how to use various features and more, take a look at DocuSign Senders Support.

DocuSign Signers Support: Includes Signers FAQ, demos and documentation. Signers Support provides answers to questions common to the electronic signing experience.

DocuSign Forums: Offer an archive of conversations about using DocuSign, as both senders and signers. Registered members can also post their questions about electronic signature as well as answer others’ questions. DocuSign’s service and professional service team members are quite active in these forums.

DocuSign Videos: Find demo, training and how-to videos. We also recently uploaded some of the videos from Salesforce Dreamforce Global Gathering 2009. Heading into the Christmas weekend, we wish you and yours a safe and happy holiday.

Photograph of the gingerbread house used under creative commons license

Since our 9.1 release of the latest electronic signature and electronic contract execution (ECE) services, we’ve seen lots of questions come through the pipeline.

We hosted a town hall for our users to experience the new electronic signature and online contract execution functionality of the DocuSign 9.1 release.

Tom Gonser, our VP of Product Strategy, covered changes in sending & signing as well as exciting new features. For those of you who weren’t able to make the town hall, we’ve made the recording available online.

For additional information about the DocuSign 9.1 release, take a look in the launch center, which includes:

• Summaries of the release, API upgrades and more
• Videos of the signing and sending process
• Webinar with Tom Gonser, VP of Product Strategy and DocuSign Founder

Given our focus on customer service, we’ve created a store of resources around DocuSign’s electronic signature and ECE services. We continuously add new content, so please keep checking back. If you’d like to see something addressed, let us know!

Blog – We share information about what’s happening at DocuSign, new releases, sponsorships and what we’re learning. We also share what’s going on with our customers and how they use electronic signature and online contract execution to save time, make more money, and be more green. The DocuSign blog is a place for sneak peeks and conversations about electronic signature.

Twitter - We’re on Twitter as @DocuSign. We’ll share what we’re reading, what we’re writing and point you to the right resources or information you want. Also on Twitter? We have @tgonser, Founder/VP of Product Strategy, @KenCavallon, Business Development, and @mikebz, Client Services. If you’re interested in cloud computing, scalability and DocuSign Connect for Salesforce, talk to Ken Cavallon. Want to know more about the DocuSign Developer Center, API or how to integrate DocuSign into your existing workflow and processes? Mike Borozdin is your man.

Forums – Are you a user or a developer? You can find questions, answers and discussion from user and developer perspectives. Feedback threads are also available for your input. Tanya, our customer service manager, Bob DeSantis, VP of Sales and Business Development, Tom Gonser, Mike Borozdin, and others answer your questions. By checking out these discussions, you can learn from previous users’ and developers’ experiences.

Resources – We answer questions like “How does it work?” “Who uses and accepts electronic signatures?” “Is it legal?” on our resource page. You can find white papers, case studies, demos and videos, podcasts, webcasts and other documentation.

Support - Our dedicated support page provides you with information about the 9.1 release, see product videos, get information about live training, access our knowledge base, reset your password, and more. Need help? Try our live chat support, email service@docusign.com or call +1-866-219-4318. Our support hours are from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM (PST), Monday through Friday, excluding major US holidays.

Let us know what you think about the new release – in forums, in the comments, on your own blogs… and check out our electronic signature and online contract execution resources that best meets your needs. We love comments, conversation and feedback.