Why 40% of Organizations Lose Customers on Digital Agreements—and How to Fix It
Disconnected systems, manual processes, and poor mobile experiences create hidden operational costs and customer abandonment, but connected digital agreement workflows can reduce friction, improve efficiency, and deliver a better customer experience.
If you're noticing a trend of potential customers walking away before signing final agreements, you aren't alone. Our latest research reveals that 40% of organizations report abandonment rates of greater than 10% for digital agreement and form processes. According to Forrester's 2025 Customer Experience Index opens in a new tab, customer experience quality in the U.S. and Canada has dropped to an all-time low. This may be one of the reasons that 81% of leaders surveyed rank improving customer experience among their top organizational priorities, alongside revenue growth (82%) and cost reduction (78%).
Customers expect fast, easy, and secure interactions. When they hit manual bottlenecks, disconnected systems, or clunky mobile experiences, they simply drop off.
Abandonment is only the most visible consequence. Behind a frustrating customer journey are hidden operational costs: employees spending time re-entering data, teams tracking down missing information, customers contacting support for status updates, and processes slowing down because information can’t move seamlessly from one step or system to the next.
The challenge for organizations is moving beyond simply digitizing individual steps to creating connected experiences from beginning to end.
Here are the steps to reduce digital agreement abandonment that we'll cover:
Pre-populate customer data so information is never requested twice
Embed identity verification inside the workflow instead of as a separate step
Optimize every form for mobile completion
Automate routing and approvals between systems
Give customers real-time status visibility
What does a broken digital agreement journey look like?
Consider a common customer journey: onboarding for a new financial account, insurance policy, healthcare service, or other product. On paper, the process may be fully digital. But in practice, the customer can still encounter friction at nearly every step.
A customer enters basic information into a digital form, only to be asked for the same information again later because systems don’t share data. The customer then has to leave the workflow to upload identification or other documents. This additional effort matters: Our research found that identity verification and supporting-document collection are among the stages at which the organizations surveyed see the greatest customer abandonment, with more than one-third of respondents pointing to fraud and identity-verification concerns (37%) as significant challenges.
Even after customers provide everything requested, internal handoffs, manual approvals, and disconnected systems can still cause delays before an agreement is ready to review and sign.
Each of these individual tasks might be digital, but to the customer, the experience feels fragmented. Unfortunately, every point of friction has an operational consequence for the business.
Disconnected systems create work for customers and employees
One of the biggest misconceptions about digital transformation is that replacing paper with digital tools automatically creates an efficient process.
Organizations can digitize forms, signatures, identity verification, approvals, and document storage yet still depend on people to move information between them. When systems aren’t connected, customers must repeatedly enter their information, and employees still manually copy and paste data from forms into CRMs, core systems, and other applications.
That duplication of effort results in more than inconvenience. Manual data entry consumes employee time and introduces opportunities for mistakes. Incorrect or incomplete information can lead to additional outreach, rework, delays, and an overall worse customer experience.
Disconnected workflows can also make it harder to answer customers’ questions about what happens next.
When employees have to search across multiple systems to understand where an agreement sits, customers are left waiting for updates. They may call or email support, adding another layer of work for teams already managing an inefficient process.
A better digital experience connects information across the journey. Customer data can pre-populate forms, completed information can flow automatically into downstream systems, and workflow automation can route agreements to the right person or next step without relying on manual intervention.
This leaves less work for the customer and less operational overhead for the organization.
How does poor mobile optimization affect form completion?
Today’s customers expect to be able to complete important tasks wherever they are, on whatever device is most convenient. A process that technically works online but requires a desktop computer isn’t truly digital-first. According to the organizations surveyed, the most critical expectations around digital onboarding and form-signing experiences are pre-populated date fields (25%), seamless identity verification (24%), mobile responsiveness (18%), and SMS text delivery (18%).
Forms that aren’t optimized for mobile devices can force businesses and customers to desktop computers to complete routine processes. Instead of enabling customers to complete forms from their phones, organizations introduce delays into the workflow.
The operational effects quickly compound. Employees might need to follow up with customers about incomplete forms. Information might arrive later than expected. Teams might need to manually transfer data between systems. Downstream processes can’t begin until the required information is finally collected.
Mobile optimization determines whether a digital process removes work or merely shifts the bottleneck elsewhere.
Organizations should design forms and agreement workflows around the way customers interact with them: shorter forms, responsive interfaces, clear instructions, pre-populated information, and the ability to complete the process without switching devices or channels.
From digitization to transformation
Companies looking to improve their CX processes should strive to make the entire journey feel connected.
That means designing processes around the customer rather than around the systems behind them. Information should be carried forward rather than collected repeatedly. Identity verification should be embedded into the experience rather than treated as a separate hurdle. Agreements should move automatically between the people and systems that need them. And customers should be able to complete tasks easily from devices they already use.
Docusign Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) enables companies to handle agreements from first draft to signature to management. Teams can work smarter and faster with an AI assistant and agents that surface potential risks, prioritize renewals, and analyze negotiation terms. IAM integrates with tools like Salesforce, Microsoft, Slack, and more so teams can keep using the tools they rely on to automate workflows. Docusign meets or exceeds stringent security standards, ensuring that the most sensitive contract data stays private and secure. And IAM turns static PDFs into a searchable database to help surface insights. Each of these things helps improve the back-end experience so that customers don’t feel unnecessary friction.
Organizations that focus on the complete journey can turn digital agreement workflows from potential bottlenecks into opportunities to improve both customer experience and operational efficiency. When customers can move from information collection to verification to agreement and signature without unnecessary barriers, everyone benefits—customers get a faster, easier experience, and organizations spend less time managing friction.
Check out The State of Digital Customer Experience 2026 to learn how to identify the friction points in your own customer journey and get started addressing them. And you can learn more about Docusign IAM for CX here.
Frequently asked questions
What is digital agreement abandonment?
Digital agreement abandonment occurs when a prospective customer, partner, or employee begins a digital onboarding, contract, or form-signing workflow but drops off before completing and signing the final document. It is a critical drop-off point in the customer journey that directly impacts conversion rates, revenue, and customer acquisition costs.
What are the main causes of digital agreement abandonment?
According to Docusign research, the primary drivers of agreement and form abandonment include:
Friction in identity verification: 37% of surveyed organizations cite fraud checks and ID verification as major drop-off points.
Redundant data entry: Requiring users to re-enter information across disconnected systems.
Poor mobile responsiveness: Forms that fail to scale to mobile screens or require switching to a desktop.
Internal delays: Slow manual handoffs, reviews, and approval bottlenecks before agreements are ready to sign.
What is a typical abandonment rate for digital agreements?
New research from Docusign shows that 40% of organizations experience digital agreement and form abandonment rates greater than 10%. Furthermore, customer experience quality in North America has reached an all-time low according to Forrester's CX Index, making agreement friction a primary driver of customer churn.
How can businesses reduce digital agreement abandonment?
Organizations can significantly lower abandonment rates by implementing five best practices:
Pre-populate form data: Automatically carry known customer data forward so users never input the same details twice.
Embed identity verification: Integrate ID validation natively within the workflow rather than redirecting users to third-party tools.
Design mobile-first: Ensure all agreements support responsive touch interfaces, responsive layouts, and SMS delivery.
Automate approvals: Connect core business systems (like Salesforce, Workday, or Microsoft) to eliminate manual handoffs.
Provide real-time visibility: Give customers clear progress bars and status updates throughout the process.
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