Small Business Questions About eSignature Answered

Small businesses have always had to adapt to fluctuating customer demands to stay competitive. But the  Covid-19 pandemic made it necessary for businesses of all sizes to completely transform in fundamental ways—starting with how they interact with their customers. Now, there’s no turning back. Customers today expect mobile experiences that are as smooth and seamless as desktop or in-store digital experiences. Without a doubt, digital transformation has to become your long-term strategy for attracting and retaining customers.

Now that you know what customers expect, you’ll want to gain an overview of the e-signature landscape before you adopt or upgrade to a solution that keeps your customers happy—especially when they’re on the go. With that in mind, let’s start by addressing some of the most common questions we get from leaders of growing businesses today:

1. Is E-signature legal?

The U.S. Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN) confirms that electronic signatures constitute legally binding documents if all parties choose to sign digitally. Electronic signatures are valid in all U.S. states and are granted the same legal status as handwritten signatures under this act and state laws. In other industrialized countries, electronic signatures carry the same weight and legal efficiency as handwritten signatures and paper documents.

Learn more about how electronic signatures are legally admissible in this blog post, Are Electronic Signatures Legal? And check out our comprehensive guide to the e-signature laws around the world here.

2. Are contracts signed electronically still secure?

In many ways, agreements signed using Docusign eSignature are more secure than hand-signed documents. That’s because eSignature has many layers of robust security and authentication built into it, including a robust audit history, certificate of completion and a tamper-evident seal. Additionally, Docusign uses best-in-class, 256-bit data encryption, near real-time data replication, commercial-grade firewalls and strict physical security to safely store agreement data.

3. How can I verify my signer’s identification?

With eSignature you can minimize risk by choosing from multiple ways to verify a signer’s identity, like an email with a link, SMS authentication, ID verification, a one-time access code and more. After a signature is completed, eSignature uses digital audit trails that follow Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to confirm a signature’s validity.

4. What makes Docusign different from other e-signature software?

If your growing business is evaluating e-signature providers, you may be wondering how to navigate the different solutions in the market. Today, over a million customers and more than a billion users around the world use Docusign eSignature. Docusign is a proven industry leader with first-to-market features that deliver a better customer experience and improve business agility. Some of the top reasons to choose Docusign eSignature include:

• Protects confidential business agreements and data

• Delivers a superior customer experience with an intuitive signing process

• Improves employee productivity with configurable and automated workflows

• Connects to the other tools your team already uses such as Salesforce, Microsoft and Google

• Supports environmental sustainability

Read more about how Docusign delivers these capabilities in our eBook Why Choose Docusign eSignature.

5. How can I enhance eSignature with other Docusign applications?

Connect all your agreement processes with a suite of powerful, lightweight apps available through the Docusign Agreement Cloud. Collect payments via credit card during the signing process with Docusign Payments, for example. Or as previously mentioned, choose multiple methods for verifying signers’ identities, including verification with a government-issued ID, with Docusign Identify. Docusign Click offers a simple way to capture consent to standard terms and conditions on your website, such as your privacy policy, with a single click. All your customers have to do is read your policy and click “I agree”.

6. Can Docusign eSignature scale as I grow?

You may need a single seat now, then dozens in a few years. Docusign scales as your business needs and process complexity grows. With a range of features and customization options, you can upsize and downsize as business changes. Add Guided Forms, for example, to help your signers complete long and complex forms through a series of adaptive, step-by-step questions. Use PowerForms to generate documents for signature on-demand, pulling data your company has already collected from existing applications. And enable Responsive Signing to dynamically improve how your documents are displayed based on your signer’s device type.

7. How long does it take to get up and running with eSignature?

With Docusign eSignature, you can be up and running companywide in a matter of hours. Adding Docusign Agreement Cloud functionality—like automatic payments—can happen just as quickly. With an intuitive interface and a robust support center, eSignature makes it easy for you to get started. Most growth-business customers get going on their own with very little help—users can self-guide online and get answers to most questions within our Docusign support center.

8. Can I use the mobile app to try Docusign first?

Yes - you can download the mobile app and create a free Docusign account directly within the app to get started. Your documents and activities will sync across all your devices into one centralized Docusign account. You can send three free signature requests with your free account, and signing is always free. 

Download the app on iTunes or Google Play today.

9. Can Docusign integrate with the productivity apps I use every day?

Docusign integrates seamlessly with Google Workspace, QuickBooks Online, Salesforce, Slack, Workday and 300+ other popular productivity apps, making it easy to create documents for eSignature and access agreement data directly from within the apps you already use. These integrations save time and reduce error risk because there’s no switching back and forth between apps, or re-entering of agreement data. You can also use our proprietary set of rich APIs to integrate eSignature into your business’s custom-built applications, too.

10. Do my customers and vendors have to have Docusign to collaborate on agreements with me? 

Signing with Docusign is always free, and signers don’t need anything “special”—no plugins, downloads or accounts required. As a signer, you can sign and return agreements in minutes. And signers can always choose to create a Free Account that gives them access to all their signed documents, all in one place.

Ready to kickstart your digital transformation? Try eSignature free for 30 days.