Commonwealth Bank of Australia modernises the last piece in a lending puzzle

For many customers, closing a business loan is also the moment they look to take out a new one. If that process feels difficult or painful, it can overshadow everything else about their relationship with the bank.

Recognising that a great experience when substituting, partially discharging or discharging from a business loan may make it more likely that a business customer would request more banking services in the future, CBA knew it needed to overhaul this process. It was highly manual and paper-based, with long turnaround times and a lot of back-and-forth between bankers and customers. 

“Previously, if a customer wanted to discharge a loan, they had to download a PDF, send it to all people involved, like co-directors or guarantors, and chase everyone’s signatures. Then, they would have to scan and email it back, or drop the form back into a physical branch,” said Annabel Thomas, Senior Product Owner, CBA.

Insights from customer sentiment reporting revealed that customers were frustrated with the paper-based forms which negatively impacted the bank’s Net Promoter Score (NPS). Internally, the teams that processed these forms were frustrated with the amount of rework the paper forms created, and the difficulties around tracking and following up on progress. 

“Our customers and our bankers deserved a better experience. CBA has a reputation for being at the forefront of digital innovation, and this process was letting us down,” Annabel said.

From “slow and clunky” to slick

Having seen the positive impact of Docusign Web Forms within other teams in the bank, the business digital team decided to digitise its business discharge form. They partnered with Docusign to get the job done in a short timeframe, with hands-on support from our Docusign Account and Professional Services teams. Working closely with CBA, Docusign helped uncover the opportunity, demonstrate the solution’s capabilities, and guide internal teams — getting the project live in just weeks instead of months.

“Working with Docusign was a great experience. They were really focused on the project, and engaged all our stakeholders from the get-go. By being highly responsive to our needs, they helped us complete the project in about eight weeks, under time and under budget,” said Annabel. 

This fast turnaround was despite the fact that, during the roll-out, CBA did “a massive pivot” and decided to expand the project beyond its intended Small Business Banking audience – and instead include relationship managed customers in the remit, too. These higher net worth customers come with more complex needs, requiring more logic to be incorporated into the form.

Beyond the implementation of the digital discharge form, Docusign also showed the business digital team how to use the platform to transform other paper-based forms into digital versions. “Now, we own the capability to deliver more of these types of forms. We can build and edit them in-house, which is so beneficial. We’ve already started setting up digital versions of our Financial Statement of Position and Privacy Consent forms.”

Business customers give the experience a big tick

Digitising a discharge form may feel like a small accomplishment. But it supports CBA’s broader focus on digital innovation and improving the overall experience for both customers, and the teams that process these forms.

Since the form was digitised, CBA has reported an improvement in customer satisfaction metrics relating to the “Closing” sub-journey in the business lending customer journey, and  expects a reduction in complaints and fewer calls to the contact centre. There’s a lot less rework and follow-up on the form, and the experience is far more intuitive and transparent. 

From a security perspective, the digital form comes with protections like multi-factor authentication, which simply weren’t available on paper. “We love this additional layer of security, along with the traceability that a Docusign envelope enables,” Annabel said.