From click to close: How to streamline signing and maximise conversions

As every business leader out there would agree, delivering a great customer experience is critical to long-term success. We’ve all heard the stats about how customers rate experience above price when making a purchasing decision, or how customers will abandon you after one bad experience. The stats prove that customer experience counts, particularly during high-stakes moments like account sign-ups, loan applications, or service authorisations. A single glitch during one of these moments can lead to abandonment, before the prospect has even become a customer. 

Imagine a person who has spent the last few weeks making their way down the marketing funnel. It all started when they searched, “Reliable internet service near me” and your business popped up. They spent some time exploring your website and comparing your offer to others, before they made an online enquiry and, eventually, had a great chat with a member of your sales team. So far, their experience has been smooth sailing — an easy-to-navigate website, helpful online chat, direct access to a salesperson when they had questions about your pricing packages. They are so close to signing on the dotted line. And then, they hit a wall. To sign up to your service, they have to jump through all these arduous hoops involving a scanner, a printer, and a dusty copy of their passport. It’s inconvenient and unnecessary, and they turn around and say, “No, thanks.”

The above is just one example of how a poor experience during critical moments in the customer journey — that is, those moments when forms need to be filled in or contracts need to be signed — can increase the number of drop-offs. But let’s face it. Managing these high-stakes moments can be hard. You need to make sure the systems you use are watertight, compliant, and secure, which can require a fair bit of fact-checking and ID verification. You also need to make the process as seamless and intuitive as can be. The two can feel mutually exclusive. 

In fact, according to new research by Docusign and Entrust, 66% of organisations believe customer experience and identity fraud prevention are competing priorities. And 58% are concerned they will frustrate customers and increase abandonment rates if they increase identity fraud protection. It all begs the question, how do you strike the right balance?  

Simply acknowledging the importance of a frictionless experience during these critical junctures is a great place to start. By thinking about these things — not just the “how”, but also the “why” — you’ll be in a better position to kick off the transformation of your customer sign-up or onboarding journey. We’ve covered the “why” above. What about the “how”? 

How to smooth out any wrinkles in your customer journey

Across every customer touchpoint, your goal is to make every interaction feel like a natural extension of your brand — rather than a separate, bureaucratic hurdle to jump over. To do this, you need an intelligent agreement platform that easily integrates with your existing customer platforms like a CRM or an ERP. One that is intuitive and easy to use, with a responsive, mobile-first interface. And one that comes with the most robust security, compliance and ID verification features to give you and your customers complete peace of mind. 

Docusign IAM for CX delivers. It transforms cumbersome contracting processes into smooth and engaging customer experiences — ones that are so seamless and easy, your customers hardly notice them. It helps you:

• Drive more conversions. You can use pre-filled forms to save time for your customers, automate your signature collection workflows, verify signer-provided information in real-time, and more.

• Minimise signing friction. Customers can agree instantly, anywhere, on any device with secure and fast signing solutions that reduce abandonment and lower the risk of fraud.

• Build trust. Backed by enterprise-grade security and compliance controls, access, and organisational management, it all helps to give your customers peace of mind that their data is protected.

• Seamlessly verify identities. It’s easy to add identity proofing and authentication to your agreement processes, keeping all steps in the signing process in the one place. 

Features like these help you transform what was once a point of friction into a moment of affirmation. And they help you make sure that every moment — from the initial “click” of interest, to the final “close” of a signed agreement — reflects positively on your brand. In today’s increasingly competitive business landscape, can you afford anything less?