Keeping track of your agreements, Docusign-style

Take a close look at the old way of getting people to sign contracts and important documents, and you’ll soon see a lot of holes in the system. One of the biggest? An inability to keep track of where things are in your agreements. Let’s take a look at why this can be a problem, and how to fix it.

When the old way is broken …

Getting clients to sign important documents used to be a real headache.

Say you needed to get a client’s signature, fast. You’d call up a courier, wait for them to ride over and collect the document, then drum your fingers with impatience while they pedalled across town in pursuit of said client. The document finally came back a few hours later. But, wait, the client missed one crucial page in the document. “Um, kind courier, can you come back, please?”

Or what about the times when you’ve posted out documents to customers – a loan doc, for example, or perhaps some important insurance papers – with no idea whether the customer you’re posting to is even in the country right now. For all you know, your letter could sit unopened for weeks while they lie on a beach in Bali.

Office admins would spend hours chasing clients’ signatures on documents and resending agreements that were completed but not in good order (NIGO). There was no easy way to track the status of documents – so sales and other teams would be left in the dark about whether a prospective customer was actually intending to sign on the dotted line or not.

… Fix it

A huge benefit of Docusign is the ability to track agreements throughout every step of the signing process. From the moment you hit ‘send’ to the moment it comes back, fully completed and ready to action, you can see exactly where things are at.

It’s all visible via ‘envelope status’. (A Docusign envelope is like a sophisticated, digital version of that courier’s envelope – containing recipient information, documents, document fields, and timestamps that indicate delivery progress. They also contain information about the sender, security and authentication information, and more.)

In addition, on your Docusign home screen, the overview tab will show you at-a-glance just how many documents are waiting for action to be taken. From there, you can take a deeper dive into individual envelopes so that, if needed, you can follow up on customers with complete clarity.

Things that ‘envelope status’ tell you

Docusign drills down into useful detail about the status of your envelopes. It always shows the current state of a transaction, in real-time. It may show that a document is sent but not opened, waiting for others to sign, voided, declined and much more. See all envelope status options.

This granular detail can be extremely useful for your team – helping salespeople to avoid awkward phone calls about documents that may or may not have gone missing in the post; giving business managers powerful insights about prospective customers’ intent; and saving office admins immeasurable amounts of time in chasing clients’ signatures.

With ‘envelope status’ showing you exactly where things are at, there’s no more second guessing about those important agreements that keep your business moving forward. It gives you the confidence to take action when action’s needed, and focus your energy on the things that matter at all other times.

See how easy it is to track the status of your businesses agreements with a 30-day Docusign eSignature trial. Sign up today.