As the world is being propelled into a new post-digital age, eSignature solutions are becoming increasingly popular. Not having to sign documents physically can save so much time and effort and can make communication much more quick and easy.
With so many benefits, it’s no wonder that the eSignature market is projected to reach $14.1bn by 2026. Between streamlining your workflow and cutting costs, there are many reasons why your company should be thinking about moving towards an eSignature solution.
Especially in the fast-moving property market, the number of issues with the (now obsolete) paper trail keeps multiplying. The digital future is looking more and more promising for businesses worldwide, and we believe that every company should be looking towards making the switch over to a more elegant paperless solution.
In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of eSignatures, and how their implementation will allow your business to prosper in the long run. We’ll also take a look at how you can get started with them today!
What can electronic signatures be used for?
Some of the uses for eSignatures for the property sector include:
Landlord contracts
Tenancy agreements
Terms of Business
References
Inventories
Brochure approval
Why are eSignatures so popular for Estate Agents?
Just five years ago, there were 89 million eSignature transactions. Now there are 754 million - according to Revitas. Estate agency is an industry that is heavily adopting the technology.
What are some of the primary reasons why we’re seeing this shift in practices?
Approved by HM Land Registry
HM Land Registry is now accepting Electronic Signatures. This could in return accelerate the speed for the entire industry to adopt electronic signatures.
DocuSign provides digital signature solutions that allow you to electronically sign and witness agreements and other documents. Their eSignature solution can help individuals meet the HM Land Registry electronic signature guidelines, including the ability to electronically add and authenticate signers and witnesses. DocuSign works closely with HMLR and leading law firms in the UK to understand the intentions behind the guidelines and further refine our products to meet all the variations of the requirements.
Increase Efficiency
Your time is valuable. In an industry where contracts and paperwork are filled out and signed daily, the amount of time it takes to print and scan every document you need to sign and send off probably means you’re losing chunks of your day. Well, that doesn’t need to happen anymore.
As legalities and contracts are exchanged, the process of printing documents, scanning, revising, and either setting up an in-person signing event or emailing it to your client can eat up hours, even days worth of time.
With eSignatures, you can just put a digital signature onto the document with the click of a button. Plus, not having to handle physical documents means that you can easily just search for text in your documents to find them rather than physically looking. All of this means that you’ll be saving lots of time going through records and invoices.
There’s no wonder that businesses are achieving 70% to 80% efficiency improvements after migrating to eSignatures. The removal of the fuss of paper means you can spend your time on more important tasks for your business, and not have to worry about printing out a document to fill in a signature.
Improve Security Posture
Your signature isn’t safe. A physical signature can be forged and tampered with, and can potentially be used for fraudulent purposes. But, an eSignature is tamper-proof and secure.
With an eSignature, you can easily ensure that you’re the only person who is able to use your signature. With high amounts of encryption and robust security features, your eSignature is safe and secure.
Plus, two-factor authentication means that any malicious attempt to use your signature will be flagged and blocked. With email, SMS, and authenticator application alerts, you’ll know right away if someone has attempted a breach.
By making sure your signature is protected, you repel any bad faith actors who try to forge or manipulate your identity to try to fake invoices or order slips. And, your eSignature holds up in court if you ever need to prove that you signed a document.
Bring Increased Revenue and Profits
On the fiscal side of things, eSignatures have tons of financial benefits for your business. There’s the obvious — no need to print means saving money on printer ink and paper.
But, the savings run much deeper than that.
ESignatures are incredibly low-maintenance. The process to set them up is simple, and moving away from paper means that your IT team doesn’t have to worry about maintaining a physical printer. This means that your IT team can focus on more important issues, and you don’t have to worry about them being spread thin and needing to get more staff due to it.
Furthermore, eSignatures cost almost nothing to run. Administrative costs aside, there’s no need to have a printer constantly hooked up to the power. Nor do you need any form of device to specifically make them work. They just work as part of your normal document workflow, which means that you don’t really need to change anything to implement them.
Create a Better Customer Experience
The top cited reason for transitioning to eSignatures is to meet increasing client demands for an interconnected, digital experience - according to Aberdeen.
Customers like simplicity. If a customer has to go through the tedious process of printing and signing, then scanning or sending, there’s a chance they may just find it to be too much effort and may alternatively opt for a company that can provide a more simple solution.
With eSignatures, your clients and customers can easily enter their signatures without having to worry about any physical paperwork. This will save them time and effort, and help them feel more positive about their purchase with your company.
Reduce Your Company’s Carbon Footprint
Obviously, a decrease in your paper use will mean that your company is acting in a more environmentally-friendly way. However, this is made even better by the fact that eSignatures utilise no energy or power.
Instead of a massive printer consuming large amounts of energy, your electronic signature is stored in the cloud. You don’t need to use energy to print out documents and scan them, and you don’t need to use physical mailing services to send out documents. This can massively reduce your carbon footprint, as both energy consumption and mailing directly lead to carbon emissions.
So, you can easily make your company sustainable for the future by investing in an eSignature solution.
Looking for an eSignature solution?
The world is moving towards a paperless future. Moving into the digital sphere can have many benefits for you and your fellow estate agents, and is the only way to ensure your company is ahead of the curve at all times.
Hopefully, this article has helped you in finding out more about why eSignatures are so great and important for the future of your business.
E-signature technology allows your clients and all other stakeholders in the homebuying process to sign documents electronically. When you handle real estate agreements digitally, you can eliminate many of the most inefficient tasks from the homebuying process.
Interested in solidifying your company’s future in an electronic world? Want the multitude of benefits of eSignatures and to do away with the archaic paper signature? Then, why not get started today?
As a DocuSign partner, we can provide the complete e-signature solution together with our market leading DMS integration solutions. Blue Car Technologies’ product portfolio is based on enhancing the function of iManage Work, OpenText eDocs, NetDocuments and Worldox Document Management System.
Learn more about DocuSign and our DMS integration solutions. You can book a demo to see how we can help accelerate your business into the digital world.
