PDCflow is continually improving our esignature software to make it easier for companies to send requests and for customers to:
- Sign documents online
- Receive essential business paperwork
- Make payments via email or SMS
In a live Strategy Session, PDCflow’s Heather Harris, Lucy Ayala, and Kristen Makanoa highlighted some of these improvements that simplify online document signing and other business requests.
Here’s what they covered:
Why Deals and Business Processes Stall
Often, what should be a quick approval on proposals and payments turns into a stalled process that drags on for days or weeks.
Here are the most common reasons deals stall and payments get delayed, especially when paperwork and electronic signatures are involved.
- Disorganization Disaster: When online document signing processes are scattered across emails, portals, or printing/signing/scanning in paperwork, nothing moves efficiently.
- Signer Bottlenecks: If even one person in the chain doesn’t know where or how to sign documents online, the whole process halts.
- Follow-Up Fatigue: Teams waste time chasing digital signatures and payments manually, losing momentum and focus.
- Form Fumbles & Errors: Incomplete or incorrect information leads to rework, confusion, and lost trust.
Watch the 35-minute Strategy Session
Friction Point 1: Document Sprawl = Disorganized Disaster
Let’s discuss the chaos that occurs when documents, signature requests, and reporting are stored in different systems, locked behind portals, or get lost in email threads.
This is known as document sprawl, and it’s a primary cause of breakdowns in online document signing. Here’s what it looks like:
- A contract gets sent by email, or the signer is told to access a portal.
- The signer must sign into a portal or print the original document to sign by hand and scan it back into a digital file.
- The signer must create or remember a password, or email documents back (hopefully uploading the right file and using the same email thread).
- With this process, it is hard to know where a deal stands or who might be holding it up.
Negative Impacts of Document Sprawl
When contract processes are confusing, the disorganization causes delays. Internal teams waste time digging through inboxes, following up manually, or re-sending documents.
Worst of all, customers get frustrated, making them less likely to follow through. With multiple tools and disconnected steps, every stage becomes a potential point of failure.
What businesses need is an easy, secure, trackable way to let customers sign documents online in one step. With PDCflow, there’s no printing and scanning, and you can track contracts with event notifications.
Watch this 2-minute Demo to see how PDCflow Keeps Document Management Simple
Friction Point 2: Signer Bottlenecks
Whether it's a client, patient, vendor, or co-signer, many contracts depend on multiple people signing documents online in a specific order. When signers are in different places or on different schedules, this can get complicated.
We call this the signer bottleneck. One person doesn’t receive the document, open the request, or understand what to do next, and the transaction comes to a halt.
For your staff, bottlenecks mean time wasted chasing digital signatures instead of closing deals or getting paid. For your customer, it means confusion and friction that lead to dropped transactions.
PDCflow eliminates signer confusion by allowing you to send documents, collect signatures, and even request payments in a simple, mobile-friendly process.
Each signer knows exactly what’s needed, and the entire process moves forward without hand-holding.
- Less back-and-forth
- Fewer delays
- More completed requests
Because when you make it easy to sign documents online from anywhere, people do it.
Watch this 6-minute Demo to see how PDCflow Simplifies Multi-Signer Workflows
Friction Point 3: Follow-Up Fatigue
No one enjoys chasing people for digital signatures or payments. Yet that’s exactly what many businesses spend their time doing.
“We sent the contract, but haven’t heard back.”
“We followed up twice already—should we send it again?”
“They said they’d sign last week… Now we’re stuck.”
When your team becomes a manual reminder system instead of focusing on actual work, staff get follow-up fatigue.
This process is expensive, time-consuming, and often results in deals slipping through the cracks. PDCflow changes the game by giving your team visibility into what’s happening. You’ll know:
- Who opened the document
- Who signed
- Who paid
- And where things are stuck
Even better, you can send automated reminders to nudge recipients to sign online documents or make a payment before a request expires, eliminating the need for manual chasing.
So instead of playing email tag, your team can stay focused on closing business, and your customers get a frictionless online document signing experience they’ll follow through on.
The Impact of Automated Reminders
PDCflow data shows that requests with automated reminders had significantly higher completion rates than those without.
In fact, we saw a 4x increase in completion rates among businesses using automated reminders. More follow-through, less manual work for staff.
Friction Point 4: Form Fumbles & Errors
Have you ever sent documents or forms and received them back with missing information, incorrect dates, or handwriting that’s hard to read?
When this happens, your team must follow up, re-send, explain what went wrong, and wait all over again.
This issue is known as a form fumble. Human error, rigid forms, or confusing formats turn a simple task into a drawn-out mess that causes:
- Internal delays
- Billing or compliance issues
- Frustrated staff and clients
- Unpredictable cash flow
This is where PDCflow’s flexible online document signing tools come in. With customizable template management, you can pre-build exactly what your team needs to send:
- Required fields to prevent missing data
- Dropdown boxes and text box limits to reduce typos
- Pre-configured document layouts to eliminate guesswork
No more manual edits, no starting from scratch, and no confusion for the recipient. Your team simply selects a template, enters key information, and sends it off.
On the client’s side, the experience is smooth, mobile-friendly, and easy to complete, leading to faster turnarounds and fewer errors.
PDCflow gives you control and consistency, so you can stop chasing forms and start getting complete, accurate responses on the first try.
Watch this 3-minute Demo to see how PDCflow's Secure Online Document Signing Helps Business Meet Compliance and Privacy Regulations
Bonus Friction Point: Payment Disconnect
Even when forms and signatures go smoothly, payments often get sent in a separate step, through a separate system, with separate follow-up.
That’s payment disconnect, and it’s where many businesses lose momentum, delay revenue, or just never get paid.
PDCflow lets teams send documents, esignatures, and payments in one request.
Watch this 6-minute Demo to see how PDCflow helps businesses simplify complex workflows by letting customers sign documents online and submit payments, all in a single digital experience.
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- ABOUT THE AUTHOR -
Hannah Huerta, Marketing Specialist
Hannah Huerta is a Marketing Specialist at PDCflow. She creates content for the accounts receivable and payment industry.
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