How to Leverage Technology for Faster Contracts and Payments

How to Leverage Technology for Faster Contracts and Payments

Today’s consumers expect convenience and speed when completing paperwork, signing contracts, and making payments. Businesses can leverage digital technology to streamline these processes, offering a more efficient and satisfying customer experience.

Leveraging technology like esignature solutions, digital document management, and digital payment options, empowers businesses to align their operations with key business goals. These tools drive efficiency in customer interactions and improve back-office operations.

From a business operations perspective, sending digital contracts with a payment request has many benefits: less paperwork, better collaboration on contracts and payments among team members, and better cash flow.

From a customer experience standpoint, it’s appealing to review and complete paperwork without the need to be physically present—and may be a deciding factor for who gets a customer’s business.

94%
of customers prefer businesses that offer electronic signatures over those that rely on paper-based processes.
Source: Marketsplash

Leverage Technology to Align Business Goals: Benefits of Digital Workflows

For small businesses, leveraging technology such as digital signature solutions provides numerous advantages for meeting business goals and enhancing customer satisfaction.

FASTER TURNAROUND TIMES

Businesses that have a complex purchasing process, where the customer must sign off on a custom order, will speed up the contract process by using digital signature software.

Oftentimes, there can be a lot of back and forth between the business and the customer to nail down details. Asking the customer to be present or mail documents back and forth is inconvenient and can slow down the progress of moving a project forward.

With digital contract workflows, businesses can secure deals faster and create a better experience for their customers. Leveraging technology can remove geographical barriers, allowing businesses to expand beyond their immediate area.

Faster contract completion means projects can move from the proposal stage to execution stage sooner. Resources can be allocated more predictably, avoiding disruptions caused by delayed approvals or uncertain timelines.

Businesses that have high-ticket items or need to collect a deposit or payment in advance will benefit from leveraging technology that enables customers to receive and send documents, digitally sign, and submit payment simultaneously in one streamlined workflow.

By integrating payments and esignatures into a single workflow, businesses reduce late payments and speed up revenue collection.

IMPROVED EFFICIENCY

Automating the contract review and signing process through digital tools reduces manual tasks like printing, mailing, and tracking contracts. This allows businesses to spend more time on high-value activities like client relationship management or project planning.

Digital signature solutions with locked templates minimize errors, ensuring accuracy and consistency with every contract.

Leverage software with automated reminders and real-time tracking and notifications to reduce manual follow-ups, ensure better oversight, and have fewer missed deadlines.

When employees know exactly where a contract stands, it means no documents fall through cracks and can help businesses prioritize which customers need personalized follow-up.

With software that allows collaboration, notifications can be shared across departments, keeping team members informed and aligned. If the production team knows a contract is signed, they can prepare to start work without waiting for further confirmation.

COST SAVINGS

Reducing paper, printing, and mailing costs can lead to significant savings over time. By eliminating the need for paper contracts, envelopes, and certified mailing services, businesses can save on the recurring expenses associated with traditional document handling. Printing costs, including ink, toner, and printer maintenance, are drastically reduced.

Mailing contracts, especially for urgent contracts that need overnight or priority mail, can be costly as the business grows.

Storing paper documents can also be costly. Leverage digital technology to remove the need for filing cabinets or off-site storage, freeing up space for other uses.

Benefits of Leveraging Technology for Customers

When customers can review and sign contracts from anywhere, in-person meetings or mailing documents is no longer necessary.

ENHANCES CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Digital tools offer customers the flexibility to review and sign documents and make payment. This process simplifies their experience and customers feel their time is valued. Interacting with the business on their schedule gives them more control and fosters trust between the business and its customers.

If a payment and contract signature are required together, one step-by-step digital workflow is a much better experience than requiring two separate transactions.

Getting an esignature on a document and a payment separately is a disjointed experience. You should not require customers to make extra effort so all the necessary steps are completed. Too many tasks increase the friction your customer experiences when doing business with you.

Examples of Disjointed eSignature and Payment Customer Experiences
  • Signing digitally in one platform, then having to call to make a payment.
  • Signing digitally in one platform, then visiting a separate payment platform to log in and complete payment.
  • Physically signing a contract, mailing or faxing it back to the business, then calling to make a payment.

REDUCES COMMUNICATION DELAYS

Using digital tools reduces back-and-forth delays, increases efficiency and productivity for the business, and is a time-saver for customers.

Many customers struggle to find time in their schedules for in-person meetings. Digital solutions let them review details on the contract and complete signing at their convenience, whether during their lunch break, late at night, or over the weekend.

Automated and instant notifications about document status, such as sent, viewed, and signed, keep customers informed throughout the process. This visibility reassures them that their signed contracts are delivered.

Meet Business Goals with PDCflow

PDCflow’s esignature and payment software makes leveraging technology easier than ever before. Our all-in-one platform is flexible, secure, and simple to use—both for staff sending esignature requests and customers completing them.

PDCflow offers many features to simplify the way your company sends esignature and payment requests.

  • Unlimited template creation: Most companies use different types of contracts, requests or workflows, depending on the situation. PDCflow lets your company create an unlimited number of templates designed to deliver documents, request signatures and payments, ask for photo or file uploads, etc.
  • Event notifications: Our software lets staff sign up for automatic notifications, so individuals and group emails track the progress at each stage. This way, every department stays informed.
  • Request reminders: Not every customer will open your message right away. Set an automatic reminder to go out to recipients before your messages expire, so you can follow up on unsigned contracts without manual intervention.
  • Audit reporting: It’s essential that signed contracts are accessible later. Our audit trail includes the signed document, multi-factor authentication, geolocation, date/time stamp, and the delivery method you used. These details create a full picture of the transaction.
  • Admin permissions: PDCflow’s flexible, customizable software makes it easy to control staff access to templates and reporting. This way, employees in different groups, departments, or physical locations only have to see the information that matters to them, for easier contract tracking and management.
  • Extensive reporting: Workflows that include a signed document and payment together can get complicated. Sometimes it’s hard to sync up information about a payment with the corresponding contract. PDCflow’s customizable data analytics makes it easy to look at an overview of your company’s activities, drill down for details, or build custom reports.
  • Reliable security: PDCflow cares about security. Our email and SMS messages are HIPAA compliant, and sensitive payment information goes through encryption and tokenization. This lets you track your contracts confidently, knowing they are being sent, seen, and signed by the intended recipient.

Does your company need a better way to get documents signed and collect payments? Fill out the form below and check out how PDCflow’s tools give you an all-in-one platform to track contracts, payments, documents, and more.

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- ABOUT THE AUTHOR -
Hannah Huerta - PDCflow Marketing Specialist
Hannah Huerta, Marketing Specialist

Hannah Huerta is a Marketing Specialist at PDCflow. She creates content for the accounts receivable and payment industry.

LinkedIn - Hannah Huerta

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