When I was first introduced to DocuSign and the concept of eSignature, I was genuinely intrigued. Almost immediately I began to think about how Trims might use this new service to its advantage. Ultimately, I decided that while DocuSign offered a big leap forward in our desire to achieve a paperless office, it really didn’t make sense for a “small business” like Trims. We don’t have many documents that require legal signatures nor do we process reams and reams of secure paper the way lawyers, real estate agents, and lenders do. However, when DocuSign became a client and asked me to give their service a try, I was skeptical but hard pressed to say “no.” So with the stroke or two at the key board, Trims signed on and became a DocuSign customer.
You know how they say, “Hindsight is 20/20”? We are now almost a year into our subscription, and I could not have been more wrong about the service’s relevance. We use it every time a credit card, phone order is placed. We use it with estimates and pro-forma invoices. We’ve even started using it with purchase orders that have so many moving parts, a signed acknowledgement makes sense for everyone involved. All of our DocuSign paperwork is conveniently stored in its entirety on our server, and the fact that documents are legally signed, adds an official stamp to each and every transaction. Though my evidence is anecdotal, I do believe customers and vendors, alike, take their order commitments more seriously when they are asked to sign on the dotted line. As for me, because I am not the greatest file keeper, a service like this can often be a life saver. A recent case in point is when I was frantically looking for an executed contract: I literally left no stone unturned. Thankfully and serendipitously, while searching through my sent mail, I remembered that the year old document I was looking for was signed using DocuSign. I opened our history, and there it was just waiting to be found. “Sign me up” is all I can say!
