eSignature Software - How to Speed Up Your Law Firm

How much does your law firm spend a month on copying, printing, mailing, and overnighting packages through FEDEX and UPS?

By implementing eSignature software into your operations, you could spend $60 a month to send and receive signatures for documents like client intake forms via email, ensuring a faster, more efficient, and more secure method of collecting client signatures.

Imagine for a moment how much time you spend collecting client signatures, when you could be working on your case load. To collect a signature in-person, you must:

1. Contact your client

2. Set up a meeting time and location (or physically send the document to the client)

3. Verify the meeting time and location

4. Transport the document to your client’s location, or wait for your client to arrive at your office (or receive the physical document in the mail)

5. Sign the document yourself, and ensure your client signed properly

6. Make copies of the document for yourself and the client

7. File the document for your records

8. Follow up on any additional requirements

That’s a lot of steps simply to collect one signature. Simply put, this is not an efficient use of your time.

THE BENEFITS OF eSIGNATURE SOFTWARE

During the client intake process, it is important to ensure the signing process is as efficient as possible. This enforces the fact that your client knows they are immediately represented without waiting for mailed documents, and prevents any delays affecting scheduling meetings. In short, your clients will feel more secure when working within a process designed to take care of them.

Whether the document is a retainer fee agreement, a client intake form, or another critical document used during your client intake process, e-Signature software adds a level of security and efficiency that mailing services cannot match. 

What makes eSignature software more secure? eSignature software tracks who signed each document, when and where they signed it, and automatically notifies you the moment the document has been signed, meaning no more waiting for important documents to show up in the mail to determine if a document is indeed on its way, or has been signed correctly. eSignature take the guesswork out of collecting signatures.

On the topic of filing documents, eSignature software makes this tedious process much more efficient. eSignature software can easily be built into automated workflows that will file and store signed documents in your client management system with little human interaction — and when paired with more robust content management systems, can be fully automated. 

Simply put, instead of printing, scanning, faxing, and mailing a document every time you require a client signature, you can push a single button, and it’s done.

PROBLEMS WITH FILE SHARING AND ESIGNATURE?

eSIGNATURE SOFTWARE REQUIRES LITTLE SETUP

Unlike most digital solutions, there’s very little you must do to start using eSignature software. The most difficult part of the whole process is selecting which brand of eSignature software you want to purchase.

If you’d like to compare the two leading brands on the eSignature market, visit our blog, DocuSign vs. PandaDoc. Or, if you’d like to see a more detailed breakdown of the pricing structure (and corresponding features), visit our blogs, How Much Does PandaDoc Cost?, and How Much Does DocuSign Cost?

After you’ve selected your desired brand of eSignature software, you will need to create templates. It is best to start with your most used documents that require little editing client-to-client. 

Then, just communicate to your existing clients that you will begin using eSignature software and start sending out signature requests. It’s that simple. You can update and change documents on the fly and can always create new templates based on need. 

Pay attention to which tier of service you are purchasing, as eSignature software pricing tiers will come with their own level of support and feature set. Like all services, the more you pay, the more functionality is available. 

The monthly cost of $60 mentioned above is at the higher cost range of available solutions across the entire eSignature software market. So, even when using a top-of-the-line eSignature software solution, you will end up saving money compared to the average cost of printing, copying, and overnighting documents to clients through a parcel delivery service. 

If you have any questions about eSignature software or would like to learn more about implementing eSignature software in your firm, email us using the button below.