“Formology” is among the most disliked things both by customers of organizations and by the employees themselves: it is bad for the environment and wastes time and money. In recent years, technologies have developed that make it easier to fully transition to digital forms and make the customer experience better and simpler.
The digital revolution of the past decade has created a new profile of customers: more connected, more informed, with higher expectations, and mainly harder to retain. Each of us is a customer in one way or another, and we all know what options await us outside, what kind of experience we want from the service we pay for, and what we are and aren’t willing to compromise on. This reality gave rise to the concept of Customer Experience (CX) and turned it into a central tool for strengthening the bond between the customer and the brand.
Every organization and company, whether commercial or governmental, aspires to provide its customers with efficient, fast, and highly valuable service. One of the weakest links in achieving this goal is filling out organizational forms and documents such as employment contracts, mortgage applications, insurance claim forms, government institution forms, and more, which involve significant effort for the customer.
Following the entry of smartphones into our lives more than a decade ago, commercial companies began to realize the importance and potential of using digital documents and implemented systems for designing, producing, and distributing such documents and forms. However, despite the many years that have passed since, “formology” still exists in many organizations, and the paperwork delays still cause great frustration—both among customers and employees, who themselves waste precious time and effort on paperwork.
Easy form filling and digital signature cycles
It is clear that the process of digitizing organizations is not advancing at the desired pace, but it is equally clear that it could save organizations time and money and dramatically improve communication with their customers. One reason may be the inconvenience of filling out forms with many fields on the small screen of a smartphone, which forces users to scroll right, left, up, and down.
In recent years, digital document technology has advanced greatly, and solutions have been found for the challenges that characterize the full implementation of a digital organization. Today, for example, there are new features that allow users to fill out long digital forms easily and quickly. Which exactly?
The Side-by-Side feature allows users to conveniently fill in fields displayed across the entire width of the screen, since the system itself places the information in the correct place on the form, saving the user the need to scroll and find the right spot; Omni Channel allows the user to fill out the form across all their devices—smartphone, tablet, and desktop—without starting over each time; and Co-browsing allows the organization’s representative to assist any customer struggling to fill out the form through joint browsing.
In addition to easy and fast form filling, there are now also new modules for digital signatures. These allow the quick creation of digital signature cycles inside and outside the organization on PDF forms, and the distribution of the document for signing to the mobile phones and computers of all participants in the cycle, whether they belong to the organization or are business partners, suppliers, or customers. Each one can securely sign from anywhere—via phone or computer—thus completing a signature cycle, which previously could take weeks, in just a few minutes.
These modules complete the organization-wide process of digital documents: the organization sends the customer a link to fill out a digital form on a web platform, the customer easily fills in the data and signs on their smartphone or computer, and sends it back to the organization; the digital system generates a PDF document from the data, which is then sent for a signature cycle—inside and outside the organization—immediately and securely.
A full transition from paper to digital documents is a step every organization should now consider, as the technology is simple and available: without paper, printing, transportation, mailing, and archiving, the organization saves resources, improves customer experience and relationships, saves its employees time and effort, and even contributes to the environment.
(Originally published on Geektime)
