Digital Signature Capture Comes Of Age

Most of us have heard the term "Digital Signature Capture" or "Electronic Signature

Capture." Think about the last time you went to Target or Best Buy to purchase something. You most likely swiped your credit card and signed on a signature capture pad. Think about the last time you signed for a Fedex or UPS package. They had you sign on a digital tablet. Even though signature capture has been widely used in the retail industry for several years, many companies have not yet started to employ the technology throughout their business.

There are many businesses where customers or truck drivers are picking up merchandise at a storefront location or warehouse. The typical process goes something like this: a customer or driver comes in to pick up some merchandise. Multiple copies of an order, invoice or bill of lading document are printed and need to be signed. Each copy is then signed. The customer or driver takes their copy with them. The store or warehouse employees file a copy locally and then ship a copy to corporate headquarters where the final copy is scanned into an imaging system and then filed or simply filed manually. This process wastes paper because three or more copies of the document must be generated and printed or special multi-part carbon forms must be used. The process also costs additional money for documents to be shipped to corporate headquarters and then manually scanned or filed by another employee.

Let's take a look at an example and see how using digital signature capture might streamline this process. A truck driver leaves the local warehouse to spend his day delivering items. At each stop, merchandise is dropped off and the customer signs a screen that displays their order information as a confirmation that they received the merchandise. A receipt could possibly be printed on a mobile printer and handed to the customer. A more likely scenario would be for the driver to return to the warehouse at the end of the shift and upload the order info and signatures to a network folder so final customer documents can be produced electronically with the signatures placed in the appropriate area of the document. Most likely there would be some automated forms software involved to merge the signature files with the appropriate form overlays to create the final paperwork. Instead of waiting until end of day, a modified scenario might upload the final signature file to the warehouse real-time via wifi or a cellular modem which many mobile devices have today.

To provide enhanced service the document could also be electronically delivered to the customer via email or web within minutes of merchandise pickup without the driver needing to carry a printer in the delivery vehicle. This might also be an appropriate time to email the customer a thank you note as well as some offers on some complementary products they may be interested in. Best Buy has done this very successfully with their online shopping site and I suspect that many companies could greatly enhance their customer service image by providing instant document feedback along with promotional marketing all with the push of the print button.

As you can see with the ever-changing technology landscape, digital signature capture has come of age. If your company could benefit from capturing, storing and distributing documents with signatures, it's time to learn more about making digital signature capture a reality in your organization.

by: Lisa Hirst Carnes

POST COMMENT

Wedding Photography with a Difference – Getting Involved With the Digital Age Air Conditioning Inspections – Are you ready? What is Air Conditioning Inspection report? Portable or Handheld Digital Oscilloscope Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. - Swot Analysis - Market Research Report On Aarkstore Enterprise. The Impacts of Digital Marketing Technologies on E-marketing Aluminum Candle Making Molds For the Pillar Candle Diamond Electric Knife Sharpeners - Get Precession Sharpening How to choose the right electrician Pay Now For Air Conditioning Service Or Pay More Later Best-of-Breed versus Integrated Systems - The Case of WMS So Why Opt for a Battery Driven Electric Street Bike? Electric fly swatter from swatthefly.co.uk