How digital signing gives your dealership the versatility to improve service for a variety of customers
Over the past several years, Digital Contracting with eSigning has become a valuable way for dealerships to provide elevated service to address a variety of consumer needs. Whether a customer is patient or hurried, in the dealership or remote, there’s an eSigning scenario to help them complete their deal the way they prefer.
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Ready to Go
This customer has done their test drive, completed their negotiations, and just wants to drive off the lot as soon as possible. The last thing they want is a pen in their hand and a big stack of paperwork in front of them. With eSigning, the process is finished much more quickly.
Says Max Tiraboschi, finance manager at Foundation Automotive of Wichita Falls, “eSigning is at least 30 minutes faster than paper: you sign once, then tap to sign the rest of the documents. It helps us finish on a high note and gives our customers a better experience at the point when they’re ready to sign and go.”
Down the Road a Ways
For dealerships with rural or otherwise distant customers, remote signing can help enable off-site delivery. A truck buyer working from sunup to sundown during harvest season might not know that his deal documents could be sent with a click of button and delivered securely via email for him to view and sign on his mobile phone, but he will certainly appreciate it!
In Two Places at Once
There are lots of reasons that a signer and co-signer might not be able to meet up to finalize the deal. A parent may co-sign for a kid away at college, working couples may have challenges scheduling time off at the same time, or a co-signer might just be under the weather the day the deal gets finalized. In any of these situations, remote signing comes to the rescue. Each person can sign on their own device with no need for special arrangements or shipping paperwork that can delay deal completion.
Security Conscious
With high-profile data breaches in the news, it’s understandable that many consumers are extra cautious. For car buyers who are concerned about the safety of their personally identifiable information (PII), eSigning offers reassuring security features, beginning with the legally required eSign Disclosure and Consent. Whether it’s an emailed link with multifactor authentication for remote signing or secure device pairing in-store, eSigning is designed to encrypt data and limit access to it. The dealership also has access to an audit trail of the signing for additional protection.
Comprehensive Reader
A car buyer doesn’t have to be an attorney to want to read and understand each document before signing. But many customers may feel rushed by the experience of signing manual paperwork. Both in-store and remote eSigning give customers the opportunity to hold the signing device and read through the digital documents at their own pace with less pressure.
Physical Challenges
eSigning can be helpful for a customer who has challenges reading “fine print” or repeatedly signing on paper. According to Jonathan Bowling, variable operations director at Liechty Automotive Group, “Most of our customers love it because you only have to sign your name a handful of times rather than signing a hundred times. Especially with our elderly customers, because they’re able to hold the tablet and actually zoom in and make those words bigger where they can read them. And that’s a huge benefit for them.”
The ability to enlarge the text can make the signing experience much easier for any customer – regardless of their experience with digital technology outside the dealership.
One and Done
It’s safe to say that no customer wants to have to come back into the dealership to deal with a missed signature once they thought they were done. With eSigning, the signer literally cannot continue without each required signature being tapped into place, so it eliminates that problem altogether. According to Victor Hong, finance manager at Acura of Laurel, “We like having lender documents automatically generated for eSigning, and that it also shows you where to sign next, so you don’t miss signatures.”
Customers can be assured that they have completed their signing with the single ceremony, and there’s no risk for the dealership of damaging CSI scores with the last-minute hassle of needing one more signature or having to re-contract.
Making the Most of eSigning at Your Dealership
Ultimately, eSigning demonstrates to customers that your dealership is up to date with the latest technology and that you care about their convenience. Make eSigning part of your daily workflow by having tablets paired and ready each morning for in-store signing and enabling remote signing for customers who can use it.
If you need additional guidance to make the most of eSigning opportunities to benefit your customers, download Best Practices Guide for eSigning and Dos, Don’ts and Tips for Signing Your Deal to keep handy for reference.
