3 Easy Ways to Help Your Clients Get Comfortable With eSigning

Lack of trust is pervasive in our culture today. Only about half of all Americans trust businesses overall, according to the Edelman Trust barometer. And two-thirds of Americans worry technology will make it impossible to know if what people are seeing or hearing is real.

As a real estate agent, how can you help clients who distrust technology during a time when technology is powering the real estate industry in all new ways?

One of the easiest ways to help clients get more comfortable with technology is to explain the benefits of the technology to them or the WIFM: “What’s in it for me?”

A terrific example is electronic signatures.

According to the National Association of Realtors 2020 Member Profile, fewer than one out of 10 agents “rarely or never” use E-signatures. Nearly a third of all agents use them daily or every day, especially those agents using a transaction management program such as Form Simplicity.

But that does not mean that every client is comfortable with eSigning.

Research shows that younger people adapt to technology faster than older people. It’s partly a result of familiarity, but younger people are also predisposed to finding the benefits that technology brings to their lives because of that familiarity.

When it comes to eSigning, agents may find that their younger clients readily embrace it, but older clients may not be as trusting of this technology.

Here are three things you can do to help clients become more comfortable with eSigning.

Educate them

A lack of information is often the root of mistrust. Share with your clients the fact that eSigning has been around for two decades! The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (ESIGN) Act was passed in 2000 to provide a consistent standard for electronic signatures. The ESIGN Act ensures that digital signatures have the same legal status as traditional wet ink signatures in the U.S.As Bob Goldberg, CEO of the National Association of Realtors notes, “E-signature revolutionized the real estate industry by creating a faster, more accurate, and transparent transaction process. Instead of wading through mountains of paperwork, Realtors can spend more time advising clients and remain confident they satisfy legal and compliance requirements.”

Explain the WIFM

We all know eSigning helps agents work more efficiently, but what about the benefits to your clients? First, eSigning is a no-contact process. Clients can sign from anywhere – remotely, and securely and do not need to be face-to-face with anyone. It also saves your clients time. You are not interrupting their schedules or chasing them down for a signature. And your clients don’t have to run around town to meet with a Notary in person to sign. Clients need to know that eSigning also speeds up their transactions. Costly delays are avoided with eSignatures.Plus, there are fewer errors with eSigning. For example, with Form Simplicity, when a client signs their documents electronically, they will never miss a spot to initial or sign. These smart forms have built-in validations to make sure your clients won’t have to come back to sign a form they otherwise could have missed.

Describe how safe it is

How safe and secure is an e-signature? We are talking bank-grade security. The technology used makes a digital signature more secure than a wet signature. Electronic documents with digital signatures protect your clients against fraud.That’s because eSigning creates an audit trail as each eSignature is time-stamped thoroughly. And the electronic documents signed cannot be tampered with. Call it extra-strength security. So, the next time you have a client who mistrusts technology or isn’t particularly comfortable with the idea of eSigning, help educate them about why this will be better from them by explaining what’s in it for them.

You can learn more about the benefits of Form Simplicity, a real estate transaction management software that offers built-in unlimited eSigning at formsimplicity.com.