But You Could Miss Out on Something Better
When building a product like Docubee, we often fight for customers amongst behemoths. In fact, when talking to customers the number one question we get is: “Why are you better than Docusign?” We would often have internal discussions about how customers struggle to stray from such a large market leader, which generated the phrase, “Nobody ever got fired for buying Docusign.”
This phrase reminds us of what we’re up against, a competitor who was first to market, with massive investment and a large established user base. Why would anyone choose another vendor when the name was synonymous with eSigning itself?
Over the last year, after some in-depth discussions with our customers, and really digging into why they chose Docubee over more known vendors, patterns began to appear. The more we talked and learned, the more we realized customers want flexibility, great support (from actual humans), and to be treated like they are valuable. What became evident is that you may not be fired for bringing in Docusign, but you’re likely missing an opportunity to evolve your business.
The Dirty Truth About eSignatures
I’ll fill you in on a little secret, eSignatures aren’t complicated, it’s not even magical. In fact, of all the things Docubee can do for a business, it’s the simplest. Like every eSignature platform, we’ve invested in the technology and compliance to handle legally binding digital signatures. But here’s what you might not know:
- We host our platform using Amazon Web Services, the same platform as Docusign.
- We use Entrust as the provider for our signing certificate; you guessed it, same as Docusign.
- Our signatures are validated by Adobe’s Trusted Provider list, again just like our competitor who “never got anyone fired.”
Not everyone we speak to has been thrilled with their experience with that “safe” choice. We often hear horror stories from customers who have to deal with getting cut off mid-contract due to sending too many “envelopes” or surprise price increases when they go to renew, even though the technology itself is mostly unchanged.
Although maybe no one ever got fired for buying from them, I’ve often wondered how many stressful situations arose as a result of choosing them.
Change Is Hard (But Worth It)
“Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end.” – Robin Sharma
Bringing new technology into a business is difficult. Getting buy-in from employees, coworkers, and stakeholders will be challenging. Actually, let me be more blunt, it will be hard, and here’s why:
Large providers like Docusign cater to a large swath of businesses and institutions. That isn’t a bad thing, but a reality of how they serve the market. The need to cater to a larger audience means that the product they offer will be more generalized and often miss the little idiosyncrasies that make every business unique.
Here’s a little inside tea on Docubee. We didn’t actually start as an eSignature platform. In fact, one of our most popular products is our workflow engine that allows our platform to mold to the unique parts of your business.
From those early days, we became experts in understanding not only how to listen to customers’ problems, but also in creating solutions that could solve them without forcing them to reinvent how they do business.
That meant creating a customer success team that ensured we onboarded new partners with both the training and access to get their questions answered when needed. It helped us realize that while some customers just need a simple eSignature platform (and you could probably save a bunch of money with us), a large number really needed something more flexible.
That’s why we put such a strong emphasis on understanding our customers’ unique challenges. We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions. We believe in building partnerships and creating tailored solutions that drive real results.
Innovation and Change Aren’t Always The Best of Pals
So you’re probably thinking, “Look, I like my job, if no one gets fired for buying from the 500lb gorilla, why shouldn’t I?” Well, if your task is to bring change into a business, innovation is beating down your door. Yeah, you might not get fired for buying from that gorilla, but you’re probably not going to get promoted ignoring that banging on the door either.
One of the things I love most about working at Docubee is talking to a customer and finding a way of addressing a business challenge with our platform, often engaging with our customer success team to bring a solution unique to them.
The ability to drive a solution so specific to the customers needs is what makes us unique. We don’t have to provide that generalized solution because we didn’t start as one.
One of the first questions we ask our customers is “What problem are you trying to solve?”
What we’ve found is most customers, while they start with eSignature, usually have a myriad of other items they want to tackle – updates to a CRM, document creation, document storage, reporting, tracking renewals, maybe routing documents to different people based on criteria. You name it; we’ve probably heard it. This is really what drove me to write this post.
Yeah, you could pick something that seems safe, but you miss out on the opportunity to really bring innovation and meaningful change aligned to your business.
Let me try my hand at some marketing here: “This is where Docubee allows businesses to innovate rather than just make a change.” – Pretty good!
The “Safe” Choice Myth
“Anyone who thinks they’re too small to make a difference has never met the honey bee.” – Anonymous
I’ll close with a challenge: is the problem you’re trying to solve really just the need for a simple eSignature platform? If so, I hope you’ll consider the truth above and consider Docubee, whether you’re looking to start new or switch partners. We’ll save you a bunch of money and give you a far better customer service experience. Beelieve it!
However, maybe there’s still a question in your head about this whole eSignature thing? Maybe there’s more to be solved than simply getting a document signed, a larger process, maybe you’d like to get creating those documents by hand off your plate, how about a way to route approvals, negotiate contracts.
Whatever it is, we won’t get you fired, but we will help bring meaningful innovation to your business.
