The pandemic has been a major disrupter. It’s unsettled almost every aspect of our lives in some way or another. As we’re heading into a second wave of the pandemic, it might seem strange to write about the promise of it. However, disruption brings about change and not all of it is bad.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by a number of improvements made to businesses. For example, the other day I went to the bank. To reduce people inside, I was required to make an appointment. I made the appointment easily through my phone without creating a new account. I received a notification automatically shortly before it was my turn. No more waiting aimlessly in a line when I could be out running errands, drinking a coffee, or window shopping instead.
The Rise of Online Forms
In addition to new services springing up allowing us to make appointments for everything, online forms have improved dramatically. To be fair, online forms have been around for a long time. It’s just that before the pandemic, most of them were terrible. A lot of times, even as recently as February 2020, the online form was a poorly constructed Word document attached to an email. However, the pandemic has forced businesses to change this rapidly.
Now, all the forms I’ve had to fill out lately, are online. They’re easy to fill out. No downloading required or stumbling with clumsy, awkward Word documents. It’s fast, easy and mobile friendly.
It’s about time! I’ve always had a peeve about filling out miserably designed forms, or even worse, having to fill them out in paper. Printing, filling out, signing, scanning. Ugh.
The Rise of the E-signature
Another noticeable improvement has been the ability to e-sign documents. Some of this goes along with the improved forms. In many cases, agreeing to/accepting terms, counts as an e-signature. However, many forms now allow for end users to sign directly by using their finger, a stylus. Or sometimes even by scanning in a written signature and placing it in the right spot on the form.
I can only imagine how these innovations have improved things for businesses on the other end of things. I’m sure having online forms reduces typos and saves some poor worker from a lot of unnecessary data entry.