If your business has an online order form for a subscription-based product or service, then you’ve probably encountered a common problem… how do you get a signature or some other proof that the customer has agreed to you terms of service?
I’ve seen businesses ask for your initials (in place of signature), make you type the phrase “I Agree” into a box on the order form, and we’ve probably all checked a box stating that we’ve read and agreed to something (after we’ve really read and agreed to it, of course). I’m sure there are lots of other ideas out there, but here’s what not to do…. ask for a real signature.
When I first saw this, I thought is was a joke. I had just checked one of those “I agree to your terms” boxes… they couldn’t possibly want a real signature too.
Sure enough, clicking on the “I Agree” button gave me a message that I hadn’t entered my signature. My choices were to provide a signature online using my mouse OR print, sign, and FAX the online order form. I really needed to get this done right away so print, sign, FAX, and wait for someone to let me know they had actually received and processed my order was out of the question. My only option was to attempted my signature.
Have you ever tried to recreate your signature using a mouse? How about a trackball? It can be very, very frustrating. I had to hit the “Clear Signature” button several times before I got anything that was even close to my actual signature. At one point I even thought about just putting an “X” in the signature area, but didn’t really think they’d accept that. After all, they had gone to all the trouble to require a real signature in the first place, so an “X” just wouldn’t do. What I ended up with wasn’t even close to what appears on my mortgage, but my order was approved so I guess it’s good enough.
Someone probably thought that this was a great idea that would revolutionize the way we do business online, but I can tell you from experience this is an absolute nightmare. In fact I was so aggravated by the first signature box that I just moved the mouse randomly when I encountered the SECOND ONE (yes, this company asks for a “real signature” on the credit card page too).
As an end user, I’m really glad I don’t need to order anything else from this company any time soon. If I did, I would honestly need to think twice about it based solely on on how difficult the signature made the checkout process.
As a website developer, I’m surprised that they took such a user unfriendly approach. I’m sure that they have their reasons, but I’m left wondering why? There has to be a more user friendly way to handle this and still pacify their lawyers.
So how do you collect “signatures” online? Do you have a more user friendly way? Do you have any other examples of good ideas that just don’t work online? Let us know.
