Consumers and agents want three things from DocuSign, reported by Keith Krach, the company’s chairman and CEO – trust, choice and speed. He broke down consumer needs and wants (and agents’ wants and needs, too) at a special session at Inman Connect San Francisco – and announced a huge initiative at DocuSign to help enhance its digital transactions.
What will digital transactions resemble in the future?
How will transactions change?
The consumer really wants to trust in their agent; the agent, in turn, to believe in the platform. The consumer wants to transact on any device; for brokers and agents, they want to be able to use any title or mortgage company.
Speed is essential for the consumer, used to having the ability to go shopping at the push of a button, and for the agent that knows that “time kills deals,” said Krach.
Asked to imagine what DocuSign will be doing a year from now, “one thing that will not change is, it’s all about trust and relationships,” said Krach.
“The core to the future is: The agent is at the center. If you think about the technologies that we displayed from list to close, the big one is you won’t have to re-enter data, disclosures or workflow – the key is to have it seamlessly integrated with title and mortgage companies.
“The key aspect of the future is making it seamless,” Krach said.
Cultural transformation
For anyone impatient for progress, he said the biggest challenge is definitely the cultural transformation.
For companies like DocuSign customer, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, that is vertically integrated with its own mortgage and title insurance companies, it’s possible to start to see the digital transaction flow process, from lead to close.
“Now the key is for all the other brokers and franchises to have a system with other partners in their network,” said Krach.
DocuSign, which supports brokers and agents process in excess of 12 million documents annually and close more than 2.5 million real estate transactions every year, has increased its investment in real estate product development by 50 percent this current year.
Real estate advisory board
It announced today the organization of a real estate advisory board – a consortium of top industry leaders.
They share a common vision of putting brokers and agents at the center of the transaction so that they can close more deals faster, said the company.
The board comprises:
Rick Davidson, CEO of Century 21, a subsidiary of Realogy
Gino Blefari, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Rick Smith, CEO of Equifax
Mike Ryan, EVP of RE/MAX
Will Lewis, CEO of Dow Jones (News Corp.)
Joel Singer, CEO of California Association of Realtors & zipLogix
Pam O’Connor, CEO of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World
Dale Ross, CEO of RPR
Gary Simonsen, CEO of Canadian Real Estate Association
Neil Ward, agent at McGuire Real Estate
Craig Cheatham, CEO of Realty Alliance
Ed Krafchow, CEO of Better Homes & Gardens – Mason McDuffie Realty
Constance Freedman, Former Managing Director of NAR; Managing Partner of Moderne Ventures
Curtis Feeny, Board Member of CBRE
Lew Coleman, Former Vice Chairman, CFO of Bank of America
Jeff Hayzlett, Chairman of The C-Suite Network
Kathleen Lynch, COO of UBS
Jim Crown, Board Member of JPMorgan Chase
“Like all the other real estate agents around the world, DocuSign has changed my life,” said Neal Ward, agent at McGuire Real Estate, and a top producer (he was no. 77 on The Wall Street Journal’s list of the top 100 real estate agents in 2013).
“My customers are now expecting to use DocuSign in every transaction – it has become a verb in the real estate community.”
“This is the largest industry initiative in DocuSign’s history, empowering real estate brokers and agents to unlock the power of their data with the choice, trust, and speed of DocuSign eSignature and Digital Transaction Management,” said DocuSign in a statement.
