Continuous professionalisation of both service delivery and internal business operations is a priority for Melvin Weissgerber, owner of Bewindvoering Nederland. He strives for efficiency improvements and reducing the (work)load in all processes. A bottleneck he encountered was the cumbersome process of returning signed client reports. Trustees must provide annual insight to the subdistrict court. Previously, these signatures were collected with difficulty via post. Thanks to the switch to ValidSign, this process has significantly improved. Melvin: "If I had known this, I would have started with ValidSign years earlier.
Focus on stability and calm
"At Bewindvoering Nederland, we mainly focus on providing calm and stability to people struggling with debts. Ultimately, we want to make them debt-free and teach them to become self-reliant," Melvin explains. There are people who, after being helped, no longer get into trouble, but also people who need permanent guidance. It goes without saying that in an organisation where processes and stability are essential, traditional methods can fall short. "We were constantly behind schedule," says Melvin. "For each of the hundreds of annual client reports, physical signing is mandatory. The report always went with a return envelope in the post to the client for a signature. We regularly heard that they had not received it, or that they had sent it but that it had not arrived on our end."
Personal and fast onboarding
One of the trustees suggested looking into digital signing. When Melvin approached ValidSign, his priority was to get started quickly. "The additional features were a nice bonus, but speed was our highest priority," Melvin explains. "ValidSign addressed this quickly, and we were able to get started within a few days. Ultimately, there were a few minor technical obstacles such as IT settings that were explained in jargon that I didn't understand. This should have been done by our IT administrator," Melvin says frankly. "Fortunately, after the correct adjustments, everything turned out to be operational within half an hour." The personal contact at ValidSign is also appreciated. "If I encounter any issues, there is always a quick response," Melvin praises the support they receive.
Backlog cleared in no time
Process optimisation is not only essential internally, but also for clients. "The process with the post caused a lot of stress for our clients. You have to imagine that there are sometimes piles of post, the threshold to open them can be very high for our clients. Every year we have to submit a report to the subdistrict court for each client. The switch to digital signing largely came from a necessity as the reports have to be at the court before the deadline. Without the client's signature, the report cannot be submitted. The fact that there are also additional cost savings and faster processes without loss of quality is a nice extra benefit for us," adds Melvin. "Since starting with ValidSign, we have been able to clear the backlogs in record time."
"It is now more the rule than the exception that we receive signed contracts back within a day. We notice that clients, because they receive a recognisable email with our own branding, experience a lower threshold to open the document compared to the post. The use of ValidSign has also significantly reduced the workload within our team. If I had known this, I would have started years earlier."
A look ahead
Currently, only reports are digitally signed, while petitions still require a wet signature. However, there are pilots at courts for further digitalisation. When asked about the future with digital signing, Melvin is optimistic. "For now, we only use it for business processes, but if the court fully accepts digital signing, we will integrate it further," he says. In the longer term, Melvin sees opportunities in other services such as bank account applications, or further integration with services like MijnIntake, which are already widely adopted within the sector.
Although they are currently cautious with major changes, small optimisations are always a possibility. "If something works, it's sometimes better not to mess with it too much. With the arrival of ValidSign, it works well," Melvin wisely concludes the conversation.
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