Why accessible technology is a MUST for Indian consumers

Bano, a 23 years old woman from a village in Uttar Pradesh, went to a bank to get a business loan. She wanted to start a small business in her village.

While she got the loan, the process wasn’t exactly comfortable. In fact, she swears that she’s never going back to a bank again. Here are the challenges she faced -

1. She had to go to the bank multiple times for paperwork - this meant she had to leave her daily wages, which was a BIG cost to her.
2. The bank’s digital flow was set in English - Bano can’t understand or speak English
3. The bank only collected Aadhaar eSign - her biometric or mobile, are not linked with Aadhaar.

This is not just Bano’s problem. Day in, day out - millions like Bano face issues of tech accessibility. 

When digitally transforming key customer-facing processes, it is often easy to assume that all your customers:

1. Has a stable internet connection
2. Can speak and understand English
3. Is comfortable with technology

For businesses in India that operate pan India the above assumptions are simply not true. As a result - digital transformation often falls flat.

Don’t just build digital solutions, build ACCESSIBLE digital solutions.

How accessibility becomes a challenge for Indian consumers

Slow internet speeds and bandwidth

Most digital solutions today require a strong 4G connection. This makes the tech break down when slower internet connections are available. Broken tech has an awful user experience and becomes a huge roadblock for businesses. Most digital flows fail at low bandwidths, therefore the signers can’t sign their documents on their mobiles anytime, anywhere.

Lack of trust and confidence for digital & technology

Consumers like Bano are always suspicious of digital because they didn’t grow around technology. These suspicions turn into frustration when the product makes it even more difficult because of bad design or experience. Therefore, the signers are often unwilling to do eSigns and prefer the old physical way ( pen & paper) to sign documents.

Not everyone has a smartphone

Not everyone might have a smartphone in smaller cities and rural areas. In fact, from our on-ground experience with some of the biggest MFIs of India and our conversations with some of the biggest banks operating in such areas, we found that most families have one or two smartphones only. This means, most signers do not have access to a phone with which they can open, review and then sign a document.

Not everyone knows how to read or write

Most digital flows fail because they make the basic assumption that the end-user can read or write. In such cases, the companies have to spend extra time explaining the terms of the document to the signer. Because the digital flows in such situations fail, companies have to revert back to the physical way of collecting signatures i.e. thumb impression.

Not everyone can understand the digital flows in English

Less than 15% Indians can speak and comfortably understand English.  For regulated sectors like banking this can be a problem.

English-only digital flows can put your documents at risk of the regulator’s scrutiny.

In fact, for RBI-regulated sectors, this becomes an even bigger challenge. ‘RBI’s Master Circular - Fair Practice Code, 2015’ clearly mentions that all communications to the borrower shall be in the vernacular language or a language as understood by the borrower.

At Leegality, we are big fans of accessible technology.

How Leegality is solving the accessibility challenges of Indian consumers.

Leegality works on 2G/3G networks

This means Leegality works smoothly even at slower network speeds. And we know people might be using outdated tech, so we’ve made sure Leegality works smoothly even on older internet browsers.

Multiple signers can sign using the same smartphone with Leegality

It’s an easy fix, if everyone doesn’t own a smartphone then get everyone to sign using the same smartphone.

Multiple ways to eSign

Leegality offers more than 15 ways to sign documents so you can offer an eSign that your customer prefers or finds easy.

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1. If your customers are uncomfortable with Aadhaar eSign or do not have their mobiles linked to Aadhaar - Try Virtual Signatures
2. If your customers do not know how to sign their names - Fingerprint eSign helps you collect their thumbprints to sign documents electronically.
3. If your customers are not comfortable with eSigns - Allow them to sign physically and then capture it digitally with Leegality’s Sign Upload.

Leegality offers an eSign for any and all use-cases.

Multi-language support, non-English templates, and eSign flows

We’re designing for everyone, no matter what language they speak.

Multilingual Template Engine

Leegality Template Engine supports templates written in non-English languages so your customers can review and understand the agreement in a language they understand.

Local Language eSign flows

You can offer your customers signing flows in a language they understand with Leegality Local Languages.

To summarize, here’s a quick look at how Leegality is solving for the accessibility challenges of Indian consumers.

But hey, that’s good on you Leegality - what do I, as a business, get out of it?

Accessible digital flows have a ton of fantastic business benefits -

1. Customers are more comfortable with your digital flows - they can understand and easily follow each step. 
2. Less reliance on your agents to explain the terms of the document or the signing instructions - customers can easily understand and follow the instructions in any language they know.
3. Faster customer onboarding - Because more and more customers feel comfortable with digital flow, your agents have to spend less time with each customer. This leads to faster and smoother customer onboarding.
4. Compliance-friendly document execution - Eliminate the risk of regulatory scrutiny by offering the agreement, signing flow, and eSigning consent in a language your signers understand with Leegality Local Languages and Template Engine.

Start offering accessible digital flows to your customers with Leegality.

If you are not a Leegality customer yet, you can drop your details here OR write to us at enquiry@leegality.com.

If you are a customer and want to know more about any of the solutions we mentioned above, simply reach out to your customer success manager.

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