EchoSign

Case Study: Jess Perna Studio

Bringing in more business with EchoSign

Company Overview

ClassyArtWork.com is the website for Jess Perna Studio. Jess Perna is an accomplished, renowned illustrator and owner of Classy Artwork. He holds a Bachelors of Fine Art from the prestigious School of Visual Arts in New York City and can produce any kind of artwork in any medium including fine art portraits, illustrations for books and magazines, wedding invitations and greeting cards, print advertisements, court room evidence, business cards, and caricatures. For three years he has been an instructor of cartoon illustration at Queens College in New York City. He has contributed to over 65 children’s books and drawn for Care Bears, Mattel Hot Wheels and Lil Bratz. Recently, he completed an illustration series for Planet Earth produced by the BBC.

Workflow Challenge

Jess Perna Studio signs 20-25 contracts per month with agents, and consumers. Most contracts are very detailed — including information on hair color, clothing color, background shades, etc. — and at times require multiple revisions. Due to the nature of the work, Jess Perna Studio does not begin a project without a final, approved contract. In most cases, contracts were faxed back and forth multiple times as illustration or caricature details were changed. In many cases, consumers didn’t have fax machines in their homes and had to make multiple trips to a store. This delayed the process and sometimes consumers abandoned the request for services because the process was too difficult to complete. In addition, time zone changes also affected the customer’s response rate. “When you’re dealing with the consumer population, you only get one shot. If it’s too difficult, you lose the business,” says Judy Cutler, Art Director. To address these challenges, Jess Perna Studio tried eFax. However, eFax only addressed part of the problem — eFax made it easier for Jess Perna Studio to receive signed contracts and faxes, but it still required the customers to find and use a fax machine.

EchoSign Solution

In January 2007, Jess Perna Studio discovered EchoSign. “We sent our first contract with EchoSign and we were immediately convinced of how great it was,” says Judy. Jess Perna Studio’s customers found EchoSign very easy to use and not at all intimidating. “We deal with a lot of elderly people as well as non-native English speakers and they love using EchoSign.” While many customers may not have a fax machine, most customers have access to email and feel comfortable using email as the medium to e-sign the Classy Artwork contracts. In addition, Judy created an online form to manage contract changes and can now easily email the final contract to the customer for signature. Also, prior to EchoSign, the executed contracts may have been edited prior to the customer signature, and Judy had to take time to review each contract for possible changes. With EchoSign, all contracts are converted to PDF files and sent for signature so potential undetected changes are a thing of the past.

Results

Before EchoSign, customers might take up to a week to return a signed contract and now contracts are easily signed within one hour. Since it is so easy to get contracts re-signed the job abandon rate has dropped, resulting in increased revenue for Jess Perna Studio — “a lot of business might not have happened if it wasn’t for EchoSign.” It is also easier for Jess Perna Studio to work with consumers around the globe as time zones are irrelevant when signing contracts via email.

— Judy Cutler, Art Director