Faxing has existed for many decades. Traditionally, fax machines were used to send business correspondences, including office memos and letters. At the time, machines were preferred because they were faster than snail mail. But in today’s digital world, businesses have replaced traditional faxing processes with online faxes.
Advancements in technologies now allow businesses to send and receive faxes via email. It has improved business faxing and made it more private and secure. Although multiple communication channels like texting, phone calls, and social media messaging that allow companies to connect with clients directly have emerged, faxing has maintained effectiveness.
But most businesses are yet to mainstream fax into their business processes, a challenge that has led to the utilization of modern-day faxing processes.
If you’re a business owner, here are five practices that can help you streamline business faxing processes in your company:
#1. Adopt Electronic Signatures
An effective way to streamline faxing is to adopt electronic signatures in your business processes. Online faxes allow businesses to create digital signatures whenever there’s a need to send confidential files. Since the signature images have a professional look, they make it easier to demonstrate credibility and reliability.
The use of electronic signatures on eFax allows businesses to save time. Traditionally, companies had to print any document sent to them before signing it, scanning it, and resending it back. Online faxes have changed all this.
The use of fax servers allows businesses to sign documents without printing them out. People who are always on the move will find this solution highly convenient, mainly because they can undertake the entire process on their phones.
Electronic signatures also offer greater security for highly sensitive and confidential documents than conventional printed documents.
#2. Utilize Faxing Service Apps
One of the practices you can streamline in your business faxing process is faxing service applications that enable your team to operate the faxing system from their forms. Faxing service apps allow users to send and receive faxes to their phones before turning them over to the fax machine.
Businesses that adopt the use of faxing service apps can save time in the faxing process. It needs to scan an entire document, upload it online, then send it by email is eliminated. Instead, the service transmits documents instantly once received in the document feeder and the receiver’s fax number is entered.
When large files need to be attached, businesses should consider uploading documents sent or received where large files are involved. It means that if your business integrates online faxing in its communication, you could explore the use of cloud-based services that allow for the transmission of PDF or images files.
#3. Train Your Staff
As a paperless technology, online faxing is a necessary investment for any business. To execute it properly, businesses must craft a clear execution plan to guide the transition from a paper-based office to a paperless one.
Besides acquiring the necessary equipment, a good execution plan should encompass employee training. Employee involvement is at the heart of streamlining your business’s faxing process. But they can only adopt online faxing technology if they feel empowered to use it. Your employees should be trained and sensitized well on the need to adopt the practice.
Consider developing a training program to help them understand the fundamentals of e-faxing and how to utilize supporting tools correctly for utilization. Consider showing them how online faxes work. You could also configure their phones and emails to enable them to send and receive faxes.
Empowering your staff to use online fax allows your business to rally everyone behind the technology with a good understanding of why the business is transiting to paperless technology.
#4. Add A Cover Sheet To Online Faxes
Even with the advancements in technology in today’s world, your faxed messages must maintain their professionalism. Online faxes are sent and received via email. Although emails may pass as professional ways of communicating, the transfer of documents via this channel leaves little or no impression on the recipient.
You can make the messages that you fax online distinct by including a cover page on the documents that your company sends out. It ensures that your communication leaves a positive initial impression on those who receive it. It also leaves them with essential details about your business, including the business name, phone number, and address.
#5. Invest In A Good Internet Connection
The internet allows users to conveniently and securely transmit documents from any part of the world. Businesses must have a good internet connection to summit the transmission process to send and receive online faxes.
Without a stable connection, businesses cannot access web-based faxing services or attach documents to emails. Although sending urgent fax via a weak internet connection is possible, your company needs a stable connection to transmit heavy outgoing and incoming files.
#6. Archive Fax Files In The Cloud
One of the benefits that online faxes offer businesses is that it reduces or eliminates printing documents. But even with the transmission of digital papers, companies still need to archive them for future reference. The best way to archive eFax files is to store them in cloud-based storage space. Using cloud-based storage has numerous benefits to businesses.
These include giving employees access to archived documents at any time and from anywhere. It also enables them to search the archive and retrieve information when the need arises. Cloud storage also makes it easier for businesses to send and receive large files that may not be sent via email.
Final Thoughts
Business faxing has gained popularity due to the convenience it offers companies. Unlike traditional faxes, online faxing allows employees to receive and send documents any time and from anywhere. It effectively eliminates the need to wait until you return to the office to send or receive documents. These aspects make it critical for companies to improve their faxing processes and make them more efficient. If you’re looking to enhance your business faxing process, apply the six practices discussed above.
