by Angus MacCaull

How many pieces of paper do you print each week? As an active commercial CSR, Marla Tate used to go through upwards of a thousand. But when COVID-19 hit, she decided to break this old habit.

“It was just easier to print things out because that’s what I was comfortable with,” she said. “I would have told you a year ago that it’s not possible, but I’ve reduced my printing by every bit of eighty percent.”

As the old saying goes, sometimes less is more! Marla is seeing lots of benefits.

 

#1 Less clutter

“I’m not one who likes clutter,” said Marla, “so to not have the stacks of paper piling up on my desk feels amazing.”

Stacks of apps and documentation used to be the norm. Since digitizing her workflow, Marla walks in to a clean desk each morning and leaves at night with only one file folder containing the day’s notes. She feels much better and isn’t as flustered.

 

#2 Less expenses

The cost of two packs of computer paper a week adds up! There’s also expensive toner and wear and tear on the printer and the scanner. Even shredding costs money.

Going digital has brought significant savings.

 

#3 Less waste

Recycling shredded paper is a good step towards helping the environment, but it’s still a big use of energy. The shredding machines run on electricity and the trucks that cart all that paper around run on gas.

Instead of printing off twenty pages for a customer to sign just one, Marla now uses our PDF splitter and can often have the page signed electronically.

 

 

Every workflow has its challenges. In commercial, not all electronic forms can be filled or signed. But Marla is finding that companies will often make them so when asked. She’s also finding an improvement in her “paper trail” by using less paper! Electronic documentation makes things easier to search and read in the future. Sometimes it can be hard to decipher even your own handwriting.

“The new method may take a little longer in the beginning,” she said, “but it’s more efficient in the end. I’m a creature of habit and I think if I could do it, anybody could.”