Still Sending Customers to Find Their Own Notary?
Sending customers away to locate a notary creates unnecessary friction, delays, and abandoned transactions. Learn how businesses can bring online notarization directly into their customer workflow.
September 1, 2026
Still Sending Customers to Find Their Own Notary?
Every time you tell a customer, “You’ll need to get this notarized,” you may be adding another obstacle between the customer and a completed transaction.
Your customer has already completed the application.
They have already uploaded their documents.
They may have already spoken with your team, reviewed the paperwork, and agreed to move forward.
Then they reach one final instruction:
“Please have this document notarized and send it back to us.”
Now the customer has another project.
They need to find a notary, determine when the notary is available, arrange transportation or an appointment, complete the notarization, scan the document, and return it to your organization.
For your business, notarization might be only one small step in a larger workflow. For the customer, however, it can become the step that slows everything down.
The Problem Isn't the Notarization. It's the Extra Work.
Most customers aren't thinking about notarization until you tell them they need one.
Suddenly they are searching online for:
- “Notary near me”
- “Where can I get something notarized?”
- “Does my bank have a notary?”
- “Notary open today”
- “Mobile notary near me”
Your company has effectively sent the customer away from your workflow and asked them to solve the problem themselves.
That creates friction at exactly the wrong moment: when the transaction is almost complete.
A Better Question
Instead of asking customers to find a notary, why not provide the notarization as part of the experience?
Bring the Notary to the Customer
Online notarization allows eligible documents to be notarized remotely using an online session with a commissioned notary.
Instead of telling the customer to leave your website and find someone locally, your business can provide a clear path to completing the notarization online.
The experience becomes much simpler:
Send
Direct the customer to the online notarization process.
Notarize
The customer completes the notarization remotely with a notary.
Continue
The completed document moves back into your business process.
Every Extra Step Creates an Opportunity to Lose the Customer
Businesses spend significant time and money improving conversion rates, simplifying applications, shortening forms, and removing unnecessary clicks.
But the same organization may still ask customers to stop everything and independently locate a notary.
Consider what can happen after that instruction.
- The customer forgets to complete the notarization.
- The local notary isn't available.
- The customer doesn't know where to go.
- The customer postpones the task until another day.
- Your staff has to send another reminder.
- The transaction remains incomplete.
None of these problems necessarily have anything to do with your core product or service.
They are workflow problems.
Your Employees Shouldn't Have to Chase Notarized Documents Either
Customer inconvenience isn't the only issue.
A disconnected notarization process can create additional work for your employees.
Your staff may have to:
- Explain where customers can find a notary.
- Answer questions about the notarization process.
- Wait for documents to be returned.
- Send follow-up emails.
- Track incomplete transactions.
- Review documents that were returned incorrectly or incompletely.
Multiply those steps across hundreds or thousands of transactions, and a seemingly small inconvenience can become a meaningful operational burden.
Which Businesses Can Benefit?
Any organization that regularly requires notarized documents should evaluate whether sending customers away to find their own notary still makes sense.
Banks & Credit Unions
Help members complete notarization requirements without turning the process into another branch visit.
Insurance Companies
Make notarization easier for policyholders, claimants, beneficiaries, and other participants.
Law Firms
Give clients a convenient option for documents that require notarization during legal matters.
Financial Services
Reduce friction in document-heavy workflows involving customers, investors, account holders, and representatives.
Healthcare Organizations
Create easier workflows when eligible patient, authorization, or administrative documents require notarization.
Enterprise Teams
Standardize notarization instead of allowing every department or customer to develop its own process.
Think About Notarization as Part of Customer Experience
Customers generally don't care how many internal systems, departments, vendors, or processes are involved in completing their transaction.
They experience all of it as one interaction with your company.
If everything is easy until the last step, the customer doesn't think:
“The company's process was excellent except for its third-party notarization requirement.”
They simply remember that completing the transaction was difficult.
Making notarization easier can therefore be more than an administrative improvement. It can be a customer experience improvement.
Stop Making Your Customer Solve the Notary Problem
There was a time when asking a customer to find a local notary was simply part of doing business.
Today, businesses have another option.
When applicable to the transaction, online notarization can give customers a more convenient way to complete notarized documents while helping your organization maintain a more consistent workflow.
The question isn't just:
“Where can our customer find a notary?”
The better question may be: “Why are we making them find one at all?”
Make Notarization Part of Your Workflow
Online Notary Center helps businesses create a simpler path for customers who need documents notarized online.
Whether you're handling a few notarizations each month or building a larger business workflow, we can help you explore an online notarization solution for your organization.
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