Automation is defined by the dictionary as the “technique of making an apparatus or system work automatically”. In business, this translates to the creation and use of technology in order to monitor and control production and delivery. Automation allows you to free up time for your team and yourself, allowing them to focus on streamlining operations.
Here’s how you can automate your tasks to stay competitive and achieve business goals.
What is business automation?
Automating a business is the use of technology to replace human interaction in business processes. Automating a business allows you and your employees to avoid tedious and repetitive administrative tasks. Automation software works behind the scenes to automate, like a personal assistant. Marketing automation software helps a business get organized, increase revenue, improve customer service, and save time. Small businesses can benefit from these tools.
What is the process of automation?
Automating repetitive tasks can take them off your plate. These tasks could include customer and vendor following-ups, writing emails, posting content on social media, and reporting. The tasks themselves aren’t particularly difficult, but they can take up a lot of time and prevent you from pursuing the goals that will help your business grow.
Once your manual processes have been set up, you can automate marketing and “set it and forget it”. Automated tasks run in the background, while you concentrate on your business-building initiatives.
Why should small businesses automate?
Automation offers many advantages. Here are the top reasons for exploring automation in 2022.
- Reduction of Operating Costs
Even the most skilled employee can make mistakes when manually crunching data, resulting in increased costs and lost time. Automated systems can be highly accurate, resulting in lower operating costs and a higher gross profit. Employees cannot work 24/7, 365-days-a-year. You can avoid paying for extra staff and overtime by using automated software.
- Reduce the time spent on routine tasks
Recent review of your daily schedule? Calculate how many hours you spend doing routine tasks. According to Zapier Work Resolution Report knowledge workers waste 3.8 hours/day on busywork-work that could be automated. 36 percent of employees say that busywork stresses them out. Automation not only saves employees time, but also allows them to focus on other important tasks that support your business. Read this article on the SmartBiz (r) Small Business Blog for more tips to help an employee who is stressed: 8 Ways to Create a Positive Working Environment.
- Improving Productivity
Intelligent automation can help employees achieve their goals and streamline operations. You can reduce inefficiencies by mapping out the processes you want to streamline. Read more about this topic at Tips for Small Business Productivity.
- Enhances customer experience
All major brands have centered their activities around the customer experience. Positive experiences are more important than quality and price. Customers tend to stay loyal to a band or switch brands based on their customer experience. Read Customer experience strategy: How to create an impact for more information.
- Improved insights
In business, data is the king. It helps to shape strategy and increase profits. Compiling and analyzing reports manually can take a lot of time. Data scientists only spend 20% of their time actually analyzing data, while they spend the other 80% of their time searching, cleaning and reorganizing large amounts of data. Automation can organize and crunch a large amount of data without much extra work.
- Improved Collaboration
Automation tools can streamline team communication and provide visibility of workflows. Automating business processes helps track progress and keeps everyone informed.
- Increases accountability
It is difficult to keep track of all the different workflows. Automated processes can be used to ensure accountability throughout the entire project. Certain software can track who completed what step when. This increases team accountability and business efficiency.
- Error Reduction
Errors can happen to anyone, no matter how experienced they are. A mistake can cause data calculations to be incorrect, a social media mishap, or even derail an important task. Errors may reduce speed and accuracy, and negatively impact employee and business productivity.
Automating tasks for small businesses
Consider software to automate these business tasks if automation is what you want.
- Social Media Post Schedule
Social Media is one of the most powerful business marketing tools available today. SCORE, an organization that provides small-business support, has compiled data showing that 77% of U.S. businesses use social media for key functions such as sales, marketing and customer service. It is important to post content on a regular basis in order to build a brand. It takes a lot of time and energy to post on multiple social media platforms. Automation simplifies your social media workflow. For more tips on how to improve your social media efforts, read How To Master Social Media Marketing For A Small Business at the SmartBiz Blog.
- Customer Services
While you probably don’t want to replace a representative in person, there are tools that can automate many customer service tasks. AI-powered chatbots, for example, can provide your clients with basic online support and answers. Tasks such as ticket generation, quote and account management free up your agents to do more important tasks that require human decision-making abilities. To learn more about customer service, read Small Business Customer Service Guide.
- IT tasks
IT support has become a necessity for businesses today. Workload automation can automate IT-related tasks such as troubleshooting and resource monitoring. Over the last few years, machine learning has increased the power of workload automation tools. It is important to note that IT professionals will be needed by your company to set up and maintain IT automation tools.
- Email marketing
Automation of email marketing has become a breeze. Spend less time writing emails, identifying segments of your audience, and pressing the send button. Automating the “welcome” email you receive when you sign up for a new website or buy a product is easy. You can find more information here: Four Must-Have Ecommerce Email Marketing Automation Strategy.
- Billing
Automated billing allows you to charge your customers without having to manually generate and send invoices. This billing system is designed to handle regular payments, but can be used for any purchase. Billing automation can reduce the chance of customers being billed incorrectly. Automating your billing can make it easier for you to get paid on time, allowing you to better manage Cash Flow.
Final Thoughts
Automation will help you run your business more efficiently and remain competitive in an increasingly crowded marketplace. By 2022, automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks will allow you to concentrate on important projects that can help you grow your business.
