THE POWER OF AUTOMATION IN BUSINESS
Automation in business can take your company to the next level in terms of sustainable growth, scaling, and efficiency. It can change the entire way you look at your business and how you operate.
During the pandemic alone, 63% of small businesses in this survey said that automation helped their small business not only survive but also thrive.
If you are reading this article, you may already know a little bit about automation and how it can help improve your business. You may have heard some buzz words like CRMs, funnels, journeys and playbooks.
What is business automation? What are funnels? How are journeys setup? What is a Playbook? How can these items benefit your business? What are the reasons to create your Playbook, setup business automations and streamline your processes?
This is your guide to the basics of business automations.
What Is Automation?
Before we can explain the benefits of automation for your business to you, you must first understand exactly what automation is and how processes work. Essentially, automation is assigning tasks to technology rather than having a human sit down and manually do that task. More complex automation involves creating a journey for a customer, automating this journey based on user interaction (and triggers), and having the automation run behind the scenes (even while you and your team are sleeping). Imagine nurturing leads, giving value to your customers, and making money while your business is closed. Automations allow your business to work smarter, so you and your team can focus on other areas of your company that cannot be automated.
The purpose of automating a task is typically to speed up the production time of a task or to create an experience for your customer or prospect. In some cases, it can even help businesses dedicate manpower to another area of their business.
For small businesses, this can be useful for those that are stretched thin financially and stretched thin with employees. For larger businesses, automation can help you maximize your success and profits and help you expand your reach.
Tasks You Can Automate
Now that you have a better understanding of automation, it is time to explore the benefits. There are certain tasks that you can automate and some that you may not want to automate.
Here are a few that I recommend you strongly consider automating.
Reminders and Notifications
One thing that companies like to do to maintain their business and keep it organized is to send out internal and external reminders and notifications. Internal reminders let employees know when they have deadlines to do certain tasks or events to attend. External reminders let customers know when they must complete specific items or the next steps they can take.
For a simple example, let's say that you are a restaurant and have an automated system to let customers know when their table is ready. An automated system sends out an initial message to their phone number or email address. Then, it has a notification for when the table is ready, how long the customer must claim the table or how long the customer needs to wait, or their number in line.
Plus if we keep track of customers and their orders in a CRM (Customer Relationship Management), then we know what customers like, when they come in and can send them enticing deals to give them more of what they love. These simple digital reminders help restaurants create a happy customer experience. Happy customers make for great repeat business and referrals.
Imagine having a system in place for managing all your company's relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. The goal of a CRM is simple: Improve business relationships to grow your business.
On the employee's side of things, let's say that you are tasked with completing a project that was offered up in a virtual queue. You may get messages at a certain time before the assigned deadline and then a potential follow-up notification if a client or supervisor wants to send you a message. Taking all your tasks out of your head and putting them into a system reminding you of them helps you (and your team) do more and not lose track of important tasks and deadlines.
Reminders can also be useful if businesses want to let customers know about holiday promotions and special offers. You can use an automated CRM system to send out email reminders or text messages about what promotions are coming up and how long customers have to take advantage of them. The possibilities are endless.
Automation has become the primary use in email marketing and is set to continue to do so.
Email marketing and its power deserve its own separate article and so we have made you one. When you are done hop over to our library to read further about email marketing. We cannot even begin to explain the power of email marketing and the power of your contact list, however, we will try our best. I would even say that your list is like a pathway to print money. You can generate huge amounts of cash flow by statically targeting your list. First, you need a list and you need a place such as a CRM to store and nurture that list.
Onboarding
Another thing that you can automate is the onboarding process for employees. This is the time when a new employee for a company gets introduced to its policies, that employee’s responsibilities, and any other information that they need to know.
What an automated system can do here is take an employee through this process without the need for a supervisor or HR representative to watch over them.
For example, someone can set up a system where all the documents, SOPs, and slides that an employee needs to read are already there. This can also include a questionnaire and any virtual signatures that need to be done.
This not only helps speed up the training process but also allows the person that would have had to have been there with them to do another task for the day. One of our trusted CRMs, Greenrope CRM has a WIKI built into it, so you can store all your SOPs inside the CRM for your team to access anytime they get stuck or need to follow along with instructions as a guide.
Data Input
Another task that you can automate is inputting data into your company records. CRMs make this easier in the accounting and sales departments because there are certain fields we can auto-populate data and set up formulas that allow you to fill in boxes automatically. While tools like Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets can do this, imagine a world if you had one less spreadsheet and all your important company data in one place.
For example, instead of typing everything in one at a time, you can just click two boxes, insert data, or even send surveys or forms to customers and their responses get automatically input into one system.
You can also use other tools that automatically keep track of orders that are coming in and orders that you are sending out. Along with this, there are reports that list each client by their name, contact information, any notes that you have on them, and your business metrics and numbers. I always say “Know your numbers, grow your business.”
In other words, it has never been easier to get the information that you need, generate the reports needed, and grow your business. You just must start automating and get your CRM in place.
Tasks You Can't Automate
We talked about some of the top tasks you can automate. However, there are just some things that are better left with people. These are a few that you should keep in mind.
Creative Content
If you work with a company that needs either creative content or creative marketing, brainstorming that is going to be very difficult for automation. You can use automation to help distribute your ideas and produce them faster, but you are still going to need someone to come up with the original idea.
So, you still need people on your team that can come up with those ideas.
However, where are you going to store and organize your creative content? The organization is half the battle. Yup, you guessed it … probably your CRM!
Sales
One of the biggest office tasks still left up to humans is sales phone calls. The reason is that some people can look at the numbers all they want, automate emails, and have all their data organized, however sometimes (and normally for high ticket sales), you need to pick up the phone and make some dials.
A perfect example is human trust. When it comes to business deals, both sides must feel like they can trust the other person. There is only so much reassurance automation can do in that department. Sometimes that human touch is required and your need to hear a voice on the other end. That is why you might need a human sales team to be closed when it comes to business sales. They are the people that will help gain your business's trust and reassurance.
However, where are you going to store and organize your sales calls and data? You probably guessed it, your CRM!
Learn More About Automation in Business
These are just some of the things that you should know about automation in business.
Remember, there are going to be tasks like onboarding, internal notifications, reminders, and emails that can be perfect for automation.
However, just know that you will not be able to automate every part of your business.
Things like sales calls and creativity need to be left to humans, however, you can still use your system to organize and track them. My motto is if it is not your CMR, it does not exist.
Are you ready to automate your business?
Are you ready to get your CRM setup and/or optimized?
Get a free assessment from us today.