Automation is a great way to streamline your business processes, but it can also be a valuable tool for improving productivity and efficiency. Unfortunately, though, there are also many ways that automation can fail to reach its full effectiveness.
Want to avoid that? Here are six ways to get the most value out of automation in your business:
1. Create SOPs
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are critical for automating tasks in your business. These documents outline how things should be done and what needs to happen when certain events occur.
When you have SOPs, it’s easy to scale up or down based on demand, and you’ll always know what needs to happen next.
Think about all of the things that need to happen when someone signs up for an account on your website or in your office — creating SOPs will help ensure that everything is done the same way each time.
2. Simplify Processes
When processes are too complex or involve multiple steps, employees may forget items or make mistakes.
A good example is customer support ticketing systems. When employees receive too many tickets at once from different customers who need different things done in different ways, it’s easy to confuse one customer with another or let tickets slip through the cracks altogether. Automation can simplify this process in order to avoid letting that happen.
3. Automate Customer Service Responses
If you have a lot of interactions with customers — whether it’s through email or phone calls — you can automate those interactions with tools like Zendesk or Freshdesk.
You’ll be able to route incoming messages based on keywords or customer profiles and respond with pre-written responses, which reduces the amount of time you spend on repetitive tasks.
4. Set Up Automation Rules for Billing Statements and Invoices
If you send out automatic billing statements every month, use a tool like Chargify to set up automated rules that will send out bills when due dates pass or when specific amounts are reached. It saves time by reducing the need to manually enter data into accounting programs like QuickBooks Online or Xero.
5. Automate Social Media Marketing Campaigns
With the help of Hootsuite or Buffer, you can create scheduled social media posts that will automatically post at specific times during the day or week. These platforms not only enhance your social media management, but allow you to spot, track and analyze trends. This setup also ensures your content is always fresh on social media without you logging in and manually publishing content.
6. Automate Your Printers
Printers are one of the most common devices people use in their business. Depending on the type of printer, you may be able to set it up with automation functions to help your office flow more smoothly.
For example, you can automate your printers with software that will allow you to print out packing slips automatically whenever someone places an order online or by phone.
Printing is a critical part of most people’s daily workflow. When something goes wrong with printing, it can be extremely frustrating and time-consuming. Printer driver management is one way to reduce the number of printer-related issues that occur in your business.
Printer driver management ensures that all users have access to the latest version of their printer driver as soon as their manufacturer releases it. This approach reduces the amount of time spent waiting for IT personnel to install new versions of these drivers or troubleshoot problems with them once they are installed on client machines.
Make the Most of Automation at Your Business
Automation can help your business work more efficiently and reduce the amount of time spent on manual tasks. It can be used to increase productivity, save money, and reduce the risk of human error.
By automating the right aspects of your company, you can improve your workflows and reach your goals while earning more money and expanding faster.