Bill Gates once said that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency but automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. Some processes are enhanced through automation, freeing the business owner to perform more important tasks, while others are incongruent with the task at hand. The following tips include business duties you should and should not automate:
Automate All Email Delivery
Business software reviewers Capterra lists SendInBlue as one of the best automated email delivery management systems of 2015. Email and text are a cost-effective way to deliver advertising messages without using a lot of your time. Develop a good central marketing message that is enhanced by email and text advertising, and use the software to schedule delivery and then forget about it. Let the software do the rest.
Automate All Doc Management
Cloud-based document management allows your local startup to become a global business. Business systems can be uploaded to the cloud so that your sales staff, field workers and implementation operators have access to the information from anywhere with Internet connection. The Mozy platform maintains that the system is a “set it and forget it” interface because it automatically backs up all your company’s documents and saves your remote workers' records in a central location. Using the cloud to automate opens the business to remote workers and a global market.
Automate Some of Your Marketing
Email and text are just a portion of a marketing campaign. Though advertisement delivery can be totally automated, marketing needs a personal touch. For any marketing campaign, effectiveness data should be collected. This can be easily automated with platforms like Campaign Monitor that monitors clicks and shares and open rates of emails, texts and websites as well as social media engagement.
After data is collected, a real person needs to analyze and interpret the results. Marketing is a place where math meets creativity. If something is working, expand on it; if not, create something new that will.
Automate Some of Your Accounting
Automating all of your accounting can be dangerous. Point-of-sale systems should be integrated into accounting to remove human-driven double entry. Reporting can be automated once the data is cleaned, but a human needs to make sure the information is correct. Like marketing, accounting contains important reporting information that can lead a business to success if used properly.
Do Not Automate Your Social Media
Social media is word-of-mouth marketing on steroids. This means that human interaction is the central component of social media. Within its name, Relationship Marketing Theory implies that the relationship with the consumer is the most important part of the marketing program. If you try to automate this relationship, the message becomes advertorial and breaks the bonds of the relationship. You may be able to automate some delivery and data collection, but, in general, avoid automating relationship marketing.
Do Not Automate Your Customer Service
A FAQ sheet or some canned telephone answers can be useful to a consumer, but good customer service places the customer at the center. It is all about creating a positive bond between the customer and the business. If you try to automate all of your customer service, you have missed the point of what serving your customers means.