How Automating Your Business Can Bring You Huge Benefits
A major way that digital transformation is changing businesses is through the adoption of automation. Automating business processes dramatically cuts down on employee workload while enhancing productivity.
As the capabilities of automated digital transformation technologies improve, businesses are being offered more opportunities to take advantage of the benefits of automation, such as its ability to provide compelling consumer data that is priceless for outbound marketing, as just one example.
As companies continue to place more confidence in the way they use automation techniques in their workplaces, business owners are increasingly interested in learning about how they can use these to improve their processes and stay afloat in the competitive modern digital environment.
Here are seven ways of automating a business that are worth considering during the development of a digital-first strategy.
1. Transaction Processes
Reducing The Role Of Manual Transaction Processes Alleviates Mundane Tasks and Reduces Risk
Transaction processes occur across a variety of departments. From payroll to the way users purchase products online, digital transformation enables automated business processes to make everyone’s life easier, particularly consumers. Such processes lend themselves well to automation because they’re repetitive, predictable, and alleviate the risk of human error.
Once the correct information is in place, business automation tools make sure it gets stored, printed, or sent to the correct individual. Automating transaction processes helps ease the amount of paperwork employees do and increases the likelihood of a flawless customer experience.
2. Customer Queries
Automating Can Provide A More Positive Experience For Consumers
Some 89 percent of companies use superior customer service to gain a competitive edge. Automating customer queries is an easy way to deliver much-needed answers and solutions while keeping support staff available for the things which require human attention.
The increase in companies turning to AI in order to address basic customer service tasks means that businesses have the opportunity to redistribute their staff’s time and energy to other projects and increase workplace efficiency. It also means that, if handled correctly, simple business problems with simple solutions can be solved by automating—at no detriment to either party and to the timely satisfaction of the customer.
3. Report Generation
Detailed And Accurate Automated Report Generation Is A Necessity For Many Modern Workplaces
Reporting processes can often be time-consuming and tiresome for employees. Automated report generation is a great example of how digital transformation can streamline everyday business processes. This means better organized, more sophisticated and error-free reports delivered without the need to work more or manually organize documents.
Report automation software takes advantage of a variety of tools integrated a company’s data infrastructure to pull a range of information with a few clicks. Many services and software also leverage artificial intelligence to provide a level of efficiency and quality that is difficult to achieve through manual means alone.
Automating your business report output is an excellent advantage of implementing your digital transformation strategy. It will save you time and money and can give you the option of secure and accurate automation when conducting and scheduling reports and free up your workforce from menial tasks.
4. Inbound Marketing
Automated Inbound Marketing Provides Higher-quality Leads
At least 50 percent of a company’s prospects aren’t a good fit for the product or service being offered. These potential customers may lack the time, budget, need, or any number of features which would keep the sale from being worthwhile or useful for either side.
However, it also means that determining the most viable prospects for a business can be a chore for sales representatives. Fortunately, inbound marketing automation cuts down on the number of leads, helping ensure that only feasible prospects end up in front of a sales rep.
Automation in inbound marketing affords you the opportunity to take advantage of a mountain of data and effectively sort your consumer base, allowing your marketing to have a personal touch and draw customers in based on appealing to their preferences. The most obvious example of this is Amazon’s approach to marketing recommended items to consumers based on what they’ve previously viewed—possible only through automated inbound marketing.
5. Email Campaigns
The Depth Of Data And Precision Of Campaigns Makes Automation Vital To Email Marketing
Email marketing remains one of the most popular forms of advertising; however, with hundreds—if not thousands—of emails going out during each campaign, keeping track of segments, versions, and results can be extremely difficult.
Automation helps track a variety of statistics, from who opens each email to what email that person receives. Marketers have the opportunity to schedule for months in advance if necessary and keep a roadmap for their campaign efforts in the short, medium, and long-term.
Likewise, automation makes sure that the right email gets delivered at precisely the correct date and time, without the chance of an issue arising from relying on solely on human input, lessening the prospect of a mistake being made during a campaign.
6. Document Processes
Not Streamlining Or Updating Documentation Processes Is A Costly Oversight
Physical documents remain an everyday fixture for many businesses and almost every company handles them in one way or another. However, the document lifecycle is one area where costly blind spots are prone to occur. Important information gets misplaced and unnecessary printing occurs. This will inevitably drive up operating expenses, reduce security, and contribute to a disorganized office.
Automated document processes let companies convert, transmit, and archive documents seamlessly. They are particularly useful when a business is becoming a paperless office and embracing digital transformation strategy in its paper flow. Likewise, automated backups ensure that data isn’t permanently lost should an unforeseen incident occur.
7. Social Media
Automated Social Media Accounts Allow You Structure And Eases The Stress Of Juggling Several Things At Once
Many businesses use social media to reach audiences, and it can be a time suck for even the most focused personnel. Thankfully, social media can very easily be automated, as several tools, like Hootsuite, exist primarily for this purpose. By scheduling content, and using integration software to cross-post items, automation cuts down on the manual labor of your coordinator constantly keeping tabs on different accounts and forgoes them the chore of manually uploading content.
Social media and automation go hand-in-hand, and for many marketing coordinators it would be unthinkable to work without some form of automation process. The fast-paced environment of social media and the frequency of mistakes made by even the largest brands mean that the security of automation is a necessity for marketers working their business’ online presence. The typical weakness of social media accounts is the humans who run them, so having an automated and comprehensive calendar for all your upcoming content needs is an effective tool in tandem with your social media coordinator.
Strategically Apply Automation In Digital Transformation Projects
Ultimately, digital transformation is all about improving productivity at work and enhancing the overall customer experience. Automating helps remove the human element from low-impact, repetitive and time-consuming business tasks, giving staff more time to focus on tasks which require skilled professionals. A digitally-transformed business can take full advantage of such a capability to produce better results, faster, and with less stress.
Automation is a powerful tool that organizations can leverage to increase productivity and efficiency. Read more about robotic process automation services and reach out to start a conversation today.