How to Maximise Business Hours Using Task Automation

Starting a business is one thing, but how about running one? If you’re responsible for running your own business you’ll know only too well how overwhelming it can be. There’s always something to be doing - whether it’s developing your business, strategising your next move, or just keeping on top of those endless admin tasks - and there’s never enough time to be doing it.

This is where task automation comes in. When you automate repetitive tasks you’ll free up time to focus on the important stuff. Automation in business is the key to carving out time and still ensuring your business runs effectively. You’ll save time, money, and you’ll seriously boost your productivity levels.

Creative Ideaz is a digital marketing agency that helps people in business - whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or the owner of a medium-sized business - to get the most from their brand. In this article we’ll share the advantages of automation in business, and explain why it’s best to automate office tasks.

What is Business Automation?

Business automation is the process of automating certain business tasks with the help of technology. It can help simplify business tasks from time-heavy, inefficient manual processes to streamlined automated methods. It can boost digital transformation, improve your quality of service and delivery, and also help to keep your costs down. When you automate administrative tasks you’re ultimately freeing yourself up to focus on bigger things: like advancing and building your business.

Why You Should Embrace Business Process Automation

Do you want to save time and money? If you answered ‘well, obviously!’, then there’s your answer. But an automated business process doesn’t just help with time and money - it boasts a whole host of other benefits too. The main ones include:

• Improved Workflow - everyone knows that monotonous tasks suck the lifeblood out of you. So automate manual tasks - don’t simply put up with them! Hand over these dull and dreary jobs to the automation process and focus on more interesting tasks. Computer says yes!
• Iron out Errors - human error is a major issue in business and when it comes to data processing it can prove costly. Free up your human brains for more creative tasks and let the tech take care of the data entry
• Happy Customers - customers want answers and they want them now! If your staff are dealing with responding to questions and queries, chances are they may miss something, be too slow at getting back, or not deliver the information needed. Turn this process into an automated procedure using - for instance - a chatbot on your website - and your customers will feel happy and supported
• Happy Staff - automated tasks ensure staff time is freed up to focus on more creative problem solving and business development. And when staff feel like they’re being challenged and their skills are being used, they feel happier too

Automate My Business

So you want to automate business processes and you’re wondering where to start. There are a number of types of automation to help refine and enhance certain areas of your business. In this section we will highlight a few that we’ve found to be the most beneficial to businesses we’ve helped on their automated business development journey.

Customer Support

When it comes to customer support, you can automate tasks with AI. Chatbots powered by AI can answer frequently asked questions from customers, or if there’s a more pressing problem, they can even make sure a concern is elevated so that it reaches a member of staff.

E-Commerce

If you’re struggling to get customers to move through the shopping process on your website and actually make that purchase, it’s probably a good time to think about automating your e-commerce. By automating the shopping path you’ll make the customer shopping experience as easy and intuitive as possible - leading to more sales. And once a customer has bought something, you can then give them an option to provide feedback - which, in turn, will help boost your brand’s image.

Account and Finances

The areas of accounts and finance are notorious for being time-heavy. But thanks to financial automation such as data processing, invoicing, and managing payments, businesses are able to save time and money. Result!

Marketing Automation

Getting your marketing right is key to the success of your business. Unfortunately though, marketing is one of the main areas that can drain your money. That’s because marketing activities can be time-consuming and as a result pricey. So what if you could automate some of those marketing processes? It makes sense, right? There are marketing automation platforms that enable you to check in and see how your business is faring. You can measure, analyse data, and elevate conversions in specific marketing campaigns. When you use automation to do all of this it’s possible that you might just need one person in charge of your marketing - which will certainly save on your staff overheads.

How to Automate Your Business

At Creative Ideaz we help business owners and entrepreneurs grow their businesses effectively, and one of the key areas we work in is digital marketing. This is one of the most popular and cost-effective areas to choose the automation process. Everyone knows marketing is vital to getting your name out there, but it can be time consuming and tricky to navigate - so let the tech do it for you!

When you choose to automate digital marketing processes you can work to actively engage your customer base and turn them into paying customers. One of our top tips for engaging your customers is to automate your email mailouts.

Using an email marketing automation system can increase your sales. Thanks to advanced solutions, you’ll be able to send personalised emails in response to actions that your customer carries out - all done in real time. You can set up subscription emails, triggered emails, and put follow-up emails in place too. With these sorts of programs you’ll also be able to view statistics so you can better understand potential areas for improvement.

Examples of Automated Marketing Messages

So, what sort of messages can you send out automatically thanks to the automation process? Here are a few examples -

1. Welcome! - if someone has just subscribed to your newsletter you can send them a welcome email straightaway. This should help them engage more with you, and it’s also a great way to give them a little gift - a discount code for instance
2. Thanks! - We all love it when someone says thanks so show your customers you value them with a quick thank you message.
3. You left something in your basket! - Jog your customers memory if they leave something in their basket… and maybe tempt them back with a little discount code too

Business Process Automation Services

Now you can see how the process of automating certain tasks can free up your time, save you money, and boost your brand’s visibility, isn’t it time you embraced automation?

At Creative Ideaz, we can help you grow your business using multiple strategies - and automation is just one of them. Ditch those repetitive, mundane tasks and free your mind for more exciting things! Talk to us about how we can help grow your business and get you to the next level. Get in touch with us here and let’s get your business going.