Automation is a vital tool for businesses. Using automation platforms or software, you’re allowing the teams in your organization to get tasks done more effectively. They also offer customers a better experience.
If your business isn’t using automation tools, make 2021 the year you’ll start using them. Combined with a skilled and experienced workforce, these tools can streamline various areas in your organization, including business processes, sales, and marketing.
Save precious time and energy by putting these business tasks and areas on autopilot:
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Table of Contents
Backing up and Archiving Files
Businesses can’t afford to lose employee, customer, and financial data. Not everyone, however, is taking steps to mitigate this problem. According to a report from Small Business Trends, more than half of small business owners are not ready for data loss. What’s more, six out of ten businesses that suffered from data loss are likely to close down within six months.
Companies, therefore, should take measures to back up and archive their files regularly. Rather than delegating backup and archival duties to an IT employee, your business should automate these tasks to avoid human errors. You could purchase a reliable backup platform and data archiving software for your organization. Just make sure that your computers meet the minimum system requirements of these programs, and you should be good to go.
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Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Managing a lead pipeline efficiently can be hard work, but using a CRM platform can make the process easy to manage for your employees. Using the right software for your organization, your team can improve the sales process, enhance customer experience, and target your leads more effectively.
You could, for instance, use CRM to automatically send product or service updates to your customers. Another example is to program your CRM platform to delight customers with birthday or anniversary emails. Automating relationship management allows you to deliver a premium experience to customers without doing the heavy lifting.
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Sales
Your sales team or department can benefit from automation if you use it to organize the sales pipeline. If you effectively define the stages in your customer journey, your chosen automation platform can recognize movements in the sales funnel and inform your employees accordingly.
Another advantage of automation is that it improves your organization’s lead scoring accuracy. The right platform can discover the hottest prospects based on a specific set of criteria, such as online behavior, previous communication with sales reps, and personal details. This enables your employees to zero in on highly profitable leads and send the right messaging based on the customer’s interest level.
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Social Media Marketing and Management
Billions of people worldwide use social media for various reasons, including communicating with friends and family and staying updated on the latest news.
Businesses also use social media to fuel their marketing efforts. If you’re going to harness the power of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking platforms for your company, you might as well automate some important tasks. An example is using scheduling tools to do the following:
- Engage your followers by sharing product updates, upcoming events, and other announcements
- Maintain a personal connection with social media users
- Manage your company’s social media presence across a variety of platforms
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Customer Care
The customer service representatives of your company can benefit a lot from automation. For instance, the right software can prioritize customers according to service level agreements, profile, and the type of problem they’re having. What’s more, it can automatically delegate customers to an available agent who has the necessary skills and experience to solve the problem.
You could take automation a step further by introducing chatbots on your business website. They can take care of basic interactions, such as responding to frequently asked questions.
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Feedback Reporting
Companies use social listening tools to learn more about their target audience and find out what people are saying about the product, service, or brand. You should do the same for your organization. They help track mentions about your business across various online channels. They also collect feedback on how people feel about your company.
You can automate a portion of this process by configuring the social listening platform to send periodic reports. Obtaining a concise report every week or month will help you learn more about your customer. You could also use the information you’ve gathered to improve your products and services.
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Finance
Payroll isn’t the only financial activity you can automate in your company. Go beyond by automating invoicing, receipt handling, and payment reminder notifications. Automating your financial operations will make your organization more efficient.
Make automating these seven business areas and tasks your 2021 new year’s resolution. Although you may need to shell out cash to get parts of your company automated, the payoff will surely be worth it.
