• 04 November 2022
• Tiffany Carey

Work Smarter, Not Harder: What to Automate for Your Small Business

Do you ever feel like you're working harder and harder but getting nowhere? If so, it might be time to automate your small business. Automating your work is an easy way to grow your business without spending more time working. Research suggests that all companies automating business more than double revenue growth, have higher profits overall, and have average deal sizes 9x larger than companies that don’t use some automation.

Automate Repetitive Tasks to Free Up Time

Owning a cell phone automatically gives you instant access to a voice assistant. Voice assistants are virtual assistants that use speech recognition to serve their users. Small business owners can use voice assistants to set up meetings, make calls, provide critical information within seconds, and track tasks. Examples include Apple’s Siri, Samsung’s Bixby, and Amazon’s Alexa, a smart speaker system.

Plan for Structured Customer Support and Customer Service

If you’re looking for ways to automate your customer support, you should first consider creating a system that makes it easy for customers to get in touch. Several tools can help with this. You could incorporate a ticketing system, a CRM (customer relationship management) platform, or a help desk software solution that lets customers submit requests via email.

Automated customer service allows small businesses to automatically resolve customer inquiries using self-service resources, messaging, and chatbot functions. Having the option to be able to respond to clients without human interaction reduces the overhead cost of hiring, training, and paying more employees. A recent study showed that businesses that automate their customer service could save up to 40% on service costs.

Integrate Inventory Management

Most retailers use inventory automation to manage inventory in real-time and help make timely business decisions. The most popular uses for inventory management include automating reordering, keeping records of goods transferring from one location to another, creating purchase orders, and returning purchased products. Integrating an automated inventory system allows small business owners to bypass time-consuming, error-prone, and costly manual inventory while saving on product and supply storage. Real-time data will make retailers feel more confident in their accuracy and scale accordingly.

Keep Marketing and Sales Funnels Flowing

Automating marketing and sales funnels are an excellent way to ensure you spend your marketing dollars wisely. What does that mean and how can it help your business?

A marketing funnel is where leads come in from marketing channels like social media ads or SEO, who then go through a series of steps (calls-to-action) before they become customers. For example, someone may click on an ad you've placed online and be directed through various other channels until they convert into a paying customer through their website checkout process. An automated marketing funnel is mapping out the beginning of a potential customer’s journey.

The sales funnel begins with the leads from the marketing funnel. This system guides the prospective client from the marketing stage to the conversion. An automated sales funnel can capture and retain targeted consumers, build trust, and ensure future return sales. With automated systems, you can track what works best for your company and then invest further in the strategies with the highest ROI (return on investment).

There’s no question that automation technology has changed the way we work. These tools can help save you time, energy, and money while scaling your business. Start by integrating one automation at a time and see how they can work for you and your small business.