Automation is one of the techniques that describe how technology has transformed the way people work and live. As technology becomes more advanced, available, and accessible, everyone has a chance to work smart and boost their efficiency. Read on for more details on automation and how to automate repetitive tasks.
Understanding Task Automation
Task automation involves setting tedious and repetitive business processes in automatic mode to run in the background. Automating repetitive tasks free up time, allowing your team to focus on worthwhile projects like team collaboration, solving problems, and decision making. Automation also helps you:
- Reduce risks
- It eliminates the need to focus on time-consuming and mundane tasks
- Improves precision and consistency
- Eliminates human error and bottlenecks
What are the Benefits of Automating Repetitive Tasks?
Automation helps companies simplify repetitive tasks and enhance frequency. Automating repetitive tasks is fast becoming critical in companies regardless of their size. Still, some startup entrepreneurs are hesitant to adopt tools that ease the completion of complex tasks. Understanding the benefits of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence can reduce these fears. Here are some key automation benefits you should know.
· Enhanced Productivity
Appropriate collaboration between machines and human workers boosts daily income. It also helps eliminate manual tasks and eases task optimization. The right process automation tools facilitate proper technology use and enable the optimization of services while reducing costs.
· Automate Repetitive Tasks to Reduce Human Error
Unlike humans, well-enforced automated systems execute tasks precisely. Human mistakes should be corrected, which is not only costly but also triggers productivity delays. Often, errors are likely to occur during data entry tasks. Such mistakes can result in compliance and security challenges, penalties, and sometimes hefty fines. A simple task automation system reduces human intervention, which eliminates possible errors.
· Facilitates Data Awareness while Allowing Entrepreneurs to make Informed Decisions
Task automation programs give small businesses access to massive reports, data sets, and analytics. By assessing KPIs (key performance indicators) and data, entrepreneurs can improve their procedures to eliminate bottlenecks and enhance productivity.
Company process improvement allows companies to improve the quality of their services and products while optimizing performance. Easy access to data also increases performance.
· Simplifies Data Management and Storage
Task automation systems ease data storage and allow organizations to track and regulate data using a computerized document management program. Standard features in these systems include reminders, schedulers, and task management systems.
What are some of the Tasks you can Automate?
Some people opine that task automation triggers employee layoffs. However, it is worth mentioning that technology cannot wholly replace many business tasks. Instead, you will have the chance to reinvent functions during the automation of workflows and tasks.
Automation boosts productivity among your team, and they will become more efficient, execute tasks in less time, and reduce costs. According to a report from the Global Institute of McKinsey, “As many as 45 percent of the activities individuals are paid to perform can be automated by adapting currently demonstrated technologies.” Recurring and tedious tasks you should consider automating include:
- Creation of reports
- Scheduling appointments
- Publishing social media posts
- Human resource requests like hiring and termination of employee contracts
- Technology, hardware, or software requests
- Paying bills
- Generating proposal templates
How to Determine Tasks that should be Automated
While numerous automation tools are available, many of them come with sophisticated workflows and can be challenging to learn. Automation platforms like the CRM (customer relationship management) systems come with critical features and a simple, user-friendly interface.
Some of the most effective customer management tools facilitate the intelligent execution of tasks to eliminate stress and save time. With such tools, you can manage your business and customers from a centralized place, allowing you to view real-time status on sales opportunities, tasks, and emails. Here is how to determine tasks that you should automate.
· Create a List
Begin by listing down the tasks you handle every day. Consider developing your list in an Excel sheet and incorporate the following columns.
Task or Category
Create a list of your daily tasks and allocate a category for each job. For example, your groups could include:
- Finance and billing
- Project management
- Account or client management
Frequency
How regularly do you execute each task? Consider calculating the frequency of your roles in months, weeks, days, and hours.
Time Spend
How much average time do you spend executing each task?
Tools you Require
Which tools or tabs on your browser do you need to execute each task?
What’s the Optimum Solution?
Figure out the ideal solution for executing your tasks.
Consider letting your team complete the above exercise before deliberating on how to execute tasks.
· Research
Based on your applications, tabs, and tools, you may need to research potential combinations for your existing applications to determine the available automation opportunities.
· Outline
After determining tasks that need automation, you will need to outline your new workflow with inbuilt automation. Execute this process on a slide deck, word processor, or whiteboard. The idea should be to create a visual image of your automated task.
· Develop
Based on your workflow’s complexity, you may want to either use tools like Microsoft or Zapier or recruit IT professionals to assist you. Always select technology systems capable of replacing repetitive tasks to allow staff to work on valuable tasks.
· Evaluate
After outlining and developing your task workflow, consider testing it before uploading or integrating it with your website. Involve members of your team in the testing phase and find out if the automation is effective. Does it lessen their workload and save time? You should assess the automation to ensure tasks complete precisely, successfully, and promptly.
How to Automate Repetitive Tasks
Here are various ways of automating repetitive tasks in your business.
· Invoicing and Payments
Upgrade from directly creating and collecting invoices right from your customer relationship management platform to facilitate fast payments. Adopt solutions that allow you to pick your preferred contact bill, upload a logo, set add line commodities, and due date. You can even link your bank to the CRM to activate direct credit card acceptance via the app.
· Email Follow-ups
After sending emails to existing and potential customers, consider sending follow-up emails to get their feedback on their experience. You do not have to struggle with sending numerous emails manually. Adopt a marketing automation tool to execute this task on your behalf. Consider creating powerful, educative, and automatically delivered email campaigns based on your consumer’s needs.
· Sales Automation
Do you use sticky notes, calendars, or file folders to document and store customer data? A CRM allows you to coordinate your customer data in a centralized place. It also facilitates the recording and updating of each action. An activity stream displays all customer interactions and activities in real-time, eliminating the need to track updates.
· Appointments
Plan and control appointments by sending your customers an online link that allows your customers to pick their preferred meeting time. Doing so facilitates correspondence with your online calendar, reduces in and out regulation, and distributes auto-reminders to ensure customers are timely and well prepared. With automation, you do not have to struggle with eleventh-hour rescheduling.
Take Away
- While some repetitive tasks are part of our daily jobs, they can pile up quickly, especially in small businesses. Automation helps you eliminate manual tasks from your to-do list, which eases stress and saves you time and costs.
- Automation can be crucial in various business departments like marketing, customer support, and sales. Automate repetitive tasks to ease operations, boost productivity, and allow your team to focus on things that matter.
- Technology is advancing fast, and only the businesses that embrace change will survive the overly competitive market.
TickTockLab is a robust task management tool you can leverage to enhance productivity. Read more details from our blog.