There are many different ways that technology can help a business, but one area of technology that has really pushed through in recent years has been automation. As a small or medium business owner, you should look to make your working day as easy as possible, and you have to make it work by balancing your business and your customers. You want to work less – in the sense that you don’t spin too many plates – and achieve more, and the best place to start is with automation.
The process of putting automation into every facet of your business does take time, but you can bet that once you do, you will see how quickly you are able to up your game as a business owner.
You want to make your business more productive, and whether that works with an appointment reminder service that’s automated, or you do it with better customer service software, you can cut back the time you waste and the money you spend over all. So, with this in mind, here are some of the best ways that your business can implement automation and change the way that you do business – forever.
- Automated emails. Your business needs to leave an imprint on customers, and if you have to get them to sign up for an email list of yours, you’re halfway there. The thing is, you may not always have the time to manually email your discounts and information each week. Instead, you can set up your emails to be automated to come through at the right time. Not only that, but the data that you gathered when people signed up to your email list can be automatically input into emails with the right programs. You don’t want to be that team that doesn’t acknowledge customer emails, and an automated email can make all the difference to let someone know that you are aware they are waiting for you. Use emojis and discounts, too, in your emails so that you can relate to your customers.
- Assign calls. Look at your current telephone system for incoming calls, and have a team ready and waiting to take those calls. Automation keeps leads moving through your sales funnel, and there are plenty of customer relationship management systems that will feature automation and you can allow this software to assign calls to the right team. When you do this, you stop taking these calls yourself and entrust them to those who can manage them for you. When you automate these calls, you can cut down the time that you spend on these tasks and focus on business development.
- Use business cards. Believe it or not, one of the best tools toward your automation adventures is business cards! These may not be technological, but you can use a few moments to log information from collected business cards and input it all into your customer relationship management systems. Once you do this, you can use your marketing automation tools to campaign and follow up emails to contacts who have given you their cards. These emails can be sent in a specific time frame after receiving them, and you can start turning those business cards into brand new relationships in your business. People have given you cards, which means you will find it much easier to turn people you’ve met into active leads.
- Use email scheduling software. Appointment reminder services are invaluable when it comes to automation. You may not always be able to keep up with the meetings and appointments in your business, but when you schedule your appointments properly, you can book appointments and send out automated reminders that will enable you to get in contact with your customers any time you’d like. Automated scheduling is going to cut back the amount of time that you spend doing anything and you will still manage to see those you need to see. Calendars will update quickly afterwards, too, and you can keep up with further appointments from here.
- Chatbots and beyond. With automation, you can make it far easier for customers and clients to come to you for help and for conversation. They will have far more questions answered when they can contact you right away, and you can have chatbots loaded with FAQs to answer questions and solve problems right away. Without waiting around, your customers are going to be happier with your responses and will be far more loyal to you as a business.
Automation is going to change the way that your business works, so why not try it out for yourself?
