Automating a business is a lot easier nowadays. With computers being an integral part of a lot of businesses, they can allow your business to automate various processes. All you need is the right software, and you will be ready for your computers to do a lot of the work. This can drastically increase company productivity. Here are some tasks and processes in your business that you can quickly automate, either fully or partially.
Time Tracking
If your company is still using a logbook or time cards to record people coming into work, then you are way behind the times. Modern time tracking should now be automatic. You can have your employees have bar codes or RFIDs on their company ID, and they are scanned at the entrance when they are coming or going. Then, the monitoring computer records the time and sends this information to the payroll team. This method is accurate and fast. Hence, you have a complete record of their attendance instantly.
E-mail Marketing
One important task that can be very time consuming is sending out marketing e-mails. While it may not seem effective, it still has a surprising reach. Sending out these e-mails manually would take hours. But with mailer software, you can load up the messages and schedule them for release. It will be automatically sent to anyone on your list.
Recruitment
As you’re expanding your company, your HR might end up being swamped by applications and other inquiries. It distracts them from their other duties. You can solve a lot of your recruitment workload by setting up a custom recruitment portal. Instead of having prospective applicants drop by the office to submit their applications, you can set up the portal to receive them for you. It can then automatically organize the applications so that you can choose the criteria for your selection. You can even add more features, such as testing and video uploads.
Customer Service
When you think of customer service, automatic responses are not the first thing you think about. However, the modern approach uses them pretty well. A lot of customer service concerns can be answered by chatbots, automatic e-mail responses, and more. All you have to do is set up an answer to the most common questions and concerns. Only if the customer’s problem is outside of the automatic response will a customer service representative talk to them. This ensures that your employees will only handle concerns that need special attention. This saves a lot of time and effort.
Data Collection
Your website sees a lot of traffic, especially when it has an e-commerce component. You need to monitor your site stats so that you can fine-tune them. But manually checking in every hour can waste your people’s time. Have the site monitor itself and keep track of things. As part of the automation, your site then sends your people the data so it can be analyzed.
Bill Payments
Bills follow everyone, and it can be irritating to pay them. A business usually has more bills to pay, especially the monthly ones. Lining up to pay the bill nowadays is a waste of time. Even spending time to pay bills via online portals can eat up your time. To be truly free of bill payments, you should sign up for an auto-debit arrangement. All bills are automatically paid, and you simply review the payments later to ensure everything is fine.
File Backups
One of the more important jobs nowadays is to back up important files and data. However, doing it manually can be time consuming. This is especially if you are backing it up on local storage. It is much better to store data in the cloud. You can then have an automatic system make backups at the end of specific periods. Thanks to automation, you can do it daily and not lose any work at all.
Online Sales
An online store is the perfect example of a fully automatic system that benefits your business. Instead of hiring store personnel, it is pure software that runs the store. You also don’t have to pay any rent except for some server space. The great thing about this is that the store is active 24/7, which means it has great earning potential.
With all the automation available, your business can cut a lot of the administrative and repetitive tasks out of the workload. This allows employees to focus on important things. This increases productivity, and you can get more value from the salary you pay your workers. In the long run, investing in automation will ensure your business has a solid advantage.
