Your staff is talented and dedicated. Your business plan is exactly where it needs to be. Your customers or clients love you. Everything is in its right place, so why is your business growth stagnating? What can you do to keep growing?
You’ve likely heard the term ‘automation’ in recent years, whether it’s in the context of factory labor or grocery store self-checkout units. But automation goes a lot deeper than what you see in the media. No matter what type of company you run, workflow automation can take your business to the next level.
What is workflow automation?
Workflow automation refers to technology that performs everyday work tasks without human intervention. It’s a broad term, but in the context of most businesses, it refers to programs that replace formerly manual tasks using a set of predefined business rules.
One common application of workflow automation software is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program. Using a CRM, a team can more easily communicate with vendors and customers, analyze cash flow, and customize new automation processes to match current needs.
Whether or not your business embraces workflow automation, your competitors will. The market is growing, and the experts at Acumen expect the industry to explode from the $21 billion it was worth in 2021 to more than $78 billion by 2030. Since it’s here to say, you may as well explore the different ways it can benefit your business.
1. Less human error
It doesn’t matter how skilled your team members are. No human being is perfect, and people will always make mistakes at work. Whether a salesman forgets to return an email to an important client or a package gets lost in the mail, the risk never disappears.
Automated processes aren’t subject to error the way human tasks are. Sure, there’s always a small risk that something won’t be set up properly or that a system could malfunction, but it’s infinitesimal compared to that of a person. You’ll always trust a calculator over mental math for the same reason you’re better off relying on automation than a staff member for a menial task.
2. Less wasted time
Automated processes are ideal for the most mind-numbing, tedious tasks your business needs accomplished. Not only are they simpler to set up, they’re also the tasks that are most error-prone. Menial tasks drive employee disengagement, and a disengaged employee is more likely to make careless mistakes. Studies have even shown that long-term exposure to job duties with minimal complexity have harmful effects on regional gray matter volume in the brain. Not only can automation improve your business, it can literally protect your staff members’ brains.
When was the last time you practiced your long division skills? Fourth grade? There’s a reason we reach for our calculators anytime we encounter math in our lives. Not only are they more accurate, they’re way faster. Computers can process incredible amounts of information in the time it takes an employee to sit down and take a sip of coffee before getting to work. And they’re only getting faster.
One of the biggest benefits of automation is that it also allows for many tasks to be performed simultaneously. Your employees can’t respond to an email and enter data into a spreadsheet at the same time. Let them focus on doing high level work while automated processes run in the background.
3. Scale workflow more easily
In the past, growing your business meant growing your staff, and growing your staff meant continuously adding more variables into the equation. More staff members doing more tasks means more errors. It also means needing more managers to keep things running smoothly. Errors can sometimes compound until they spiral out of control, and costs add up quickly.
Automation allows you to continuously scale up your business while keeping the variables constant. Consistency means fewer errors, reducing growing pains overall. It also helps avoid bottlenecks in the throughput process.
4. Find and eliminate bottlenecks
Even when their effects can be seen, bottlenecks aren’t always easy to identify. When you rely more on human labor, mistakes, biases, and other potential issues obscure the true nature of what’s limiting growth. Workflow automation allows you to see the big picture more easily and easily recognize inconsistencies and bottlenecks that are holding your business back.
Transparency is the vanquisher of bottlenecks. When you can see automated processes at work, you can tweak those processes to account for them. Redundancies are simple to eliminate when you know where they are.
Every business is different, which is why The AMG Team customizes CRMs for every client. We also leave room for improvement and further modification as issues become visible after the system is in motion. By integrating all data flow into one dashboard, making these changes is easy.
5. Save money
Time is money, and when you don’t have to hire a new employee to do data entry and other tedious administrative tasks, you don’t have to pay an additional salary. When you pay fewer salaries, you can afford to pay more talented people what they’re worth. This can save you further money by upping your retention rate. It’s a win-win for you and your staff.
No matter what your business goals are, making more money while spending less is the foundation of success. With a small investment into automation, you’ll be able to see what your company is capable of achieving.
Analytics, Marketing, and Growth is your partner in workflow automation
The AMG team has built custom Salesforce CRMs for large and small businesses, taking their overall efficiency and speed of throughput to the next level. Our systems have grown net-new monthly revenues by as much as 300% in less than a year. Partner with us to see what your business is capable of when you trim the fat. Learn more about our business automation services or contact us to schedule your free discovery call now.
