Automation is a surefire way to increase organizational efficiency via digital technologies that allow the completion of various processes with little to no human involvement. Indeed, such a process shifts the responsibility of completing routine tasks from humans to machines, freeing up employees’ time to focus more on tasks that add value.
Some significant advantages of automation include increased output, dependability, accessibility, enhanced performance, and reduced operating costs. Plus, it’s advantageous in helping businesses achieve their goals, whether they’re looking to increase customer satisfaction, scale, or boost employee productivity.
With that in mind, here are five automated services you can adopt in your business, no matter what industry you’re in, to help improve your bottom line and improve efficiencies.
1. Customer Support
Although there is a compelling argument for the value of human interaction in customer support, utilizing automation in the form of help desks, chatbots, or other AI systems to proactively solve consumer issues has significant value as well. The great thing about systematizing customer service is that automation platforms offer a variety of customer-facing features in addition to simply cutting down on resolution times. By providing insights into your company’s overall customer support procedures, you can find ways to enhance the overall customer experience.
2. Social Media Management
It’s no secret that a strong social media presence is a recipe for success in today’s business world. Indeed, social media has proven to be an important marketing channel that every business should prioritize. With so many platforms out there—and often little time to devote attention to all of them—automation is necessary to ensure you always hit your social goals and remain top of mind to customers and prospects alike. This is why tools like HubSpot, Buffer, and Hootsuite are advantageous, as they help automate publishing content across different social platforms. However, there are better Hootsuite alternatives with more advanced features and analytics available in the market.
3. Employee Onboarding
Hiring is often a long and grueling process, especially in today’s business climate which sees greater turnover. As such, companies will continue to onboard new hires, which can be strenuous. But by setting up a platform to send a welcome email after a contract is signed, you can help to better automate this process. Additionally, this would alert your IT department to start creating new user accounts. From there, the new employee can access workflow software, which generates a timeline with checkpoints for their first two weeks on the job.
4. Document Signing
At first glance, signing documents online may not seem laborious or time-consuming. But automating this process is the best course of action, particularly in business processes where numerous documents need to be signed. JSign is a great tool for this because it allows users to create, save, and upload signatures, which increases productivity. For convenience, it also integrates with Google Drive and Dropbox.
5. Account Reconciliation
During any stage of account review and approval, financial statements always need the watchful eye of humans to ensure everything adds up correctly. Account reconciliation software has the power to replace manual spreadsheets by automatically adding new ERP accounts, establishing task separation, making post-certification records view-only, and providing transparency to the entire process.
Jump on the Automation Bandwagon to Boost Business Efficiencies
If you want to stay ahead of the curve and boost productivity, you’ll need to automate some of your business processes, no matter what industry you’re in. Taking unnecessary burdens off your employees can make a huge difference, bringing about better results and a livelier workplace.