Understanding Workflow Automation: Stop Doing Boring Tasks

Workflow Automation Is Your New Best Friend

When running a small business, you tend to wear many hats. Whether it is data entry, sales, accounting, or posting on social media, every hour of every day is different. Hiring employees to handle certain aspects of your business can be costly, which leaves it all on your lap. However, this can quickly lead to your day filling up with mundane tasks, and you don’t get to do what you actually want to do, which is the fun stuff or the stuff you’re really good at regarding your business. Enter: Automation. Workflow automation is a great way to get those mundane tasks off your plate so you can focus on the fun stuff. Keep reading to learn more about workflow automation, why it’s so great, and how Navazon can help get you up and running.

What is Workflow Automation?

Workflow automation is a term for the use of technology applications that perform repetitive tasks, freeing up employees for higher-value work. This includes business process automation (BPA), robotic process automation (RPA), and AI-powered automation. Years ago, automation required massive mainframes and a team of experts to maintain them. Today, cloud-based automation platforms put the functionality within reach of companies of all sizes. Some types of workflow automation include the following:

• Process automation: Process automation manages business processes for uniformity and transparency. Often handled by dedicated software, process automation can increase productivity and efficiency — while also delivering valuable business insights. Process mining and workflow automation are examples of process automation.
• Advanced automation: Advanced automation brings together humans and machines to integrate multiple systems across the organization. Supporting more complex processes, advanced automation relies on unstructured data coupled with machine learning, natural language processing and analysis. It promotes knowledge management and decision support for specialized work.
• Intelligent automation: Driven by AI, intelligent automation means that machines can “learn” and make decisions based on situations they have encountered and analyzed. For example, in customer service, virtual assistants powered by AI can reduce costs while enabling smarter interactions between customers and human agents. The result is a better customer service experience.

Benefits of Workflow Automation for Small Businesses

Workflow automation can seem like a big undertaking, and it is. There is a lot of research to do to find the right software for you, learn how to use it, get it all set up, experience a learning curve, teach your employees how to use it, and so much more. However, the benefits greatly outweigh the cons of getting workflow automation set up. They include more efficiency, no more human errors, focusing on growing your business, having access to a treasure trove of data, and the fact that workflow automation saves you money in the long run.

More Efficiency

Simply put: Your business will be able to accomplish more in less time with workflow automation. When your workflow is automated and streamlined, you and your employees can focus on the “more important” stuff, which all gets done better and faster when not worrying about the “small stuff.” For example, you can free up your administrative assistant from needing to remind you about meetings and let them work on higher-value tasks that allow you to spend more time growing your business.

No More Human Errors

When humans are in charge of performing a task, there is a chance that something can go wrong. No matter how good someone is at something, you can never trust that it will get done correctly 100% of the time. As the saying goes, “Even Babe Ruth struck out.” This is a normal cost of doing business that isn’t reflective of your employee’s capabilities (unless it is a mistake that repeatedly happens, of course).

The good news is that workflow automation eliminates the worry of human error. Tasks such as data entry or accounting can have potentially devastating consequences when something small goes wrong; workflow automation can help that. These tools are programmed to perform extremely accurately, saving you time and money in human errors.

Focus On Growing Your Business

Many small businesses end up getting stuck in a rut, even though they have the potential to scale and grow larger. This is because the business owner and employees get stuck in the day-to-day grind without having much time left over for growing and scaling the business. Days turn into weeks, which turn into months, and suddenly, years later, your business hasn’t grown, and you’re wondering why.

Workflow automation takes all of the mundane day-to-day routine tasks off of your plate so that you can focus on growing your business. Whether that means attending conferences, networking opportunities, finding new clients, speaking with experts, or continuing your education, the possibilities are endless.

So Much Data

Data is gold when it comes to running a small business. Making better, more informed decisions can be the competitive edge your business needs to grow. Workflow automation tools provide robust analytics and reporting you would never have access to. You can make quick adjustments to various things thanks to data, reporting, and real-time information. Some things that workflow automation tools can show you are whether a certain process is no longer serving you, your ads aren’t performing well, you’re reaching the wrong demographic, or there is something that can be done even quicker and better.

Saves Money in the Long Run

Automation software is programmed to do specific things, which can be done in a fraction of the time that humans can do it. At Navazon, we use workflow automation to help our team complete a large number of tasks with a relatively small staff. It allows our staff to focus on creativity and messaging and, ultimately, results. While workflow automation tools usually have an upfront cost and/or a monthly cost, the savings over time are huge.

What Tasks Can Be Automated?

Wondering how your business can benefit from automation? Here are some of the most common uses for workflow automation:

• Social media. By using a scheduler, you can write social media posts ahead of time to be dispersed when you want them to. Many social media scheduling tools also offer robust analytics and reporting to help ensure your social media is performing well. This eliminates the need to hop on social media daily and ensure you have a post up. Posts can be more well-thought-out and professional.
• SEO. SEO tools, such as Google Analytics, can automatically generate reports for you and email them straight to your inbox. Whether it is keyword research, monthly traffic reports, or demographic reports, the possibilities are endless, and you’re able to save time researching it all yourself.
• Customer support. Customer service is an extremely important aspect of any business, making customer support automation tools important. You can create a help desk that generates tickets and sends inquiries to the correct person or set up a chatbot that can guide a customer to the right answer without ever needing to speak to an employee. You can track everything and save time, money, employee manpower, and hassle.
• Emails. Send emails to your customers whenever they abandon a cart, haven’t visited in over 30 days, bounced off your website, on their birthday month, and much more automatically with email automation tools.
• Invoice reminders. Waiting on a client to pay you? Everyone hates writing those awkward follow-up emails and phone calls. Luckily, workflow automation tools are available for you that will automatically remind your client for you, so you don’t have to worry about it.
• Payroll. This task can take hours every month, whether it is the business owner, an accountant, or an HR department doing it. If your employees’ payments are pretty straightforward, automating your payroll is the way to go.
• Paying bills. Just like with our personal bills, you can set up automatic payments for all your company’s bills. Writing out checks every month can be time-consuming and riddled with human error, but automation can just take it right off your plate.
• Calendars. Automating your calendar with your employees, or your clients, can make it easy for people to see your availability. Whether a client wants to make an appointment with you or an employee wants to meet with you, they can schedule it themselves without bothering you and wasting time with calls or emails back and forth.
• Online forms. The possibilities with online form automation are endless. When attracting new clients, customers, patients, or more, this automation can drop their information straight into your email automator and follow up with them, without you ever even knowing about it.
• Your daily to-do list. Using a to-do list automator, you can get automatic reminders, notifications, and alerts for upcoming or overdue tasks. This is especially useful for companies requiring project management and many employees with many tasks.

How Can I Set Up Automation for My Business?

There are endless possibilities when it comes to workflow automation. Once set up, you will save time, money, efficiency, and more. However, the setup process is what can scare away a lot of small business owners. Not knowing where to begin, where to look, what features you need, and much more can quickly become overwhelming.

Get Automated with Navazon Digital

At Navazon, we have programmers on staff who can write automation routines using available APIs or build something from scratch. If you are ready to get your business automated but need help figuring out where to start, we can help.

Navazon helps businesses increase profits through data-driven marketing that expands opportunities and reduces risk. As marketers and entrepreneurs, we understand the value of developing a memorable brand through creativity and consistency. This is accomplished through targeted graphics, videos, and websites that reflect our proven, time-tested methodologies and detailed analytics. It is an approach proven effective for companies of all sizes, from start-ups and medium-sized businesses to large firms with an international presence.

We are content creators who listen to our clients so that we can formulate ideas and strategies based on your unique goals and philosophies. Thinking through those goals with our analytics-based approach, we study both your tendencies and those of your competition and the market. Equipped with this knowledge, we develop a plan, test it, and then roll it out on a modest scale. Once we arrive at the winning formula, we can scale up rapidly to meet even the most optimistic growth projections.

Navazon does not believe in “one size fits all.” Every part of the marketing plan is customized to address your unique niche and positioning strategy. It’s how we excel. It’s why we succeed.

Schedule a free consultation with us now! Visit us at navazondigital.com for more information.