How To Automate Your Business: 20 Ways To Enter The Machine Revolution

More businesses are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) into their workflows and business process management than ever before. According to McKinsey, nearly three-quarters of global businesses use AI for at least one purpose, with over half adopting it for two or more functions. The overall use of generative AI has jumped in a year from 33% to 65% of companies.

Why is the use of AI on the rise? Simply because business process automation is incorporated into more and more tools and platforms. And, businesses are finding it beneficial, as AI can handle many tasks on its own.

Regardless of your industry, AI can help automate business processes and improve how your staff and company works. Automation applications and tools reduce repetitive and mundane tasks, including within your customer service operations or sales and marketing efforts, just to name a few. AI and business process automation lets your employees get more done without hiring additional staffers. In turn, your company becomes more efficient and productive, driving revenue.

20 Automation Ideas for Your Business

There are many different ways your business can incorporate AI-powered business automations into your daily operations. Understanding which workflows you can automate—and how they can benefit your company—will help you choose the right business process automation (BPA) for your organization.

Automated Email Campaigns

Email marketing keeps your leads and customers engaged and moving through the sales funnel, which is why incorporating business automation into your email campaigns is a no-brainer. With email marketing automation, your company can send specific emails after users take certain actions, such as sending welcome emails to a new subscriber or abandoned cart emails to shoppers who haven’t checked out.

Email marketing automation software can also handle email-specific workflows, like automatically segmenting your email list using recipient data (like their interests, browsing and purchase history, or the time of day they open emails), so you can send personalized emails out at the best times. Automated emails also help you test and improve different elements of your email marketing campaigns so they become more effective with time.

Standard Operating Procedures

Workflow automation can help refine and deploy your company’s standard operating procedures (SOPs), keeping everyone on the same page. SOPs also help make sure your customers have a consistent experience with your company. Business automation tools gather data from your existing operations, creating effective SOPs and even automating business processes that contain repetitive tasks (like manual data entry). Not only will automating SOPs help your business run smoother on a daily basis, but they will also allow you to have a more efficient onboarding process for new employees.

Upload Contact Data to a CRM for a Centralized Database

Your customer or lead contact data may be spread across multiple spreadsheets, platforms and departments, making it more difficult to understand where they are along their journey. Automation solutions help you consolidate customer data into one customer relationship management (CRM) database, so you don’t have to manually upload each customer yourself. Not only does automation save you time, it gives you a better view of your data to assist you as you improve communication and customer experience.

Lead Scoring System

Knowing which leads are more likely to become customers is key to allocating your resources more effectively for the sales process. Sales automation software helps you score your leads faster by collecting and analyzing lead data for you. With automated workflows, your sales team can instead focus their efforts on engaging the right leads and building strong relationships.

Social Media Scheduling Tool

Automating business processes like posting to social media channels may be a necessary part of your marketing strategy, saving your team time and effort. Social media scheduling tools can automatically schedule and publish posts for your various channels. Some tools even incorporate AI tools that help you generate content and optimize engagement for more effective campaigns.

Automated Customer Service Request Responses

Automation tools like chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) to help your business respond to customer support requests instantaneously, improving overall customer satisfaction levels. Instead of waiting for an available agent to assist them, customers receive personalized support in seconds thanks to automation software. Chatbots and other customer service automation tools can also handle higher customer volumes than human agents, improving support during peak demand.

Automate SMS Marketing Messages

More companies are using SMS marketing to improve lead and customer outreach, which can be easily automated thanks to AI. With marketing automation, your business can send out texts announcing new products, sales, or other promotions, or even alert customers when they haven’t completed their purchases—all without your team having to do more work. If you’re also using sales automation or automated emails, consider aligning the tools for best results.

Automate Repetitive Tasks

AI tools are great for automating repetitive tasks you previously had to perform manually. They can automate data entry work, such as entering lead or customer information into your CRM, or handle if-then tasks like sending a promotional email when new content is posted to your company’s website.

Implement a Task Management System

The automation process can improve workflows, enhancing team productivity and helping your business manage projects more effectively. Depending on the task management tool or automation software you use, that might mean tasks are automatically routed or assigned to specific employees or that managers are automatically notified of status updates, such as when tasks are completed.

Streamline Your Accounting and Expense System

Automation can even improve your business process management (BPM), so your business can reduce costs and run more efficiently. Many accounting and financial software applications integrate with other business platforms (like your CRM or sales tools) and include automation features to improve the accuracy of your records and speed up your accounting workflows. They can automate many tasks, such as organizing your expense receipts (by type or project) and confirming them against your existing financial statements for faster approval—saving your accounting department time and effort.

Automate Your Onboarding Processes

Automating your onboarding processes makes it easier on your HR staff and new hires alike. Depending on the tool you use, you may be able to automate training, create personalized onboarding based on a new hire’s development needs, or automatically send documents and collect employee data. Automation not only speeds up this process but can also better integrate and prepare your new employees.

Automated Scheduling Apps

Whether your business needs to schedule client meetings, test drives, or patient appointments, automated scheduling apps upgrade the entire scheduling experience—for your customers and staff. Scheduling apps automatically sync with your calendar, allowing customers to select their own appointments 24/7, based on availability, without playing phone (or email) tag. Many scheduling apps also send automatic appointment reminders, helping to reduce no-shows and make rescheduling easier.

Email Contacts Who Have Abandoned Shopping Carts

It’s fairly common for shoppers to fill their carts but not buy anything. Abandoned carts happen for a lot of reasons—from wanting more time to think about their purchase or comparing products or pricing with other options to simply getting distracted and forgetting about it. That’s why a tool that automatically emails customers a reminder when items are left in shopping carts for a specific amount of time is key to driving more sales.

Create Content

Consider automation tools If content marketing is a significant part of your overall marketing strategy. These AI-powered tools can analyze website and social media data to see what type of content is performing best to help optimize your future content strategy. Automation tools with generative AI capabilities can even outline or generate content for your website’s blog, company newsletter, or posts for your various social media channels (though you’ll always want to fact-check the content for accuracy).

Summarize Sales Communications

Your sales team may be contacting leads and customers over the phone, through email, or by text. Plus, different members of your sales team may be performing outreach at various stages of the sales cycle. Automation tools allow your team to stay on top of your customer communications by summarizing and consolidating all customer interactions into one place. Then, every team member can see what was previously discussed and use their time to move the conversation forward and close sales at a faster rate.

Measure Customer Satisfaction

Without customer feedback, it’s impossible to know if you’re offering the right products or services for your target audience—or if you have any shortcomings in your customer experience. That’s why customer surveys are so helpful, as they give your business first-hand accounts of what’s working well and which areas need improvement. Automation tools help you build and distribute surveys—often by SMS or email—after specific triggering events (like after an appointment or making a purchase).

Streamline Inventory Management

Whether you run an auto dealership, a boutique clothing store, or a massive ecommerce business, keeping track of your stock can be challenging. Inventory management tools have automation capabilities to help make tracking and managing your stock easier. They can automatically notify you when inventory hits certain levels, or even reorder items on your behalf. Automating your inventory management helps you keep in-demand items in stock, improving customer satisfaction while also increasing your revenue.

Develop Repeat Customers

Most businesses aren’t looking for one-time customers; they want to develop long-term relationships to encourage repeat business. Automation tools help with this process, sending personalized outreach on a consistent basis to build customer loyalty. These communications may include offering product recommendations based on their interests or tips on how to use the items they purchased.

Improve Your Sales Pipeline

Sales automation tools help you refine your existing sales pipeline and automate repetitive, low-level tasks so your sales team can focus on more revenue-generating work. For instance, when the tool identifies a new lead, it automatically assigns it to the most appropriate sales representative. From there, the sales rep can use automation tools to improve lead engagement by sending more personalized, relevant content and moving them through the sales pipeline at an accelerated pace.

Gather Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Customer reviews help your business gain attention from new prospects. Instead of personally asking for reviews, tools can automatically send review links or testimonial forms through text or email after a customer makes a purchase or has an appointment. This business process automation tool makes it easier for customers to leave reviews without any more work on your part.

Automate Your Business with Podium

If you’re ready to see how AI and business process automation can benefit your company, consider Podium. Our AI Employee automates many business tasks, including customer service and sales workflows. It can schedule appointments, communicate with customers, and help your business make more sales—day and night.

From helping you manage leads to personalizing outreach, your business can save time and get more done with Podium’s AI Employee.