Irrespective of your business size, if you automate your business. It makes your business processes more efficient, thereby improving productivity and customer satisfaction. As a business owner or manager, one of your precious resources is “time”.
Research has shown that about 70% of small businesses are still using manual data entry methods. So ask yourself this question, are you one of the 70% or the 30% that are getting it right?
From experience, the desire to automate your business is often hindered by the time and costly resources needed to implement a business process automation system and the training of personnel that will use the system.
But then, delay in automating your business will affect production workflow and especially your customer experience and satisfaction.
Below Are 4 Signs It is Time to Automate Your Business
1. Chasing of Payments
In simple terms, “you’re losing money and time” from chasing payments. Many small to medium businesses spend over 120 hours every year chasing payments and wait additional 30 days on the agreed payment date to receive the money. This is a contributing factor to the cash flow problem facing small to medium businesses.
If your business still uses manual processes to chase payments, create and send invoices, you are wasting valuable time, which also comes with human errors like the omission of invoices or duplicate payments that can affect customer satisfaction.
All these issues can be resolved and automated using software trusted by over 6.1 million businesses worldwide. Click here to get started. This software will automatically create and send invoices while also sending late payment reminders.
2. Inputting of Data
When you continue to use the manual method to enter sales data from one or more sources or units into your accounting software, you’re inviting errors and wasting time. One of the ways to make your accountant dislike you is by telling him/her to look for and fix the errors in a multitude of data. If you’re doing this, there is a better to avoid this.
With business management software (ERP), you can seamlessly automate your business by connecting every aspect of your business into a single dashboard, giving you a 360-degree view at a glance.
3. Managing and Communicating With Your Customers
You might have come across any of these phrases, “customers are the bedrock of any business”, “Happy customers, happy business”, “It cost less to keep a customer happy as compared to acquiring a new one”, “Word of mouth is spread by happy customers.”
The above phrases show that your customers are important. Maintaining regular contact with them and also monitoring the interactions and feedback is key.
Gone are the days when it is only the big guys that can afford it. With different CRM (customer relationship management) tools and email marketing software, you can maintain the relationship with your customers even if you’re on a budget. With email marketing software, you can create an automated email sequence to onboard new customers.
With tools like Freshdesk (to manage customers complaints), GetResponse (an email marketing software to send automated emails), ZohoCRM.
With Sage CRM, it can even be integrated with your Sage Accounting Software to manage your customers and all their activities with your business.
4. You’re Simply Overburdened
As your business activities continue to increase, it becomes difficult to track all information, e.g. past financial trends for budgeting, sorting through paperwork for auditing, and so on.
Or you also noticed, no matter how hardworking you are, you can’t seem to catch up with some orders, deliveries, filing of tax, invoicing, chasing payments, and so on. It is time to automate your business so that your processes and outputs are more efficient.
Conclusively, if you’ve noticed any of the signs mentioned above, you need to get ahead or be on par with your competition. Also, when you automate your business, you get to avoid errors, save significant time, receive payments faster, maintain better accounting records that are compliant, and build a good relationship with your customers.
Leave a Comment