Office automation will make your processes much faster, efficient and accurate. It’s estimated that automation could replace some work in almost all job sectors, saving you time and money. When we talk about office automation, we’re talking about using machines and technology to complete tasks that employees currently do. So here are our top three processes that we recommend automating now.
New Customers
New Customer Information
Without automation, how would you get the details of a new customer? You’d probably ask them to fill in a form with their details. You’d then take this form, and copy the information into your computer. You’d save their details, and have to go into them each time you wanted to update, check or share anything. This process is time-consuming for everyone and leaves a lot of room for mistakes. Office automation makes this process much quicker and easier. Now a new customer can enter their own details into an electronic form. These details are automatically uploaded onto your company database, and everyone in your company can see the information. Employees can then search, sort and segment customer information, easily getting whatever information they need from the system. This automated task is now very quick, useful and mistakes are less likely.
New Customer Communication
Now that you’ve got the details of your new customer, you might want to communicate with them. Traditionally, you’d spend time drafting a welcoming email or letter to your customer. You’d have to find their address and details, copy and paste them into your draft, decide what to say, and then send. Again, this is a time-consuming process when you could spend your time creating more revenue for your business. Instead, automation makes this process much more efficient. You can create draft template communications for your customers, which means you don’t have to repeatedly draft similar letters or emails. You can simply click on the new customers that it should be sent to, and it will be on its way. You could even go one step further; each time a new customer is added to the company database, they could automatically be sent a specific piece of communication. By automating specific communications with customers, you will be able to dedicate your time to higher priority tasks.
New Customer Contracts And Agreements
Once you’ve welcomed your new customer, you might need to confirm a contract or agreement. This can be a slow process; you sign it, you send it to them, they read it, they sign it and send it back to you. For most of this time, you’re relying on your customer to act and send the completed document back to you. The time spent on this task can also be reduced using office automation. By making the entire contract or agreement electronic, you make it easier for your customer to e-sign and send straight back to you. This is much faster than asking them to print, sign by hand and then return. Automation also enables you to set up automatic reminders for your customer to complete the document, rather than having to repeatedly follow-up with them yourself.
Company Finances
are essential for running any business. And estimates and invoices are the backbones of all business. But if you’re doing them manually, it takes time to create the paperwork, send it to customers and wait for them to get back to you. Automating this means that you can create quotes and invoice templates that pull in the correct information for whatever project you’re working on. These are then sent to your customers, with regular reminders if they’re taking a while to get back to you. You have to do very little! The same can be done for any bill payments. Instead of manually making bank transfers, you can set up automatic payments or withdrawals.
Internal HR processes
Hiring
Getting a new team member on board tends to include a lot of paperwork. You have to read a lot of applications and fill out a lot of forms. This is time-consuming and inefficient when done manually. Office automation can speed up this process and make it easier for you. Automation has the ability to quickly remove irrelevant applications, meaning you don’t have to spend time reading applications that aren’t suitable for the role. You can also ask applicants or new hires to share basic information which can be put into any and all forms needed; you don’t have to do this manually.
Holidays And Expenses
This affects almost everyone, so has a huge impact on a company. Without automation, you would have to discuss extensively with relevant colleagues, checking if your request can be accommodated. With automation, you can enter your holiday or expense requests and immediately be told if they meet the relevant criteria. You’ll also be able to get an overview of all holiday and/or expense requests, giving you a better picture of the company as a whole.
Embracing Office Automation
These are just three examples of how office automation can save you, and your company, time and money. Completing these processes manually is more likely to be inefficient and inaccurate. Office automation makes these tasks quick and easy. Office automation is the bedrock of today’s successful businesses, and it is already affecting the future of work. Office automation should be embraced rather than feared. By beginning to automate your office processes, you’ll improve the efficiency and ultimate profitability of your company. Click here to find out how we can help you embrace office automation.
