15 Business Process Automation Examples to Improve Your Business

January 25, 2021/
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You’ll Wonder How Businesses Operate Without It

In this article, we outline business process automation examples that will help your company become more efficient, boosting productivity, quality, and your bottom line.

From back-office routines to sales and distribution, there are many processes that can be automated within all businesses, whatever their size. However, getting automation of processes approved can be tricky. Implementing business process automation (BPA) software requires agreement on timelines and budgets, and there will also be training needs to consider.

A successful strategy to embed BPA as an everyday consideration is to start with smaller projects, prove the value of BPA, and then gradually increase scale and scope.

The Benefits of BPA

Almost half of your workplace activities can be automated. Implementing automation into your business processes will maximize the potential of your organization. The main benefits are:

  • Streamlined workflows – improving effective ability, identifying gaps, and promoting growth
  • Significantly reduced costs – reducing wasted manpower and time on repetitive tasks
  • Enhanced quality and reliability – with no risk of human error or boredom
  • Increased focus on fundamental tasks – reducing burnout, and increasing employee engagement
  • Maximized productivity – with repetitive tasks simplified and maximum output achieved at speed

5 Business Process Automation Examples You Can Implement Today

To take advantage of the game-changing benefits business process automation provides, you should make changes today. Some automation will require time spent planning and implementing, but here are some business processes you can start automating immediately.

1.     Invoice Processing

Usually heavily laden with repetitive manual tasks, it’s time you hacked away a heap of time spent on invoice processing by automating three-way matching, coding, and routing. These are all tasks that can easily and highly accurately be completed with automation.

2.     Customer Support

Personal touches are still a factor required in customer support, but automation can provide much support through chatbots, help centers, and AI systems to help solve those generic, time-consuming queries. Platforms such as Zendesk also allow you to monitor problems and identify solutions for improvement.

3.     Social Media Management

Time is of the essence when it comes to releasing content to your audience effectively. Automation tools assist in identifying crucial engagement patterns and optimizing the power of your social media by releasing content accurately and timely.

Even automated acknowledgements allow your audience to feel appreciated until further action can be taken.

4.     Account Reconciliation

Implement accounting reconciliation software to eliminate paper and hours of manual, costly labor. Automation can add ERP accounts, segregate duties, and create post-certification read-only records that allow a greater overview of the entire process.

5.     Employee Onboarding

Make it easy for tech talent to join your organization with quick onboarding supplied by automation. With e-signatures signed and succeeding new user accounts, learning tools and milestone development maps, Millennial employees will show higher productivity and greater trust in their new organization.

5 Business Admin Processes You Can Automate

Admin is a hugely time-consuming and mood-dampening chore. Here are five ways you can free your employees with automation for higher productivity and results.

6.     Automated File Transfers

Increase your workflow ability with automated encryption, decryption, and entering of data into ERP systems.

7.     Automated Order Entry

There’s no need to waste hours of an employee’s day at a cost, when automation can automate your database interaction processes.

8.     Automated Batch Processing

Simplify ongoing maintenance and management of automated tasks, with greatly reduced timelines and cost with automation processes.

9.     Spreadsheet Automation

Start automating data input for multiple reports, reformatting and manipulating data, and copying and pasting formulas with automation. It reduces the risk of errors, reduces time spent, and all without the use of macros or code.

10.  Email Automation

The inbox can be soul destroying to maintain and monitor. Automation strips this burden from your workforce, leaving only the tasks that need the human touch.

5 Sales and Marketing Processes to Automate

80% of top-performing companies have used marketing automation for more than two years. It’s time you directed your personal touch and sales targeting in the right place, leaving automation to do the rest.

11.  Immediate Acknowledgments

Don’t let a potential lead go when they contact you. Automation provides the HTML code needed for your site, while providing a pre-prepared personal touch to the client or customer until the lead can be followed in person.

12.  Nurturing Your Customer Pipeline

Have automation trigger a task for you to contact leads who aren’t ready to commit yet. They’ve shown they are interested – automation allows you to keep that interest warm until a sale occurs.

13.  The Customer Basket Nudge

Automation will detect when a shopping cart is abandoned. This is a hot lead indeed, and may be easily resolved when automation flags up the potential to recover an abandoned sale.

14.  Appointment Reminders

We all lead busy lives and even meaningful appointments can be forgotten. Automation fixes this. If a client cancels, automation steps back in to ensure action is taken to reschedule.

15.  Event Registration

Undertaking sign-ups, confirmations, and reminders for events are extremely time-consuming, taking time away from the fundamental tasks. Automation provides the thank-yous, event details to prevent further queries, reminders, and rescheduling options.

What Business Process Automation Examples Should You Execute?

The above isn’t an exhaustive list. Far from it. But it is a flavor of what can be achieved quickly, showing that there are many ways in which you can improve your business with BPA.

What are your most important automation targets? For help deciding which, and how to execute BPA in your business, contact TotalTek today.