When people hear “automation” they often imagine a factory full of machines busily manufacturing buckets of widgets. But the modern concept of automation is to take any repetitive task and find a way to have it execute automatically based on internal algorithms.

Here’s a simple example: A call comes in to customer service, the number automatically gets recorded, and the name is captured via speech-to-text. After a short discussion it is determined that the customer needs help from a specific department so the call gets routed to that department (along with all information recorded so far) and when the service technician picks up the line, all of the customer information is instantly available since it has been stored in the CRM.

This scenario is ideal for automation. Since it happens multiple times a day, it essentially follows the same or similar path through the organization and all the hardware and software to do each of these tasks already exists.

Marketing is another area of business that has found a home for automation. Capturing contact information and maintaining an ongoing relationship with prospects through blogs, product announcements, and company news is ideal for automation.

Anywhere you find that you have a repetitive operation with little human intervention using programmed patterns and rules is ideal for automation. I’d be willing to bet that a little time spent wandering through your business and talking with your employees will turn up more than a few nuggets of opportunity for automation, not to mention the time saved.

Small Business Resources welcomes questions from inquiring minds looking to improve their business outcomes using best business practices combined with available technologies. Submit any questions you would like us to explore on your behalf to contact@sbresources.com.