The world faced a catastrophic change when the COVID 19 pandemic hit in early 2020. Governments scrambled for resolutions, while businesses looked for short and long term staffing solutions. Many companies chose to send their employees home to work remotely, while others fought to remain open. Unfortunately for many Americans, a large number of businesses began furloughs and layoffs. All in all, the year 2020 was turbulent and has changed the work landscape forever.

As businesses have recalled workers back the office, they have faced backlash and disgruntled employees who have seen the advantages of working from home. Many did not want to return to the office and chose to end careers in favor of starting out on their own. According to the US Census Bureau startups rose from 3.5 million in 2019 to 4.2 million in 2020, equaling a 24% increase.

Here we are at the end of 2021 and the startup trend is not slowing down. Millions of people are continuing to turn away from traditional careers and focusing on their own success. As the business world continues to change and adjust to the new climate the pandemic has created, startup trends have emerged. I recently read an article, Startup Statistics (2021): 35 Facts and Trend You Must Know, by  Artem Minaev (https://zurl.co/QCFa ), which has some interesting statistics and facts about startups across the globe.

Have you ever found yourself explaining and re-explaining how to complete a task? You think that you are being clear in your explanation, and it is common-sense to do it your way. However, not everyone thinks the same way, and not everyone is as passionate about your business as you are. If you find yourself constantly fixing mistakes or following up on missing information, then you likely are in need of better business workflows and tools to create consistency.

Consistent workflows provide the following benefits:

1.  Everyone is on the same page

Consistency is the key to work that flows easily from one process or person to the next. If every task is completed the same way every time by each and every employee, then everyone will know what the next step in the process is and how to complete it. Consistency boosts productivity, increases customer satisfaction, and lowers costs.

Employees want to feel productive; they want to know that they are doing a good job and that they have added value to the company. Creating business workflows gives employees the autonomy to do their jobs productively, increasing their job satisfaction and their work output. Likewise, customers like knowing what is coming. They want to work with companies that offer consistency and employees who are confident in their roles.

2.  Follow up is easier

When everyone is following the same process, it is exponentially easier to ensure that all work is completed and done so correctly. Management will have increased visibility to the actions of every employee throughout the entire workflow. Again, this keeps all team members on the same page, and it also gives management a better understanding of where their employees are struggling, or what needs to be improved in the future. Risks can be mitigated because they will be easier to identify and course correct. Greater visibility to the process allows errors to be corrected earlier instead of being missed or overlooked later on.

We are living in a digital world where personal connections are difficult to make but remain essential to great customer service, customer retention, and referrals. One misstep in communication can upset your customers and be detrimental to your business. Technology offers great solutions in managing your customer base. Customer Relationship Management software gives your team a platform to communicate with your customers through the entire customer journey, offering personalized experiences focused on your customer’s needs.

Having a unified CRM platform also gives you control on how the business is represented by your sales team. A streamlined workflow used in a CRM tool allows customer information to flow from one source to the next, ensuring that their needs are met by the right people or department at the right time. The data in your CRM can be retained to ensure that nothing and no one is left out.

Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. Even when it is digital, paperwork never seems to end. Running a business can become an endless chore of chasing paperwork and incomplete tasks. You might find yourself entering the same information on the same spreadsheets every day. Or spending too much time chasing after paperwork an employee forgot to submit. Regardless, paperwork has become the nightmare of  your business. But it is essential. Your business can’t survive without it.

Simplifying business processes and creating a set workflow through Business Process Automation can be a game changer for businesses of any size. Business Process Automation looks at the individual steps taken in each business process and works to simplify, eliminate, or automate them. Business managers who take the time to fully understand the minutiae of their business processes and how information is passed from one process to the next are more likely to understand their employees and the needs of the business better.

There are five key benefits of Business Process Automation.

1.  Faster

Business Process Automation uses defined rules and actions to route information to the right person at the right time. Work is completed more efficiently when employees are not searching for information in a pile of paperwork or an extensive spreadsheet. Instead, information that is entered in one business process can be sent to many others, allowing each department to work more efficiently.

Depending on the needs of your business, Process Automation can happen instantly. For example, a customer submits an online request for services, that request is instantly sent to the inbox of the sales manager for your company to follow up, and a thank you email can also be sent to the customer in that same instant. The sales manager now has all of the information they need to contact the customer, and the customer will know immediately that help is on the way. The speed of Process Automation allows each individual in the process to be more efficient as the information is readily available. 

2.  Transparent and consistent

The data being used in your business operations can be seen instantly through Process Automation. You can track and monitor processes while they are running, which can improve accountability and visibility. Managers, employees, and other important stakeholders will have access to this data and be able to use it to make sound judgements. Further, creating consistency in how the data is entered, allows for easy interpretation, computations, and analysis.

Brand message is also a key factor in implementing Process Automation as you have greater control over the message being sent to your customers. Process Automation allows you to tailor the message your customer receives based on the information they put in. A customer request for additional sales information would receive one email, while a customer needing technical assistance would receive another. 

3.  Reduce human error

The greatest benefit of Process Automation is the removal of human effort, and the reduction of errors. Humans make mistakes, this is just a fact. Process Automation removes the human element to reduce these errors and ensure that the data being entered is accurate.

Think about a simple service call by a customer. They give the receptionist a report of the problem, their address, and their payment information. The receptionist writes up a service request and gives it to the technician. Now the technician needs to know two of the three pieces of information that the receptionist received, the problem and the customer’s address. The technician completes the work, fills out  a work report and gives it back to the receptionist. Now the receptionist needs to find the customer’s payment details to process payment, update the customer’s account, and ensure that the technician is paid correctly. All in all, this would take the effort of 2 employees and lots of paperwork being shuffled back and forth. 

All of those tasks can be completed individually, or they can be completed using Process Automation. Using an online form, the customer would enter their information, creating their own profile on the company’s platform. The address and problem would be sent directly to the technician, who can immediately update the customer profile with a work report upon completion of the work. This will trigger a charge to the customer’s credit card, initiate payment to the technician, send a receipt or thank you email to the customer, and close out the issue in their profile. 

If those same tasks were completed on paper, there are plenty of opportunities for errors to be made. The receptionist might write the address wrong; the technician might forget to turn in his work report, or the customer’s card might not be charged. Automating each of these actions creates a seamless workflow that works together to ensure that each part of the job is completed correctly and on time. Further, the software would not allow for missing information or an incomplete process. Managers would also have visibility to the entire transaction from beginning to end. 

4.  Reduce risk

Every business is looking to minimize risk while maximizing profit. Process Automation gives clear insight into the performance of your business and provides opportunities to course correct quickly and efficiently. If you are noticing that there continues to be a bottleneck in part of the process, you might reconsider how the workflow is structured. If you are noticing errors in submitted data, you might look at how the data is collected and evaluated.

Identifying process errors early reduces risks. It allows for evaluation and course correction to create additional efficiency and reduce risk going forward. There is power in data and Process Automation gives your company the power that it needs by providing useable reports.

5.  Save time and money

Everyone wants more time and more money. Business Process Automation works to eliminate routine tasks and streamline processes. Each employee will have access to the data that they need when they need it, making them more efficient and reducing costs. This gives your employees more time to focus on the important parts of your business, such as sales and providing customer service. Ultimately, your employees will have the time to focus on tasks that require human judgement and effort, while the menial tasks are completed behind the scenes. 

As you continue to use Process Automation you will see a reduction in costs due to faster turn around times and fewer manual interventions. By utilizing workflows that are consistent and well monitored, overall operational efficiency increases giving you an increased return on investment. 

With the boom of the technological revolution the advancements in business have been astonishing. We have gone from a trade and barter system, to shopping in our pajamas from the comfort of our homes! Communication has become easier and more widespread across the globe. Even advertising has changed from newspapers, to radio, to television and billboards, and now it is in the palm of our hands on social media. Emails are sent out automatically, customers provide instant feedback with reviews, and social media allows for a direct connection with consumers wherever they are. Our forefathers couldn’t even imagine the fast paced and connected world of commerce that we live in today.

As business owners it is easy to become overwhelmed by all of the tasks that need to be completed every day. Remembering to follow up with current clients, potential clients, and employees can become overwhelming, along with all of the day to day operations. Small things start to slip through the cracks where they can easily be forgotten or overlooked. It’s a lot of pressure to keep all of the wheels turning and not missing a beat. In other words, being a business owner is exhausting.

As the work keeps piling up, it becomes more and more stressful and overwhelming to keep juggling all of the business’s operations. Not to mention, the pressures and responsibilities at home. Spending time with family and friends, enjoying hobbies, taking care of ourselves, and taking care of our homes are all important facets of life that should not be overshadowed by business. However, too often our personal lives get put on the back burner in favor of squeezing in a few more hours at the office. But how productive are those hours?

An essential component of running a small business is finding a method of remaining organized and keeping track of all of those tasks. When your business is small you can rely on programs like outlook calendars to keep track of your appointments, excel spreadsheets to keep track of expenses, and Hootsuite to monitor social media. But what are you using to keep track of all of the tasks that need to be completed?

I recently read an article that argues that you should purchase a software solution that gives you most (not all) of what you need and then use add-on software programs to get the rest of the features that your business specifically needs. In other words, you should purchase software A because it fulfills 80% of what you need, and then return to the software hunt for software B, C, D, and E which give you the rest of the features that you really need (and a bunch of features that you don’t).

The article compares this type of purchase with buying a car. Stating that a car has one basic function (getting you from point A to point B) and then you can add additional features that you might want (air conditioning, seatbelts, rear-view camera, etc.). Their argument is that you will be purchasing the car for its nuts and bolts because it fulfills that basic need and that alone is a sufficient enough reason. However, now that you have the car you can add air conditioning, rear-view camera, and all of the other features separately to customize the car to your specifications.

As I was reading, I couldn’t help but think that this is such a preposterous (and outdated) way of looking at software. Why would I buy something that only does part of what I want? Could you imagine buying a car that did not have seatbelts and having to buy them separately? No? Me either. Although seatbelts are not the main feature of a car, they are an important safety feature. 

Now that the right solution has been chosen for your business, it is time to implement! Put that solution to work and use metrics to gauge its success against your needs. The more data you can generate regarding the impact of the solution, the better off you will be. You will be able to fully understand its impact on the business, your customers, and your employees.

Start Over

Now that your goals have been reached, it is time to start all over. Identify new goals and challenges and work towards reaching those goals.

CM2

Here at CM2 Software we believe in the iterative life cycle of development. Just like goal setting, we identify a need, brainstorm solutions, develop a prototype, implement, and then start all over. This system allows us to provide software solutions that solve challenges while also leaving room to develop additional features that can easily be added to the deliverable.

We want you to reach all of your goals and we are here to help you do just that.