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Process or task automation is real! Maybe realer than you imagine. Forward-thinking businesses are speeding the shift to automation and enjoying real benefits.

Apart from cutting costs, in terms of staff hires and payroll, you also take productivity to the next level and reduce unnecessary workload for your team.

Automation can begin with small processes—some which you can implement right away and advance to things that may need thorough planning and a budget.

That said, here are some automation projects to consider this year. We grouped these into categories to help you plan better.

Administrative duties

  1. Manage stubborn e-mails. Use software like Unroll.me to get a per-week overview on promotional e-mails and unsubscribe from irrelevant offers.
  2. File back-up. Use cloud-based storage apps to back up files. Manual back-up can be time-wasting and tiresome.
  3. Staff recruitment. Use programs that allow you to automate the interview process.
  4. Daily to-do tasks. Automatic reminders can help keep you on toes and reduce missed deadlines.

Customer Support

  1. E-mail responses. Automate e-mail responses for everyday tasks like customer account sign-up and password resets.
  2. Customer support. Use live chat and chatbots to respond to simple customer requests round the clock.
  1. Ticket management. Use a helpdesk system to manage customer tickets.

Marketing

  1. Web-traffic tracking. Use Google Analytics to track your online store’s traffic.
  1. Social media campaigns. Automate Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram post updates with content management systems like Hootsuite.
  2. eCommerce reminders. Receive auto-notifications if your ecommerce makes a sale or a customer abandons a cart and do a follow-up.
  3. Blog posts. You can now set automatic blog post updates if your site is hosted on a platform like WordPress— as you can do with social media posts.

Finances

  1. Automating the payment of salaries can reduce workload for your Human Resource Team.
  1. Invoice reminders. Use auto-invoice reminder apps to ease the process of pushing for pending invoices.
  2. Billing. Organize with your bank to automate bill payments, especially those that recur like rent.

As hinted earlier, automation is not as expensive as you are made to believe. These are only a few ideas to get you ready for a new age of business.

Final Words

Which task automation idea does your business need most? Well, maybe you need more time to think it over.

Remember always to make informed decisions. Implementing tech is not something you want to rush. Go for an easy-to-install long-lasting solution that won’t slow down instead of speeding up operations.

Author Bio: Michael Hollis is a Detroit native who now lives in Los Angeles. He is an account executive who has helped hundreds of business owners with their merchant cash advance solutions. He’s experimented with various occupations: computer programming, dog-training, scientificating… But his favorite job is the one he’s now doing full time — providing business funding for hard working business owners across the country.