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10 Tasks To Automate So You Save Time and Money and You Still Make Sure Your Customers Stay Happy
- By gregory burrus
- Published 10/4/2008
- Small Business
- Unrated
gregory burrus
Gregory Burrus of www.techoss.com/blog-heaven is helping you learn more - build your profitable business for free by visiting Get Your Business Profitable On the Web Now
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First let's be clear about what we mean by automate. When I talk about automation I'm not talking about ignoring your customer needs. As a small business flexibility and keeping track of customer preferences are a must. Therefore automation for a small business owner means utilizing smart, simple systems to automate certain aspects of running your business while you continue to serve and meet your customer's needs.
It bears repeating that you must continue to serve your customers in in such a way that the customer is consistently and effectively served, and you are free from continuously getting stuck in the repeating of repetitious and the very mundane activities we have to do to run our business. With that in mind, the following is my short list of the types of tasks and projects that you can automate without losing sight of your customer.
1. After you make a product sale, you should use a set of emails to follow up and continuously check on your customer satisfaction.
2. If you run an email communication program then you should automate your regular tasks as much as possible.
3. Are you a coach or other service type professional? Then you want your customers to schedule and change appointments via an automated unattended, online scheduling system.
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4. Appointment reminders before appointments work very well to remind clients to come prepared to the next session. It bears repeating that you must continue to serve your customers in in such a way that the customer is consistently and effectively served, and you are free from continuously getting stuck in the repeating of repetitious and the very mundane activities we have to do to run our business. With that in mind, the following is my short list of the types of tasks and projects that you can automate without losing sight of your customer.
1. After you make a product sale, you should use a set of emails to follow up and continuously check on your customer satisfaction.
2. If you run an email communication program then you should automate your regular tasks as much as possible.
3. Are you a coach or other service type professional? Then you want your customers to schedule and change appointments via an automated unattended, online scheduling system.
5. Set up your payment system for recurring invoices and payment receipt services.
6. You know the life of your business depends on building traffic and growing your list. Using automated lead generation systems work very well.
7. Stop interrupting your workflow, start uing your answering service, voicemail for getting messages rather then you stopping work.
8. Autoresponder answers to some routine email inquiries.
9. Use automation for sending certain forms and documents to new clients.
10. And when you have a template that allows you to fill in blanks and create consistent answers.
If you notice the above ten recommended automation processes are what I call behind the scenes activities. These are the standard somewhat mundane stuff you have to do everyday. So do this wisely, and don't overboard with the automation. Watch and monitor your results is the process to follow.
So while automation for the service-based business may seem contrary to the mission of your company which is too directly serve the needs of your client in a way that significantly impacts his or her life, automation can help. You need to make it work for you not against you and automating the above tasks is the way to go.