How I Automated 50% of My Tasks and Scaled My Business

Working a advertising company isn’t any stroll within the park. It requires repetitive, time-consuming duties. With the consumer record rising, the handbook workload will increase to a degree the place you want no less than one — if no more — workers to sort out the strain.

I noticed this to the bone as repetitive duties and handbook work piled up. The primary blow was that it grew to become more durable for our workers to execute duties on time. Additionally, it ceaselessly brought about burnout or fatigue that interfered with the standard of our work.

To deal with this, the primary and fast resolution that got here to my thoughts was hiring a number of workers. However that wasn’t possible, as recruiting extra workers would require further administration and enhance overhead prices.

So, after re-evaluating some workable choices, I lastly discovered a greater strategy to streamline my operations — automation. Regardless of the skepticism, I made a decision to provide it a shot and began automating my enterprise processes. The consequence? I used to be in a position to offload 50% of my enterprise duties.

Here is my entire journey, from switching to automation to reaching sustainable progress with out hiring additional workers.

Associated: Sensible Entrepreneurs Use Automation to Turn into Extra Environment friendly. Right here Are 6 Methods to Undertake It.

Figuring out the time-consuming duties

Earlier than diving into my automation methods, let me spotlight the duties that slowed me down and have become the most important bottlenecks in my workflow:

1. Guide lead technology

Initially, I spent half my enterprise days simply nurturing certified leads. I needed to goal firms that wanted optimization for buyer acquisition and funnel administration, which took an excessive amount of time.

Even after sifting via numerous web sites, social media profiles and directories, I hardly discovered companies that wanted scalable advertising techniques and progress methods.

And the consequence? I regularly began to overlook alternatives.

2. Buyer assist overload

As I inspected additional, I came upon that the shopper assist representatives of my firm had to answer each inquiry, handle complaints and supply options — all manually.

As you’ll be able to think about, with the rising variety of buyer assist requests, it grew to become more durable to maintain up, leading to slower response instances. The worst half was that the repetitive queries consumed an excessive amount of time, leaving little scope for them to deal with severe buyer points.

3. Monetary monitoring and reporting

Processing invoices, reconciling accounts and producing monetary studies have been greater than a time drain for my crew. Manually monitoring funds led to miscalculations and inaccurate studies. The inefficient administration made future earnings predictions and finances planning an important impediment, because it all resulted in errors and misplaced income.

4. Shopper onboarding and communication

The subsequent large problem I confronted was managing consumer onboarding and communication. Every consumer required customized consideration, contract processing and documentation.

So, it consumed a big portion of our workweek to maintain observe of each interplay, handle queries and guarantee a easy onboarding expertise. The dearth of a structured system impacted our consumer satisfaction and retention.

5. Assembly scheduling and follow-ups

Environment friendly communication and well timed follow-ups are important for my crew, particularly when executing the Consideration, Curiosity, Need and Motion (AIDA) framework. Nonetheless, the handbook processes, together with scheduling conferences, changed into a serious roadblock.

Plus, we needed to coordinate assembly instances throughout totally different time zones and make countless back-and-forth emails, which impacted the precision of that framework. At its worst, we have been vulnerable to potential consumer drop-offs.

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Choosing particular options

That stated, after noting down the problems, I noticed that many of the time-consuming duties might be labored round utilizing automation. And this is how I did it:

1. LinkedIn Gross sales Navigator and Apollo.io for automated lead technology

I built-in LinkedIn Gross sales Navigator and Apollo.io to eradicate my handbook lead technology drain. These superior instruments are designed for extremely focused searches primarily based on particular standards reminiscent of business, service or firm measurement.

Apollo.io’s electronic mail finder and verification options have been a lifesaver, considerably lowering the time I spent on handbook analysis.

Greater than that, we may attain our target market in minimal time. We narrowed down our search with LinkedIn Gross sales Navigator and consequently, our firm additionally witnessed as much as a 17% increased win fee on common.

2. AI-powered chatbots for buyer assist

First, I attempted addressing buyer overload points by implementing an AI-powered chatbot on my web site CRM. It was programmed to deal with buyer queries and supply fundamental troubleshooting.

After testing a number of chatbot designs, I made a decision to assessment one and join it with our CRM. It was successfully linked with HubSpot to entry buyer information, observe conversations and replace buyer information.

This ensured customized assist and diminished our workload by as much as 40%. The effectivity allowed my crew to supply 24/7 customer support with improved response time.

3. QuickBooks On-line for monetary monitoring and reporting

For monetary monitoring and reporting, I discovered QuickBooks On-line, which integrates with our fee gateways and financial institution accounts.

This superior software program successfully automated our bill technology, fee processing and monetary reporting. Additionally, I built-in a devoted reporting and enterprise intelligence instrument, Fathom, with QuickBooks and ensured seamless monetary reporting.

In consequence, I witnessed an elevated accuracy of my reporting by almost 95% and was in a position to scale back the reporting time by 75%.

4. HubSpot for consumer onboarding and communication

I used HubSpot’s sturdy suite of automation instruments to handle our purchasers’ onboarding and communication processes. The highly effective workflow automation builders of Hubspot helped to automate contract signing via an built-in e-signature instrument.

It automated our doc assortment by way of file request workflows, and the sequence instrument allowed us to ship customized and focused emails to purchasers. We may simply monitor consumer interactions and progress via onboarding phases and determine points.

Total, we turned a sophisticated course of right into a time-saving, easy system and ensured a streamlined consumer engagement by 50%. We may additionally observe our advertising success and modify the plan accordingly. Nonetheless, the important thing profit was lowering our onboarding time by 20%.

5. HubSpot and Calendly for assembly scheduling and follow-ups

To enhance follow-ups and deploy the AIDA framework, I carried out HubSpot. With HubSpot, my crew successfully manages follow-up emails, reminders and duties primarily based on particular actions and timelines. We have been in a position to enhance our junk mail automation and retargeting consistency by 90%.

I used Calendly — one of many well-liked scheduling instruments — to automate our scheduling. It was built-in with my crew’s work schedule, and we may set the assembly instances accordingly.

This helped my crew large time as a few of the repetitive duties like including new leads, sending alerts and syncing information have been accomplished very quickly.

In spite of everything that automation, I efficiently streamlined handbook duties and boosted effectivity by a whopping 50%. The consequence was clear: My crew grew to become extra productive, consumer satisfaction improved, and the general high quality of our work elevated — with none further employment. Automating the processes not solely saved my useful time but in addition helped my crew scale back errors, enhance accuracy and concentrate on what’s most necessary.

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Professional ideas

Although automation processes may be game-changers, you have to sort out them correctly. Right here is my tackle it:

Dos:

• As a substitute of attempting too many instruments directly, it is higher to automate one course of at a time and measure its impression.

• Coaching crew members on learn how to use the brand new automation instruments and processes helps guarantee the most effective outcomes.

• It is obligatory to often assessment automation course of outcomes and discover new methods to enhance effectivity.

Don’ts:

• Preserve the automation course of so simple as potential to extend the crew’s experience and buyer satisfaction.

• Regardless of the instruments used, they should be protected and adjust to information privateness laws.