Over the last year, businesses accelerated digital transformation efforts to keep up with demand for digital interactions and to improve remote work initiatives. As a part of this, small and medium-sized businesses have adopted process automation solutions to optimize their workforce, improve collaboration, and create a better experience for customers. With 30% of small businesses saying automation solutions save their company money, the adoption of these technologies will only continue to grow in the years ahead. Here are three reasons why business process automation will be the new best friend for SMBs in 2021 and beyond:
Improve Collaboration and Increase Satisfaction Among Employees
It’s clear that remote work is here to stay. Post-Covid-19 we’ll see many businesses keep hybrid-remote work schedules, which means remote infrastructure must be a top priority for IT teams. Because of this, the remote worker needs tools that empower them to work and collaborate to their fullest potential. Automation will be key in this effort by helping workers keep track of projects with colleagues. Files, data and project status can be updated seamlessly in real time, which in turn enables employees to remain focused on what’s most important to their role.
Not only does automation improve an employee’s workflow, but also their job satisfaction. Basic administrative work, such as requesting time off and handling business expenses, can be instantly addressed using automated systems. Because of this, workflow automation solutions allow teams to focus more of their time on critical tasks, leaving mundane and repetitive functions as a thing of the past.
The hiring and onboarding process can be streamlined as well. Through improved communication and collaboration with their peers, new employees can easily get up to speed on their roles. For example, a remote employee being onboarded needs to file different documents – whether W-4s, I-9s, or non-disclosure agreements. But, automation can take on the heavy lifting by tracking the status of these documents, which allows the employee to quickly get through the process and gives HR more time to focus on other tasks.
Optimize the Workforce and Business Operations
By far one of the greatest benefits of workflow automation is allowing employees to do less repetitive tasks, which gives them more time to focus on strategy and innovation. No-code solutions are a fundamental part of this effort. Not only do these solutions reduce the number of manual and tedious tasks an employee is working on, but they also empower employees by providing more opportunities for creativity.
An employee can become a no-code developer, uncover new ways to reduce their daily workload, and improve the workflow across the entire organization. Unlocking this ability to improve an organization’s workflow can give employees a sense of accomplishment, further empowering them to be more effective in their role.
By giving teams more time to focus on critical tasks, their work can have a significantly greater impact across the board.
Deliver a Better Customer Experience and Improved Service
We know that implementing automation technology into a business will benefit the employee – but what about the customer? Simple processes like fulfilling orders or keeping up with customer inquiries can be handled faster and easier. Additionally, SMBs can incorporate communication channels like chatbots into their workflows to fulfill most of their customer needs. This means a customer representative, for example, will have time to fulfill the needs of more important customer queries.
Especially for small or mid-sized retailers, automation solutions can significantly reduce costs while also giving their customers a faster and improved experience. As a result, the customer is more satisfied because their orders and requests are being completed more quickly and without errors. As for the business, their employees are freed up to focus on tasks such as critical help desk fulfillment, customer communication, and ensuring their supply chain is performing to its fullest potential.
Business automation solutions have been around for some time now, but there are still so many untapped opportunities for SMBs. We’ve seen how these solutions have been integral to helping businesses survive and thrive over the past year alone. As we look toward a future post-Covid-19, SMBs should consider adopting automation solutions now as these technologies will become an integral part of business continuity and success.
Borya Shakhnovich is CEO of workflow automation company airSlate Borya Shakhnovich, CEO, airSlate
Automation stock photo by Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock
