“Work smarter, not harder” You’ve probably heard that a dozen times, right? This is by now already a cliche, but it is true. There is only so much time in a day and the secret to success isn’t in working at every second of your life. There are ways to streamline and automate the system so that you can grow your business without being constantly overwhelmed. What does it take?
- Using systems
- Automating
- Lead generation and customer service forms
- Workflows and SOPs
- Testing
- Implementing
What are Systems?
Systems are both software that solves specific issues AND a “way that we do things”. A system is a collection of processes that work together to achieve the desired goal with an efficient, consistent, and measurable outcome. That can be composed of people following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), it can also be software that is programmed to execute a series of tasks, and can be both, working together to create an efficient workflow within your business.
Systems solve problems. For example, think about when you call a company or institution, and when they pick up it is actually a recording that gives you instructions to type in a number according to the subject you are calling about. Usually, if you need something relatively simple that can be solved by a machine you can do it all just by following the instructions, if not, then you can be redirected to an actual person to solve your problem. This is a system. As a system, it solves a couple of problems. It prevents the attendants from spending time on repetitive calls that don’t necessarily need human attention, it sorts out the calls so they go to the place where the customer will most likely get their problem solved and it lessens the time someone who just needs to ask a simple question spends on the phone. So it makes your customer service better and your team’s workload more manageable.
Systems increase productivity and ROI (Return On Investment). Systems are the key to working smarter rather than working harder. There are only so many hours in a day, both for you and for your team, if you want to increase productivity and grow your business you need to optimize the workforce. Systems help you stop wasting time on trying to figure out how to do the same thing over and over again, it lets you automate tasks that don’t need to be handled by a human and lets you get organized so you aren’t overwhelmed with everything you need to get done.
What kinds of things to automate
Automation is a big part of optimizing your business to save you time and money while improving your service, productivity, and effectiveness. There are a lot of things you can automate within your business such as:
- Lead management – you can create an automated system that sorts out your leads into the right funnels, automatically answering quick questions so you can provide outstanding customer service, and organize all this information so when you do sit down to speak with a new client you have the best chance at actually landing the deal rather than spending precious time on hundreds of calls that don’t convert.
- Social Media – social media is a huge part of marketing nowadays, and it can take up an incredible amount of time. Tools like Smaterqueue and automation within the social media themselves (like auto-respond on Facebook pages) can save you a lot of time while also allowing you to create a constant presence that people recognize and relate to. It is really important to have consistency in social media and it doesn’t need to be so hard to achieve.
- Email marketing – Email marketing is another strategy that is very used today, and it can also be hard to keep up. Automation and software like ActiveCapaign can help you solve many problems relating to this. It saves you the time of sending emails frequently, helps prevent spam problems, let’s you set up email sequences and gives you stats so that you can evaluate your results and adjust accordingly.
- Sales – Automating your sales funnels, pages, and other processes help improve customer service, prevent human errors or lost information which can be really annoying to your clients, and make the overall workflow of your sales department easier and more effective.
Lead Gen / Customer Service
The processes of taking in new leads and converting them into clients can be very time-consuming. especially if you don’t have a process set up. Lead forms can help you better understand your leads so that you can provide them with the best solution for their needs and increase your chances of converting. It also saves a lot of time when you already have the questions ready and you know what to do next depending on the answer.
Similarly to lead generation, onboarding can be a pain. If making sure that your newly acquired clients have a great experience is important to you so that they will be satisfied with your company right away. Having welcome packages and a tailored experience right from start is essential. Onboarding forms can help you access their needs easily and increase the value you provide.
Customer service request forms are also a great idea. The most information you can get about a client’s problem before attempting to provide a solution the greater the chances of you solving it efficiently and accurately, and the happier the client will be. Communication is key in any relationship and having those well-thought-out, tested forms can help you communicate effectively with your leads and clients to create the best experience possible.
Workflows and SOPs
Document your workflows into processes and SOPs. You can use audio, video, or text documents or a form to record and document your processes as you do them on a daily basis. Recording your screen is a great way to document a process performed on the computer because you can show the work that needs to be done while narrating the step-by-step.
This will help you to make sure tasks take less time to complete and that they are done the same way every time. You don’t need to spend time thinking “How is it that I did it last time?”. And it also creates consistency and quality on your results, if it is always done the same way you always get the same outcome.
Document what you know now, and update it as you go. You don’t know what you don’t know and that is okay. You can and you will learn as you go, the processes and SOPs you create now aren’t set in stone, you can always go back and update them. To be honest, even if you create the perfect process right now, chances are that some time from now there will be a new and better solution, or a program that you use will have an update and won’t work in the exact same way anymore. Checking and updating will always be necessary. So go with the flow.
Always be testing
Test your processes/systems regularly. Check out if there are any updates needed or any new solutions that can solve your problem better. Technology is evolving quickly every day and it is always good to be on the lookout for new opportunities to jump ahead of your competitors.
Get feedback from your team members about the systems and automation to see how it is working for them. Your systems and automation are supposed to make everyone’s life easier. If it is bringing problems to your team or they are not feeling comfortable then you might need to make adjustments. Those adjustments might be to the systems themselves or it might be giving more training and/or support.
Listen to feedback from your team and your clients. Ask them and be open to receive the feedback, and also look at stats when applicable. You can always make some adjustments to make sure you are providing the best quality possible.
Last but not least, Implement changes to improve the systems.
Once you have your systems in place and you are tracking your results and progress, all that’s left to do is implement! Remember to be on the lookout for new opportunities, be open to feedback, and create a strategy to improve your business based on your experience!
