Image Source: Microsoft Designer
A report from McKinsey suggests that when it comes to productivity, SMBs trail behind their larger rivals by as much as 50%.
Automation is a means of evening the odds, but it requires knowing what systems are out there and what benefits they offer in order to plot a sensible path to adoption. To help you with this, here are some examples of how and why this category of tech can make a positive impact on your operations.
Leveraging AI-Powered Customer Support Systems
Small businesses thrive on excellent service, and this can boost customer spending by 17%, but manual handling will drain resources and cause other types of disruption. Automated systems offer a solution.
Using tools like Zendesk’s Answer Bot or Intercom’s Resolution Bot can drastically improve response times and consistency. These AI-powered bots handle FAQs, track issues, and escalate complex cases to human agents seamlessly.
Key benefits include:
- 24/7 Availability: Bots ensure customers get immediate help anytime.
- Consistency: Responses remain uniform, reducing the risk of misinformation.
- Scalability: Easily manage increased queries without hiring extra staff.
The good news is that implementing these systems isn’t rocket science. Better yet, it allows human agents to focus on more critical tasks.
Automating Inventory Management with IoT Solutions
Managing inventory manually is labor-intensive and error-prone. IoT solutions transform this by providing real-time tracking and data analytics.
Tools like SmartShelf and ClearSpider leverage sensors to monitor stock levels, predict shortages, and automate reordering processes.
The main advantages are:
- Real-Time Tracking: Instant updates on inventory status prevent stockouts.
- Accuracy: Reduce human errors in counting and recording items.
- Efficiency: Automate replenishment, saving time and reducing manual work.
The important point here is not just that these systems exist, but that they’re viable for small businesses. When combined with increased automation in other processes, the upsides are amplified.
So for instance if you’ve accelerated your production line with all-new cartridge filling machines, you can subsequently monitor and manage stock levels when sending out goods to vendors, as well as keeping tabs on the raw materials that go into the manufacturing process initially.
Streamlining Payment Processing with Automation
Handling payments manually can bog down small businesses, leading to mix ups and inefficiencies. Automating this process is another must for delivering smoother transactions and preventing cash flow conundrums – which is something that 33% of leaders admit is a concern at the moment.
For instance, Payline offers robust payment processing automation tailored for small businesses, including scheduling and recurring billing. It simplifies tasks from transaction handling to financial reporting.
The positives to embracing this type of system include:
- Efficiency: Automated systems speed up transaction processing.
- Accuracy: Minimize human errors in data entry and calculations.
- Security: Advanced encryption ensures safer transactions.
Put simply, it’s better to have an end-to-end solution that manages payments seamlessly. And moreover, this is something customers will expect to be available to them, so it’s as much about reputation-building as it is back-end convenience.
Enhancing Marketing Campaigns through Automated Data Analytics
Marketing has always been data-driven, although the extent to which this was achievable in an SMB context was definitely limited. Today, automated analytics tools provide the edge you need to stand toe to toe with major players, and take a slice of their market share in the process.
Platforms like HubSpot and Google Analytics help track customer behavior, campaign performance, and conversion rates effortlessly. This is especially significant given that small firms are having to spend more on marketing than ever before, with HubSpot data suggesting this currently sits at 9.1% of total revenues on average.
Reasons to get excited include:
- Insights: Gain deep understanding of what drives sales and engagement.
- Customization: Tailor campaigns based on real-time data insights.
- Efficiency: Automate reporting processes to save time.
Using these tools means you can quickly adjust marketing strategies based on concrete data instead of guesswork. Moreover, you can do this at scale without running your small team ragged.
The Bottom Line
It should be clear to any business decision-maker that where automation is available, productivity will increase post-implementation. Understanding this is just the start, so with this info to hand your next move is to look into the tools and solutions we’ve discussed and push ahead with adopting those that fit your requirements and budget.
