Best Automation Ideas for Online Businesses


Statista estimated that the eCommerce industry was worth more than 3.5 billion dollars in 2019. The projections are positive for the upcoming years as well since there is no sign that people will slow down ordering goods and services online any time soon.

A growing sector invites new participants and incentivizes veterans to make some adjustments to not fall behind the competition.

Usually, the uptime for online stores should be about 99.9%, meaning that they are more or less available 24/7. However, this does not mean that a business can operate efficiently non-stop. Only the biggest companies have enough manpower to cover their ground and offer services all the time. 

Workflow automation is a sound strategy if a brand wants to increase its efficiency despite lacking resources. Here are some ideas on how to integrate workflow automation and run a business more smoothly.

Idea #1: Manage Team on Auto-Pilot

You should also aim to get remote team management on auto-pilot provided by specialized tool integration within Slack – one of the most popular communication platforms. With team management automated, the person in charge of others will have an easier time supervising.

There will be less room for errors. Take communication, for example. You can create announcements about upcoming deadlines or important video calls with clients in advance. 

Imagine if a manager forgets to inform their employees. The chances are that it might lead to some negative consequences, such as the rise of tension within the team or even losing a client because of a failure to show up in a meeting.

On the other hand, sending automated reminders on a reliable communication platform will ensure that those involved will get the memo and can show up when a meeting takes place.

Idea #2: Automate Repetitive Tasks

When optimizing the workflow and aiming to get the most efficiency out of a team that works remotely, sales automation is an important topic to consider. If your business has a sales team, you should be aware that the salespeople spend a lot of time on repetitive tasks that are not directly related to finding new customers and closing deals.

To give your sales teams more time to focus on actual selling and bringing in profits to the company, start using a CRM tool that will help you schedule calls, automatically fill-in sales reports, and perform other repetitive tasks.

Idea #3: Collect Feedback

Reviews are important for an eCommerce venture. Lack of reviews may discourage someone from purchasing from you. Therefore, you should strive to collect as much genuine feedback as you can. 

A regular way to collect reviews would be to ask your customers to write them on your website directly. However, having someone in charge of talking to every client and asking for a review is not the most efficient option. 

That is why it’s smart to automate the feedback process. Send an automatic email or message after a client makes a purchase and inquire whether they would be willing to leave a review. To motivate customers to write reviews, you can offer a discount code or free shipping for the next order.

Idea #4: Schedule Social Media Posts

Social media can bring many advantages to your business, such as enhanced engagement rates, increased website traffic, and improved sales. The problem is that an effective social media campaign may take up quite some time.

Thankfully, there are tools like Buffer. With Buffer, you can work on creating multiple social media posts at once and schedule them in advance for the upcoming week or month. Not having to worry about content means that the social media team can focus on other aspects, such as ad campaigns or cooperations with influencers. 

Idea #5: Improve Customer Support

Do not underestimate customer experience. Some shoppers will not bother to stay in your store for too long if they have questions and cannot find them or do not get a response from customer support reps.

As far as automation for customer support goes, you can look to invest in chatbot technology and integrate it on your website. These bots are available 24/7 and respond immediately.

At the same time, certain customers do not like to interact with the support and would rather look for answers themselves. An in-depth FAQ page is a good solution that would make a number of website visitors happy and reduce the burden of your customer support employees.

Idea #6: Send Reorder Reminders

You should not stop engaging with a customer after they have made a single purchase. If you want a thriving business, you will want to emphasize post-sale support as well.

You can encourage reorders by creating automated emails and sending them when the time is right. For example, if you offer skiing gear, you can send an email just before the season starts. And why not include a discount code to sweeten the deal even more?

Connect With Us And Other Small Business Owners

Please head over to our Facebook Group for Small Business Sellers and interact with other small business owners.

Follow us on FacebookTwitter, and LinkedIn to stay up to date with relevant news and business insights for your online business.





Source link