Before you automate, take these 7 steps

Date

29.09.22

This is something that I heard 3 times this week from different women I know.

I knew I had to share something.

They confessed that every time they get hired the ONBOARDING process takes them longer than the actual WORK

That’s unacceptable! And they admitted it’s FILLED with stress (and carbs) because they always expect the client to go out of scope!

But here’s the MAGIC with what I do…. When you have the right onboarding SYSTEM you can AVOID scope creep for GOOD!!

What follows is the intial 7 initial steps I take with my clients.

But before we look at those 7 steps, let’s take a look at why it’s so important to automate your repetitive tasks in the first place:

Automating allows you to:

✔Do more with the resources you have

✔Focus on complicated problems

✔Scale and streamline your business

Step 1: Identify the process that you feel should be automated.

Identify the process that you feel should be automated. These are usually a set of tasks that you repeat on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis.

We were having issues with clients so we started off looking at our whole client journey from when a lead first contacts us, all the way to offboarding.

Step 2: Map out your process.

Map out your process so that you can visually see the flow of activities.

We mapped out our whole process so that we could get a birds eye view of everything. This allowed us to see where we could/should automate and improve our systems to make it a better experience for our clients.

Step 3: Identify the potential “automation friendly” tasks.

Identify the potential “automation friendly” tasks in your process (remember, not all tasks can or should be automated). Some companies “over automate” and make workflows really complicated leaving customers feeling frustrated or confused. Guard against automating all the things!

We took our process map and added the tools we were using and then where we thought automation would work well for us as well as our clients.

Step 4: Analyze the resources needed.

Analyze the resources you needed to complete the task manually and automatically. Ask the following questions:

Does automating cost me more money?
Does completing it manually take me more time?
Estimate the time/cost savings in automating the task.

Step 5: Choose the right tools to help you automate.

In a sea of automation tools, it can sometimes be difficult to decide which one is right for you.

Make sure that the platform you choose:

has the flexibility to grow and adapt as your business grows and adapts.
is an expert at the task you are trying to automate

I know that all-in-one platforms can be really tempting but do your homework and make sure that the platform can do what is says it can do.

Step 6: Document your process.

Document your process as is from start to finish. This is called writing an SOP or Standard Operating Procedure. There are many different ways of writing an SOP but the best way is one that works for you and the people who are going to follow them. It could be as simple as a Google Doc or as complicated as a full visual workflow. It doesn’t really matter as long as it is

Easy to understand and implement
Who is responsible
Start – when does it start
Steps – what are the steps
Stop – when does it stop
Checklist

Step 7: Schedule in regular automation checks and improvements

Remember, as your business grows and changes, so will your processes and automations, so my final step would be to schedule in regular automation checks and improvements. This should be done monthly for processes that are used on a daily basis, quarterly for processes that are used less often and annually for processes that only occur once or twice a year.