- Business automation is essential for saving time and energy by eliminating repetitive tasks.
- Hootsuite allows for social media management and automates posts, responses, and analysis.
- Apps like Zapier, Zendesk, Expensify, and Monday offer automation solutions for workflows, CRM, expenses, and project management, respectively.
No matter what size of business you have, managing your everyday tasks and to-dos takes time. Often, there are tasks that you will repeat each and every day. Not only is this boring, but all of those tiny, mundane tasks sap energy and time you could be devoting to doing big things. That why automation is so important.
With automation, you can save all that time and energy (after just a little, simple set up.) The more you automate, the more you will have time to automate. If you need somewhere to start, these five apps offer simple automation solutions for business owners as well as teams, both small and large.
Social Media Managment – Hootsuite
With all of the social media platforms available today, a robust social media strategy is a must for any business. However, logging into, out of, and managing the when what, and formatting of so many posts can be its own job.
With Hootsuite, you can automate posts and manage all of your accounts in one place. Then you can manage comments and responses. You can even track and analyze how specific posts and interactions have gone. This sort of automation can save a handful of hours every week.
Automate Workflows – Zapier
Have you ever wanted to be able to take the information you just put into one app and have it automatically transfer to another? Now you can have that done for you automatically. With just a few clicks you can create a “Zap.” This allows you to create simple if/then statements (no programming required) that will enable you to automate tasks and workflows from app to app.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – Zendesk
Zendesk is a powerful tool that can do dozens of different things, saving you time when it comes to nearly any type of customer interaction. At its most basic, Zendesk allows you to respond automatically to any repetitive customer questions, comments, or interactions. This works for live chat, phone, social media, email, and more.
Once your interactions have been set up, Zendesk also helps you collect the data you need to optimize them. It can also receive and use data provided by other apps and platforms to improve and track a given customer’s overall experience.
Track and Manage Expenses – Expensify
Every business has expenses. With Expensify, you can track these expenses and the reimbursement process easily. You can even automate the process with zero (for small purchases) to minimal (for large expenditures) oversight and input. In either case, you define the rules and definitions. Once expenses are tracked, they can also be automatically synced to accounting systems.
Organization and Project Management – Monday
Monday is a clean, colorful management solution with a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to see an overview of as many projects as you have going on, and then zoom in to see exactly what’s going on with them.
It allows you to easily keep track of deadlines, assign responsibilities and tasks, and even lets you and your team members signal if they need help or have experienced delays. This can help improve the efficiency of any team, whether they’re in charge of iOS app development or content marketing. The platform can even produce its own progress and efficiency reports, allowing you to make the most of your team.
