What should a small business automate first?
Automate the daily task that goes the same way every time and costs you something when it's late. For most small businesses that's replying to enquiries or following up leads.
What do small businesses usually automate first?
Enquiry replies, lead follow-up, copying data between tools, and the weekly report.
Enquiry triage
Email, the website form and WhatsApp go into one list, and each enquiry gets a first reply straight away. One sent on Sunday night and answered on Monday has often gone elsewhere.
Lead follow-up
Reminders go out when they should, so a warm lead doesn't go cold in a busy week.
Copying data between tools
Details go from the form or the invoice into the CRM or the accounts on their own, so nobody retypes a phone number.
The weekly report
The figures someone pulls out of three tools every Monday arrive overnight, in one message.
How do I pick which task to automate first?
Score each task from 1 to 3 on four questions, and start with the highest total.
- How often does it happen? Daily scores 3, weekly scores 2, monthly scores 1.
- How rule-based is it? Same steps every time scores 3; different every time scores 1.
- What does a delay or a mistake cost? A lost customer scores 3; mild annoyance scores 1.
- How much judgement does it need? None scores 3; a lot scores 1.
If two tie, pick the one people grumble about most. They'll help you test it.
Is the task ready to automate?
Yes, if the steps fit in a few lines and the information lives in a tool, not in someone's head.
- You know who handles the odd cases the automation can't.
- You'll be able to tell whether it worked.
- It takes more than ten minutes a week. Below that, nothing you build earns it back.
- The way it's done has stopped changing. Otherwise you'd be rebuilding it next month.
Give the calculator on this site a small leak and it answers “Honestly? Not yet”, with a few free fixes to do this week instead.
What should a person still do?
Anything that needs judgement, or care for someone's feelings.
- Negotiating prices and terms.
- Complaints, apologies and anything emotional.
- Medical, legal or financial advice.
- Hiring decisions.
- The first real conversation with a big new customer.
Automation can still do the groundwork, like collecting the order number and photos before a complaint reaches a person.
How does an automation work?
Almost every automation, ours included, does the same four things:
Pull out the details
From whatever arrived: the email, the form, the WhatsApp message or the attached PDF.
Work out who and what
Who it's from, what they want and how urgent it is. A quote request from a regular customer isn't a cold enquiry.
Apply your rules
Written down beforehand. It only chooses between options you gave it.
Reply and update the records
Send the reply, add the row to the CRM or the sheet, and tell the right person, with everything attached.
Once you have a top scorer
Send us the scoresheet, runners-up included, and we'll say whether we'd pick the same one. Sometimes we wouldn't, because a job that scores well on paper lives in one person's head.