As your business grows, so too will its bottlenecks if left unchecked. That’s why
‘business process automation’ is crucial for removing or minimizing bottlenecks to help your business and employees flourish. By implementing automation technology into operations, you'll be able to better serve customers, improve employee output, and boost profits.
See how automation can resolve five common bottlenecks, leading to more efficient and effective business processes.
What is Business Process Automation?
Business process automation (BPA) is the use of technology to perform recurring tasks or processes in a business to replace manual effort. Essentially, it reduces or removes a lot of small but time-consuming tasks that are required for your business to function and be successful.
BPA turns these tasks (e.g. record keeping, appointment making, and data reporting) into a seamless, automatic process that needs little involvement from employees.
Benefits of business process automation include:
- Lower costs
- Increase speed and efficiency
- Eliminate bottlenecks or delays
- Increase service quality
- Improve service delivery
It’s important to note that BPA isn’t the same thing as ‘business process management’ (BPM), which is the larger discipline of researching, measuring, analyzing, and improving the management of complex organization-wide processes. BPM is more about big-picture strategy whereas BPA handles the details.
5 Common Bottlenecks in Business
To resolve bottlenecks in your business with BPA, you’ll first need to understand what those bottlenecks actually are. Here are the five most common bottlenecks that automation can resolve:
Confusing processes
Not only do confusing processes take longer for new employees to learn, but they also decrease overall employee efficiency. Use automation to optimize your processes so it's easier to train employees and lower the chances of error.
Too many processes
Even if the processes are relatively simple and quick, having too many of them still takes up valuable employee time and decreases work output. Reduce manual processes by moving them to BPA software.
Understaffing
Although hiring more employees isn’t always feasible, continually increasing an employee’s workload isn’t optimal either. Help your employees accomplish more in less time by providing the right automation tools.
Miscommunication
Whether it’s not replying to emails or returning phone calls in a timely manner, every miscommunication or delay can cost you a customer. Set up automated reminders and emails to ensure customers and leads receive prompt communication.
Outdated systems/technology
Slow speed, glitches, and outages hinder employee performance, signaling a desperately needed improvement to your
systems. Make your business more agile by upgrading your automation technology.
Level Up with Automation
By implementing BPA, your employees will have more time to focus on important tasks that require a human touch, like providing
exceptional customer service. Additionally, your business will be more cost-efficient, streamlined, and error-proof.
Editor's Note: This post was originally published in January 2020 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.