In uncertain times, why would you invest in IT systems? The traditional answer to that question was provided by IBM many years ago. You invest in IT to do things cheaper, faster, better! So, can automating everyday business processes within your CRM system help you to do things cheaper, faster and better?
Despite the stunning graphics and wonderful interactive experiences, all computer systems work with a mixture of ones and zeros. That’s not to diminish their ability to perform some fantastic feats, but it should strike a note of caution. Before you automate anything in your CRM system think of those little ones and zeros. They do not have the power of rational thought. They cannot reason or make exceptions. At least, not yet. So, if your data is not in a good shape then they can do the wrong thing very quickly!
Identifying tasks to automate
Modern CRM software solutions provide a number of tools to assist in the automation of common tasks. Some, such as workflow processes, drive users down a set path and provide them with the relevant data. Examples such as telephone scripts or sales opportunity qualification tools are included with most packages.
Beyond these workflow processes lie a further group of tools that replace the user element of a process. Examples may include updating a field with a value based on data held elsewhere in the system. Another example and one of our favourites is the automatic sending of a thank you email following a meeting. This process requires careful configuration to stop it from looking like a very poor mailshot.
With the range of tools available, it is worth taking time to consider what you are going to automate? A simple approach to this can be using Creatio’s free process designer – Studio Free. With this tool from Creatio, you can design process diagrams with simple visual tools and manage all the workflow processes in the unified environment.
To do this you need to identify the trigger for the process and the action resulting from the trigger. This allows you to define the basic process to be automated. By extending Studio Free to show whether the process makes something cheaper, faster or better, you can assign a priority to the automation.
Reviewing the benefits of workflow process automation
If you have set up some automated tasks within your CRM system it is essential that you monitor their effectiveness. Are they still a “cheaper faster better” way of doing things? How are they perceived by your clients?
One of the issues with task automation is that once written and deployed it may never need your intervention again. In such cases, it is easy to forget about a particular process. Your once clever email to clients thanking them for a meeting may become tired or worse. Far from making the client feel valued it may leave them feeling totally underwhelmed. Check them and make sure that they are still “fit for purpose.”
Grab the low hanging fruit
That being said some tasks are just crying out for automation. When thinking about task automation within Creatio’s marketing suite, you can improve your lead nurturing capabilities. For example, you can automate the follow-up process.
Depending on the content that a website visitor has downloaded, whether or not they have had a call with someone on your team or interacted with your website in another way, you can segment them into certain groups and automatically add them to specific marketing campaigns.
Elsewhere you can use automation to circulate important updates in the CRM system to fee earners as an email. Rather than relying on users accessing the CRM system, they can be automatically sent the information they need.
These are just a couple of the inbuilt processes and alerts to show off the concepts behind automation.
If you want to find out more about automation within CRM systems or Creatio CRM, please do get in touch with us and we shall help you out in any way that we can.
