Automating business processes in SMEs: how to save hours every week

A new request comes in through your website. Someone copies it into the CRM, manually sends a confirmation, books an appointment in the calendar and notes it in an Excel file. Four actions, four chances for an error. Automating business processes means setting up this kind of chain once and then letting it run. In this article you will read how.

What does automating business processes mean?

Automating means software takes over tasks that are currently done by hand, especially the dull, repetitive in-between steps. Think of moving data from one system to another, sending an email when a certain event happens, or creating an invoice the moment a job is completed. The beauty: the computer never tires and makes no typos.

Why automation pays off for SMEs right now

Staff are scarce and expensive. Every hour your team spends retyping is an hour not spent on customers or growth. Automation gives those hours back, reduces errors and makes you less vulnerable when someone is ill or leaves. Especially in SMEs, where people wear many hats, that is a gain you feel immediately.

7 processes you can automate today

• Invoicing: automatically create and send an invoice the moment a job is completed.
• Leads into your CRM: a request on your website appears instantly as a card in your CRM.
• Confirmations and reminders: automatic emails or WhatsApp messages at the right moment.
• Onboarding: new customer or employee? The right documents and tasks are set up automatically.
• Time tracking: hours worked flow through to scheduling and invoicing.
• Reports: dashboards that update themselves instead of manually maintained Excel files.
• Stock and orders: an alert or order as soon as an item drops below a threshold.

Linking software with Make and Zapier: how does it work?

Tools like Make and Zapier are the 'power strips' of the internet: they connect software to each other through ready-made integrations, often without a single line of code. You set a trigger ('a new request comes in') and an action ('add it to the CRM and send a confirmation'). Zapier is accessible and strong with popular apps; Make is more visual and more powerful for slightly more complex flows.

Make, Zapier or a custom build: what suits you?

For common integrations, Make or Zapier are perfectly adequate and get you live quickly. When the process becomes unique, sensitive or business-critical, custom automation pays off: an integration that does exactly what you need and grows with you. Often a combination is smartest: standard tools where you can, custom where you must. If you work with many scattered systems, one system is sometimes a better foundation than dozens of integrations.

Getting started in 4 steps

1. 1

   Track down your time wasters

   Which action does your team do most often and least willingly? That is where the first gain is.

2. 2

   Sketch the desired flow

   Describe what should happen: at which event, which action, in which system.

3. 3

   Build and test small

   Set up the integration with a few test cases and check that everything is correct.

4. 4

   Measure and expand

   Track how much time it saves and then tackle the next process.

What does it cost and what does it deliver?