Startups are beginning to see the value in using automation in the workplace.

According to NetSuite, 31% of businesses in 2020 had automated at least one function, a statistic that is predicted to increase.

With large, established businesses and small startups both gravitating towards automation technology, there’s some common, easy to make mistakes that can limit or impede the efficiency of your automation tech.

Here are some of the most well-known errors and how you can avoid them:

 

Excessive Automated Marketing

If you plan on sending out automated emails to customers, make sure you don’t bombard them.

We’ve all got (or had) that one company in our inbox that sends us dozens of emails a week.  It may well have started as a business that we genuinely really liked or bought from frequently, innocently permitting them to send us the occasional email (emphasis on occasional) only to end up inundated with email after email, every day.

Eventually, that business you had so much respect for now provokes an eye-roll when you see their name crop up in your inbox, and you decide to unsubscribe from their mailing list.

Don’t be that kind of business.  People have a good eye for what level of contact is acceptable and dozens of emails a week certainly isn’t.

The good thing is, this is easy to avoid.  Just be mindful of how many emails a week you are sending out via automation, and you will avoid gaining a reputation as “that business that won’t shut up”.

 

Integrating Automation With Platforms That Aren’t Compatible

Annoyingly, some softwares don’t work with others.  A famous example is when PC owners decide to change their anti-virus software but forget to delete the old one.  What tends to happen is that the two softwares interfere with one another, and in severe cases, this can lead to the computer system crashing and needing expert help.

The same thing can happen with automation.  For instance, if you are a marketing company, you might purchase a tool that helps generate better leads, but it may work at odds with your CRM platform.  As a result, you might not get the leads you had invested in getting.

To avoid this, research which automation programmes work with the software you use in your business.  Don’t be afraid to ask the company you are considering buying from – they’re there to help, after all.

 

Not Supervising Your Automation

As handy and efficient as automation services are, they are not infallible.

Like all things electronic, things can go wrong when left for long periods of time without checking up on them.  Twitter automation is one such example.

There are several famous examples of automated tweets coming out horribly wrong, often to the detriment of the unassuming business, who are left to pick up the pieces.  One such example was when Microsoft created a bot named Tay and its own Twitter account, @TayTweets.

Microsoft created the bot to learn more about the art of conversation, but the Twittersphere quickly turned the blank canvas bot into a bigot.  You heard that right.  The bot frequently tweeted horrendous things about women, minorities and much more.

Another example was back in 2014, where American Football team New England Patriots’ automated Twitter account accidentally tagged an extremely racist Twitter handle when replying to them.

To prevent having a similar PR disaster on your hands, remember to monitor your automation periodically, to be sure.  This doesn’t mean you have to watch over it 24/7, but at least take a few minutes here and there to observe that it is functioning as normal.

 

Not Training Your Team Properly

When implementing automation into your business, it’s essential to train your team, regardless of size, how it works, what it does, and how to use it.

The introduction of any new tool in the workplace requires giving training to the staff responsible for overseeing it.

The last thing you need is workers in a panic while your new automation service goes haywire because they didn’t know how it worked or how to fix it.

Ultimately, most of the errors regarding automation occur due to a lack of knowledge, poor planning and carelessness.  The good news is that all of these can quite easily be avoided, meaning automation makes for a great edition for your up and coming business.

 

To find out how to automate your business, get in touch.