10 examples of process automation for every business

Examples of process automation make it concrete what automation delivers. Everyone knows it saves time, but the question is always: what exactly do you automate? Below are ten automations we come across in almost every organisation, from simple to advanced. Choose two or three that fit your situation and start there.

What is process automation?

Process automation means that recurring steps in your operations are carried out by software instead of by people. An event, such as a request, payment or change, automatically triggers the next step. If you first want to know how to approach it, read workflow automation: where do you start? This article is about the what.

1. Lead from form to CRM

A request via your website goes straight into your CRM as a contact and deal, with the right labels and assigned to the right colleague. No retyping, no requests left sitting in a shared inbox. Add a reminder if there has been no contact after a few days, and nothing falls through the cracks any more. With HubSpot or another common CRM, this is easy to set up.

2. Welcome email and onboarding for a new customer

As soon as a customer signs or the first payment comes in, they automatically receive a welcome email with contact persons, next steps and, where relevant, login details for a client portal. At the same time, your team receives a notification that the project is starting. The customer feels helped straight away and you do not have to remember anything.

3. Creating tasks for a new assignment

A new assignment automatically sets up the standard tasks in your project tool: schedule the kick-off, arrange access, create a folder, inform colleagues. Each task has an owner and a deadline. Nobody needs to know a checklist by heart, because the checklist is simply there.

4. Generating quotes and documents

You no longer create quotes, contracts and confirmations manually in a template. The data from your CRM or form automatically fills in a document in your own layout, ready to be checked or sent directly. That saves time and prevents copying errors in names, quantities and terms. Read more about document generation and quoting systems.

5. Payment reminders

Once the payment term of an invoice has passed, a friendly reminder with a direct payment link goes out automatically. After a second term a second message follows, and only after that does a person get involved. You no longer have to keep track of who still needs to pay, and the money comes in faster.

6. Sorting incoming requests automatically

Emails and forms that arrive at a general address are automatically read, categorised and forwarded to the right person or department. A smart step recognises whether it is a quote request, a complaint or an invoice question and summarises the essence. The team starts directly with the answer instead of with sorting.

7. Weekly report

Every Monday morning an overview is ready with the figures that matter: requests, quotes, revenue, open tasks. The data comes automatically from CRM, accounting and analytics. If you want to see this live and not just weekly, a dashboard is the next step.

8. Collecting customer feedback

A week after delivery, the customer automatically receives a short questionnaire. The answers end up in one overview and positive responses are flagged, so you can use them with permission. That way you gain structural insight into satisfaction without having to chase it.

9. Stock and threshold alerts

If the stock of a product drops below a set level, the buyer receives a notification or a draft order is automatically prepared. The same principle works for budgets, hours or capacity: the system warns you before it becomes a problem. For manufacturers we often connect this to their product data, see our work in manufacturing.

10. Onboarding and offboarding employees

When someone joins or leaves, the system automatically creates the checklist for HR, IT and the manager. Accounts are created or revoked, equipment is scheduled, access is arranged. This is especially important when someone leaves: a forgotten account is a security risk.

What does process automation deliver?

Process automation mainly delivers time, consistency and fewer errors. One automation might save a few minutes each time, but dozens of times a week those minutes add up to hours per month. More importantly, the work is always done the same way, even when it is busy or someone is ill.

What it delivers exactly depends on how often a process occurs, how much time it takes now and what an error costs. An automation that runs daily and prevents errors in invoices pays for itself faster than one that forwards something once a month.

How do you choose which automation to build first?

Choose the automation that occurs most often and currently causes the most errors or frustration. Build it, let it run for a few weeks and then tackle the next one. After a few months, a network of automations is running that together noticeably takes work off your hands.

Which tool you use for this depends on the complexity. We build simple connections in Make or Zapier, and processes with a lot of logic in our own backend. You can read more about our approach under workflow automation. Want to know which of these ten would deliver the most for you? Get in touch.