Whilst the likes of Amazon, Uber, Tesla, and Netflix might feel worlds away from the realities of our own businesses in terms of scale and profit, we can use them as inspiration. They are excellent examples of how we can implement automation in our own businesses, freeing up time and simplifying processes.
Let’s look at some case studies and see what wisdom we can glean from the businesses at the top of their game.
Case Study: Amazon
Automation reduces the risk of human error and allows a quick and seamless process from the first click to the customer’s door.
Amazon have been pioneers in evidencing how automation can boost businesses to the height of success. They’re a fantastic example of an ecommerce business at its peak.
They’re big on customer experience, with an impressive focus on making everything as slick and efficient as possible. Their process is so well executed that customers have come to expect a next day delivery with zero hiccups in between. Who would have thought that ten years ago?
To achieve this, their operational process has to deal with a lot of data. Customer details, billing information, and delivery details all need to be captured without hindrance. The best part is, it’s the customer that inputs this information. After that, the rest of the process is automated, reducing the risk of human error.
Amazon staff don’t have to keep inputting, transferring, or editing data. It all happens automatically, all the way down the supply line.
In a world of immediate gratification, we’re more likely to create an amazing customer experience if we reduce the risk of human error.
Amazon’s success story has highlighted the importance of clearly understanding the different stages in our business processes; what data needs to flow from step to step, and how this data is going to pass through our systems uninterrupted.
Case Study: Uber
Automation enables transparent reviews that evidence quality.
Uber’s use of automation is a key factor in their success. The company’s app automates the entire process: finding a ride, connecting drivers and passengers, handling payments, and requesting reviews.
Their automations have made the service incredibly easy to use, making Uber a dominant player in the ride-share market. One of the best things about Uber is their rating system, which allows drivers and passengers to rate each other out of five stars.
These ratings are a fundamental part of their service because they provide transparency and security. Reviews are automatically requested at the end of every ride, thus increasing the likelihood customers will leave one. Knowing when to ask for reviews is crucial in receiving them. Good reviews can boost our businesses by making us more trustworthy, evidencing quality, and showing that we leave a good impression.
Business owners can take inspiration from this in how and when they request reviews. The best time to request a review is when the service is complete. In Ubers case, when the customer gets dropped off successfully. This is where automation can step in: it can tell us that an invoice has gone out or a sales process has been completed, alerting us that it’s the right moment to ask a client for a review whilst they’re still engaged.
We don’t need to have a dedicated application for reviews like Uber, either. We can use SMS, emails, or a QR code to direct customers to the platform we’d like them to leave a review on, like Google or Trustpilot.
Automation increases efficiency and saves time.
Tesla’s automated manufacturing processes allow them to produce high-quality electric vehicles at a lower cost than their competitors. A large part of this is down to the fact that automated technologies streamline business processes, which saves colossal amounts of time. If we can save as little as a couple of minutes here and there, this will snowball into a productive – and profitable – chunk of time that can be put to better use. That’s why it’s so important that we automate our production workflow where we can, in order to be super efficient.
Aside from saving time, we also need to consider wasting time. We could be wasting time at any stage of our customer journey; for example, by answering common questions over and over again that could be better kept in a dedicated FAQ page.
Whilst these small tasks might not seem like they’re eating into our day, streamlining small five-minute jobs can have an accumulative effect on the amount of time we’re conserving. This leaves us time and headspace to dedicate to higher value activities (or time away from work).
Automation allows businesses to build algorithms and recommend services or products based on their customer preferences.
Netflix have nailed their algorithm and are great at using data from the movies and shows their users watch to recommend more content they’ll like. We can take inspiration from this in our businesses by collecting data about what our customers interact with, and adjusting our strategy accordingly.
This could mean website tracking, UTM parameters or collecting data in our CRM. Crucially, learning about our audience in this way enables us to have very powerful conversations that are relevant to them.
Of course, we should always ask for consent before capturing customer data, but turning this data into intelligence is a sure-fire way to both increase productive engagement and avoid wasted time.
These businesses prove beyond doubt that the key to a successful business is the ability to automate processes that constitute an unproductive use of time when done manually.
This frees up time to focus on those higher profit tasks and long-term business goals – but the benefits don’t end there. Along the way we can collect data that we can feed back into our business.
If you’re sold on how automation can benefit your business but are struggling to know how to implement it, it couldn’t be easier than to hop on a Case Study: Tesla
Case Study: Netflix
Learning from the best
