With today's advanced technology and client expectations, it's necessary for businesses to be as optimized as possible to keep up. This includes automation, fast manufacturing times, and streamlined customer service systems.
So how do we boost productivity and customer success within our business? One of the best approaches is implementing business process solutions.
What Are Business Processes?
Business process solutions take business operations that are outdated and too slow for modern-day users and optimize them for higher rates of positive consumer experiences.
Whether your company is large or small, it might seem a little intimidating to introduce new systems and change all together how some of your daily business processes function. But in the long run, these adjustments will greatly benefit your business, your employees, and most importantly, your customers.
The term is a little loose, but there are a few universal business process characteristics:
They're able to be clearly defined, including success and failure.
They have to benefit the client.
They have a sequential list of functions to boost productivity.
They identify and focus on the consumer.
Essentially a business process is an operation that your business performs regularly to produce content, sell content, or manage content.
There are three primary forms of business operations that we can optimize through solutions:
Operational
Operational processes are what might come to mind first when you ask yourself, "What does a business do?" Taking customer orders, making sales, and building products. These are the daily actions that actively bring in revenue for a business.
Management
Management processes are exactly what they sound like; management operations that oversee the operational processes. This could include budget and productivity as well as the analysis and planning of company operations.
Supporting
Supporting processes include any actions that support the other processes. These could involve tech support teams, budget accounting departments, and new employee recruitment and onboarding.
What Are Business Process Solutions?
Simply put, business process solutions are systems that take the business processes that we've discussed and enhance their quality, performance speed, and accuracy.
Whether it's a tool that completely automates the whole process or a protocol that supports and benefits human performance, process solutions come in all shapes and sizes.
There are a number of business process solutions on the market, and as we'll discuss later, it's important to do your research and find solutions that will benefit your company's particular systems.
Benefits to Using Business Process Solutions
We've mentioned that business process solutions enhance existing protocols within your company, and that's already a pretty convincing reason to investigate them.
Diving into these solutions' specific benefits, we see that they can lighten the load your human team members have, boosting efficiency, potential conversion rates, and positive user experiences.
1. Reduce Required Human Effort
Business process solutions are meant to make things easier on your team by introducing a level of automation. Systems built to improve productivity, like Yext Answers, for example, take the steps that your team currently performs and streamlines some of the aspects that take the longest.
It could be your customer service team searching for IT answers available in your company index to assist a customer in need or your marketing team implementing onsite content to boost SEO.
2. Streamline Arduous Aspects of Business
Some business processes include what some might consider tedious tasks. Accounting departments logging a bounty of numbers into an excel sheet. Sales team members sending out large numbers of emails with the same internal content give or take a few variables.
Business process solutions take these arduous tasks into a virtual system that takes over operations. They increase efficiency due to high-speed computational capabilities and boost the accuracy and potential customer interaction.
For instance, instead of speaking with a technical support representative, a client could use a business process solution like an AI Chatbot to search your business website for the answers they seek by themselves.
3. Make Focus Room For Important Projects
As we've pointed out, business process solutions aim to take things off the plates of your team members, which means they've got more room to work on critical tasks.
By lightening the load on your human workforce, you're able to give priority to essential operations instead of being bogged down by essential but lower-tier concerns.
Tips For When Implementing Your Business Process Solutions
Implementing business process solutions can definitely benefit your organization from top to bottom, but it isn't always as easy as clicking a button.
You're effectively changing the way your company operates and does business, so it's a process you want to take seriously. Between discussing objectives with department heads and choosing the right solution suppliers, here are some tips for when you're implementing business process solutions.
1. Identify What Needs To Be Optimized
Take an aerial look at your business. What could be optimized? Where is there wasted time and energy that could be adjusted?
Before you make the decision to implement solutions, it's important to know exactly where you can cut waste and how you want to go about it.
Whichever department could use a business process solution, always start by doing a complete assessment of your business and organize your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Do Your Research
There are a lot of solution options on the market today, so it's essential to do your homework. After identifying what processes you want to change, look for services and products that might be able to streamline those systems for your company.
The cost will vary as well as the quality of service, but you want to find solutions that match your needs and your business size properly. You want to find companies that prioritize your business and customer success.
3. Confirm Expected Results with Relevant Teams
Assuming that you aren't the only person that works for your company, you likely have team leads or department heads for different sections of your business.
While researching and discussing business process solutions, it can be incredibly useful to involve these department heads in the conversation. They'll be well informed about their respective teams' needs, strengths and weaknesses. Their insight will help you narrow down what solution options are going to be best for your company.
4. Choose Solutions and Identify Their Requirements
Now that you've acknowledged systems your business needs to optimize, researched business process solution options, and conversed with other department heads, it's time to choose a solution.
Before pulling the trigger, the last step is to be aware of your business's requirements. What will they need access to, and how can you properly organize all of it? How much time will they need to implement their system into yours, or will you be responsible for implementation?
Answering these questions ahead of time will make the next step go smooth, decreasing the amount of time your company will spend between systems.
5. Execute The Shift to The Solution
After you've done as much as you can to ensure efficiency, initiate the implementation process and have ready any data or access the solution service requires.
6. Monitor The Success of the New Solution And Adjust as Necessary
As with any new addition to your company's business systems, you should regularly be monitoring the success, or failure, of your new business process solutions.
If the new process solutions operate as intended, you should see boosts in customer success and employee productivity. Granted, even with proper research and implementation, things don't always go as planned.
If, for any reason, the new solution isn't increasing productivity or even decreasing your business success, remain in contact with the provider and anticipate adjusting the system until it works the way you want.
In Conclusion
Whether you're looking at your operational, management, or support business processes, odds are you have room for improvement.
Businesses that are constantly growing will find many benefits when it comes to implementing solutions as you expand. To keep up with the expectations of today's users, you want your company to be as swift and efficient as possible.
Discuss with your team leaders and find areas and systems within your company that could use enhancements.
Make sure not to jump in too quickly with any business process solution supplier without doing your research. Every service is unique, as is your company. Finding the right match for your needs, company size, and requirements is essential to successful integration.
Business process solutions can be a major boost to a business of any size and industry. By accepting automation and advanced technology, you'll be taking your business into a successful future.
Sources:
Five Outdated Business Processes We Keep Doing Just Because | MESLTD.ca
Tips For Determining Your Business Strengths and Weaknesses | Pricemanager.com
How Much Does Business Process Automation Cost | Docuphase.com
