If there’s anything this new decade and COVID-19 particularly have taught us, it’s that change is inevitable. It also comes fast and if you don’t evolve, you may not survive.
Overview meaning and importance of automation
Most small businesses in Kenya conduct their operations manually. For greater effectiveness, efficiency and security, business automation is key.
This is basically what automation is, and this article shows Kenyan small businesses how they can take advantage of various technologies that will allow them to focus on core functions, while support functions remain well-executed.
Recommendations
The main processes that small businesses should automate are:
- Marketing– Perhaps the most important when it comes to small business growth, and particularly social media marketing. The businesses can also pay for posts to run as ads on various platforms which analyze user behavior to effectively target the marketing.
- Customer Management– to enhance customer retention, various automation strategies can work, such as chat bots. Most small businesses in Kenya find it expensive to hire round-the-clock customer care personnel. Chat bots on websites and social media pages answer frequently asked questions and resolve common issues.
- Marketing automation software work via email thereby giving customers regular updates on promotions .
- Sales and Inventory Management– We recommend adoption of Point of Sale (POS) software which electronically conduct transactions for greater safety and convenience.
- POS software reads credit and debit cards from multiple banks affiliated with global payment processing networks like MasterCard or Visa.
- This not only makes it available to a larger local population, but also foreigners. Therefore, curio stands and other Kenyan small businesses catering to tourists can easily enjoy it.
- It also automates processes like sales monitoring through generated sales reports, as well as inventory management through real-time updating of stock statistics based on each wireless sale.
- Examples of POS software in Kenya include UzaPoint and POSmart Systems. Read this article for more information on why small businesses need POS systems.
- Human Resource– Machines still help in effective staff management.
- For instance, modern POS software also assess employee performance since indicated in each transaction is the conducting employee’s name.
- Employee scheduling systems generate and coordinate work shifts, leaves and other timelines for maximum productivity.
- Payroll software such as SunLax and Praxima automatically process payrolls and generate iTax, NHIF and NSSF reports for all employees.
Remember
If you do not evolve, you may not survive. Some competitor has probably started leveraging these technologies and their increased productivity and efficiency will show.