Who else gets stuck in a routine or a repetitive behaviour just because it is a habit, when in reality, there are systems within your business that could have a complete overhaul? Giving you more time to do the important things that really add value to your business?
ENTER
Automation noun.
The definition of automation is the use of machines and technology to make processes run on their own without manpower.
We took the steps at the end of 2019 to pull apart our daily processes and systems to see what we could automate within the business and, believe me, there was a lot. Once you get your head around the technology ( when this tick box is ticked this app talks to that app and then that app sends this email!), the pros far outweigh the cons in terms of time-saving and efficiency.
Shaun at Agility Automation helped us implement automation within the business and Alana recently did an interview about how the process worked.
Alana, can you start by introducing yourself?
My name is Alana and I am the Managing Director of Crib Creative. We’re a large scale real estate marketing company based in Perth WA and we service over 1200 real estate agents.
What do you love the most about your work and your industry?
We love providing effective and timely marketing to our industry. We constantly innovate what we do and like to be leaders and educators within our industry.
What are some parts of your workload that you’d happily hand over to automation, or have done so already?
We deal in volume and, on average, shoot 50 houses a day. We have external editors so it's very important our systems are seamless. All of the jobs we complete need to be back to the client within 24 hours, and manually sending them was a task we needed to automate so our admin girls were not snowed under doing meaningless, unproductive work.
Where did your automation journey begin?
It’s something that I had been thinking about for a while, but during our peak busy period, the volume was getting too much - so the decision was made to automate what we can.
What did Agility build for you?
Shaun built us a system based off Airtable ( which we were already using - so that was a massive positive!) that ticks a simple back when all of our daily QC is complete, a link is added and client pre-population is complete. Then, a templated email is sent to our client, delivering the job. This eliminated the manual work we’d had to do previously across every one of those jobs.
How have Agility’s automations impacted your team’s workflows? Can you estimate how much time is saved on a weekly basis?
It's been a massive time saver - and we’ve implemented the same process across all of our different departments. I would think it’s saving us approximately 45 minutes every day.
Are there any other unexpected results from automation implementation - do you benefit from time reallocation, the ability to focus on other fronts, or the space to grow without adding more manual work?
It definitely meant I could allocate more work to our admin team. It also means more people are across it and everything is documented, meaning less mistakes. It will allow us to scale quicker and also just finishes off our all-round process so we’re as productive as possible, meaning we can take on more work.
What’s on your automation wish list?
I want everything automated! I am keen to see where automation goes in the next few years and how it advances - and how I can implement it into the business even further.
Where can people find you and your work?
Over at www.cribcreative.com.au.
Comments