5 processes you can automate today
Automation often sounds like a big project: a new system, an IT trajectory, months of preparation. But most time savings come from small, recognisable tasks that recur every week. That email you always send manually. That data you copy every month. That reminder you need to send to yourself because otherwise nothing happens. Below are five processes that are excellent for automation — without needing a completely new system.
1. Confirmation and welcome emails
Every time someone signs up, fills out a form, or places an order, they deserve an immediate response. Manually, this always gets stuck: you’re in a conversation, it’s the end of the day, or you simply forget. An automated confirmation email solves that in one go — the customer receives immediate confirmation, and you don’t have to think about it anymore.
Why this can be done today: most form, email, and CRM tools have built-in automation options for trigger emails. This is often set up within an hour.
2. Follow-up reminders
A lead that doesn’t respond, a quote that’s open, a customer who hasn’t ordered anything for a while — these are all moments when a reminder makes the difference between a missed opportunity and a new deal. Instead of relying on your memory (or a sticky note), you can have this automatically triggered based on time or status: no response after three days? Automatically send a reminder to the responsible colleague.
Why this can already happen today: most CRM and task management systems support time or status-based triggers without extra technology.
3. Transferring data between systems
Manually copying data from your webshop to your accounting package, or from a sign-up form to your customer database, is error-prone and time-consuming — and it is exactly the kind of work that a computer can do better than a human. With simple connections (think of Zapier, Make, or native integrations between tools), data flows automatically without anyone having to retype it.
Why this can already happen today: many popular tools have ready-made integrations with each other. Often, a connection can be made in just a few clicks, without any coding involved.
4. Recurring reports
Collecting the same figures every month, pasting them into a spreadsheet, and formatting them for the team meeting — it requires little thought but takes a lot of time. If the source data is already available digitally, a large part of this process can be automated: a report that refreshes itself every month and prepares itself, instead of someone having to sit down to do it each time.
Why this can already happen today: tools like Excel, Google Sheets, and most dashboard software support automatic refreshing and scheduling without customisation.
5. Internal notifications and status updates
"Has the order been shipped yet?" "Is that invoice ready?" These kinds of questions take time — not because the answer is complicated, but because someone has to look it up and pass it on repeatedly. Automatic notifications for status changes (an order that has been shipped, an invoice that has been paid) keep everyone informed without the need for a human to be involved.
Why this can already happen today: most operational systems already contain the status information that is needed; all that is required is a rule that says: send a notification as soon as this status changes.
Start small, have a big impact
The common feature of these five processes: they are clearly defined, occur frequently, and follow the same logic each time. This makes them ideal to automate first — you don’t have to overhaul your entire business operation, just that one recurring task that is still done manually.
Choose one from this list that irritates you the most, and set it up today. The time you save can be better spent on the work where a human truly makes a difference: the conversation with the customer, the idea behind the campaign, the decision that requires just a bit more insight than a workflow can provide.