Secrets to 24/7 Automated Management for Small Business

On a given day, don’t you spend too much time and energy to simply keep your store running? If you’ve found yourself staying up late checking inventory and coordinating employee schedules, and not being able to focus on the customer service that really matters, here’s a tool that’s worth a try. Imagine your store running itself while you’re asleep. When inventory runs low, orders are automatically placed with suppliers, customer feedback is analyzed in real time, and employees’ working hours are accurately recorded. If this can become a reality and not just a fantasy, a little effort in the setup stage should be handsomely rewarded.

In the age of Artificial Intelligence, ‘labor leverage’ is important

With artificial intelligence being a hot topic, the most important ability is the ability to learn. In a world where new technologies are constantly emerging, those who learn them quickly will have more to gain. Some people call it ‘labor leverage’. For example, you don’t have to be a developer to create a website, a fluent English speaker to write professional documents in English, or a good writer to send professional emails. The automation tool we are going to introduce today is not only for beauty supplies, but also for salespeople working in the beauty industry, wholesalers, and retail store owners who also run an online store.

How can you automate your work?

An automation tool can connect various apps and automatically sets them to work together without the need for complex coding. For example, you set up automations such as “Send an email alert(an action) when your inventory drops below 5 pieces(a trigger)”. Triggers and actions can be set up in a variety of ways to suit your store’s situation.

How to use automation tools in retail with examples

You can find repetitive and time-consuming parts of your store and set up automated workflows using the automation tools we introduced earlier. There are countless types of apps and ways to integrate them to maximize the efficiency of your store operations. Here come just a few ideas to get you started. It’s worth noting that it’s highly customizable to fit the unique needs and circumstances of each store.

1. Store operations

• Inventory Management

You can automate inventory management by integrating your POS system or inventory management app with automation tools. If your current POS or inventory management app isn’t supported by the automation tool, you can utilize apps that provide APIs or try integrating it via a downloaded CSV file. In addition to automatically notifying you when a certain item goes out of stock, you can also set up to order low stock items from your vendors.

You can connect Google Calendar with Google My Business to automatically update special hours or closures. This can help reduce customer inquiries and frustration.

By integrating Instagram with Google My Business, when you make a new post on Instagram, you can automatically post it on Google My Business too, allowing you to increase traffic from multiple channels with a single post.

You can connect your payment system with an email app (such as Mailchimp) to automatically send marketing emails based on customer data. This can increase email open rates and repurchase rates.

Just like email, you can analyze customer purchase history, visit history, consumption patterns, etc., and determine the right time to automatically create and send personalized messages. For example, you can automate product arrival notifications, discount coupon offers, event announcements and more.

Google My Business and a Google spreadsheet with questions and answers, and ChatGPT with preset prompts can provide automated responses to frequently asked questions. This can help speed up customer inquiry response times.

You can place a QR code in your store to collect customer feedback using Google Forms and let ChatGPT report customer sentiment. This allows you to automatically collect and analyze customer feedback to improve customer satisfaction.

Employee scheduling apps (e.g.: Homebase, Google Sheets) and Google Calendar can be integrated to manage scheduling, and if you integrate additional apps and actions, AI can suggest the best work schedule, add up hours worked, and complete payroll reports and payroll automatically.

You can automate accounting and expense management by integrating expense management applications (such as Zoho Expense) with accounting software (such as QuickBooks). This allows you to understand your financial position in real time and save money. You can also combine other apps to get real-time financial reports, expense tracking, and AI-based budgeting.

Advancements in AI and automation tools will continue to be developed and make store operations more efficient and smarter. By actively utilizing automation tools, you can save time, effort, and even money on store management, and improve the quality of customer service. Also, by utilizing these technologies, you can make your store more competitive. More information and learning materials are available for free at:

• Zapier: zapier.com
• Make.com: academy.make.com