There’s a Bot for That: 3 Reasons to Adopt Bots into Your Business Workflow

Technology promises to make life a little easier and it’s not difficult to see how bots can help fulfill that promise – especially in a work environment. For starters, bots can simplify user interactions by automating tasks, so that you don’t have to do all of the grunt work yourself.

Bots also free up time, energy, and resources, so you can concentrate on to-do list items that require a human touch. In fact, experts predict that bots will continue to rise in popularity, even saying that bots may be the new apps. If you’re not quite sure you want to join the bot revolution, here are four reasons why you should consider using bots in your everyday life.

 

1.  A+ for Automation

For many processes, bots can accelerate your workflow by automating and performing specific tasks. Instead of managing frequent or repetitive tasks yourself, you can assign bots to do those same tasks and know they’ll be accomplished. If, for example, you need to write weekly reports of leads and cases in Google Sheets, a bot can automatically post the document on Slack whenever it is updated, rather than manually sharing the file yourself. Integrating and automating your workflow via bots saves manpower–and your sanity!

 

2. Customize apps you already use

You can easily integrate bots with the apps you use religiously. How? Say hello to chatbots. An attempt at humanizing technology, these text-based services help you distribute personalized and relevant information to your customers instantly. You can embed bots with scripts to handle common queries or requests. From checking an account transaction to answering a customer complaint, your bot can automatically organize data from across all the relevant systems and platforms to construct an accurate reply. Simple or complex, you can craft scripts to meet your specific needs.

From a customer service standpoint, bots make it easy to address issues holistically. For example, imagine you receive an unsatisfactory review via SurveyMonkey. Your bot can send a message to Salesforce, notifying the owner of that lead. It will then send the information via Slack, prompting you to make a call to the unsatisfied customer through RingCentral.

 

3. Prevent procrastination

As much as we try to maximize efficiency, we are only human. We are inherently bad at multitasking–only 2% of the population can effectively do it. When we jump from system to system or app to app, we have trouble maintaining focus due to context switching; we subconsciously procrastinate.

Bots eliminate the need to straddle multiple apps at once. For instance, you might use Trello, a web based collaboration tool, for project management tasks. Instead of constantly checking a Trello board for updates, you can instruct your bot to send you a Slack message every time a colleague makes changes to the board. You can work within the app you use most, performing all your tasks from one digital location.

 

Bots are an integral component of tomorrow’s workflow. As jobs become increasingly specialized, more apps are needed to fulfill niche needs. Although these apps may be highly targeted to solve specific issues, the level of complexity to digitally integrate these platforms increases. Be trained and better equipped at handling popular technology so that you can keep up with both your users and competition. The gift of foresight can improve your team’s productivity in the long run.

 

Ready to implement bots into your business workflow?
Explore Workbot, the only bot you need to get work done across your apps >