Do you feel like things are always falling through the cracks when taking on a new client? Maybe you’ve perfected your technique on attracting new leads and converting them during your interest calls, but after they submit their payment, you find yourself freestyling every single time.

You strive to deliver your services in a way that aligns with your brand promise, but is there something broken in your system? Maybe you feel like you can’t even take a true vacation because you’re constantly checking your emails. Maybe you’re even copying and pasting from other client communications and there’s a weight on your shoulders that your business is missing something.

The root cause of these feelings may be that you aren’t sure what your complete client process entails, or the different pieces involved in a seamless process. Therefore, it is not possible to automate this process to save you hours of time each week. That’s the real tea!

You want to have your programs and services running effortlessly. You also want your clients to feel supported and satisfied with your work. Lastly, you want to reach your income goals and not have to push pause on them when you take days off.

Using a CRM software for small business will help you achieve all the above. A CRM is a customer relationship management tool that allows you to organize your customer information, manage your relationships, and collect data so that you can make strategic decisions. CRMs are built to improve your customer retention, but did you know that they can also save you time?

I’m here to tell you that setting up a CRM tool with automation will help you reach your business milestones without burnout.

Setting up a CRM tool with the correct automations can:

• Make you feel comfortable enough to hire a team.
• Sync everything to its rightful places, so you don’t have to dig to find information.
• Boost your client retention and referral rates.

Automation is the creation and application of technology to monitor, control and run by on autopilot.

Automating your processes with a CRM would be a huge timesaver, but you may be reluctant because you’ve heard these 3 myths:

1. Adding business automation into your client process will make you seem less personable with your leads and clients.
2. Adding business automation into your client process will cause you to have less control over what is happening.
   
3. Adding business automation into your client process is complicated.

1. Adding business automation into your client process will make you seem less personable with your leads and clients. This is completely false. You can customize your communications and forms with your personality and infuse your special additions to your process that will guarantee a consistent, personalized experience for all your clients. Some examples of this can include welcome videos, websites, GIFs, and more.

2. Adding business automation into your client process will cause you to have less control over what is happening. This is also completely false. If your CRM tool is set up correctly, you can indicate which actions should trigger automatically and which actions you’d like to approve before they’re triggered. The choice is completely yours, and you remain in full control of your custom client process.

3. Adding business automation into your client process is complicated. This is mostly false. Adding automation can be complicated if you do not have a strategic blueprint first. Diving into automations without knowing the required elements and strategy is one of the top mistakes I see CEOs making these days.

It is crucial that you build this out before you set up your CRM in your small business so it can have a clear path to follow. Need help getting started? I encourage you to download my free Dream Client Experience Process Guide to put you on the right track.

To build your strategic blueprint, it is necessary to map out what needs to happen and when at each step of your customer journey. Jot down what communications need to go out to your customers, when they need to go out, and what is required to move on to the next step. (e.g., a credit repair coach may map out that they need to send an onboarding form to collect their customer’s credit information immediately after their deposit is paid. And after they complete their onboarding form, they are to receive a meeting link to schedule their 45-minute kick-off call).

I hope these myth-busting facts help answer some questions you may have when it comes to implementing automations in your business. Be sure to enjoy the extra time you have with your new business automated workflow.