Contents
"You should automate that."
Everyone says it. Your accountant says it. Some bloke on LinkedIn with a ring light says it. 🙄
Hardly anyone stops to explain what an automation actually is. So here it is, no jargon.
An automation is a rule you write once
That's it.
A rule that says: when this happens, do that. Written down once, then followed every single time, by a computer, without you.
You already use loads of them. Your phone's alarm is one. "When it's 6.30, make a noise." Your out-of-office is one. "When an email arrives, send this reply."
Nobody calls those automations, because they're boring. That's the point. Good automations are boring.
Every automation has three parts
1. The trigger. The thing that starts it. A form gets filled in. A call gets missed. A date arrives. Someone books an appointment.
2. The check (optional). A question before it acts. Is this person already a customer? Is it a weekday? Did they tick the box saying yes to marketing?
3. The action. The thing it does. Sends a text. Creates a task. Moves someone along your sales pipeline. Tells you on WhatsApp.
Trigger, check, action. Every automation you'll ever meet is some stack of those three.
A real example
Someone fills in the enquiry form on your website at 9pm on a Sunday.
Without an automation: it sits in your inbox until Monday. You get to it at 11. They've already booked with someone who replied first.
With one:
- Trigger: form submitted.
- Check: is it a new contact?
- Action: text them straight away ("Thanks, got it, we'll call you tomorrow morning"), add them to your CRM, and put a task at the top of Monday's list.
They hear from you in seconds, on a Sunday, while you're on the sofa. You didn't do anything. You did it once, months ago.
What an automation isn't
It isn't magic, and it isn't AI.
An automation does exactly what you told it. Nothing more. If you tell it something daft, it'll do something daft, very quickly, to everyone. 😂
That's also its superpower. It never forgets, never has a bad day, never "meant to get round to it".
How to find your first one
Grab a pen and write down anything you do that:
- happens more than once a week,
- goes the same way every time, and
- you'd be embarrassed if a customer knew you'd forgotten.
Chasing quotes. Reminding people about appointments. Asking happy customers for a review. Saying thanks after a first order.
That list is your automation list. Start with the one that costs you money when it's forgotten.
The point
You don't need to understand code. You need to be able to finish the sentence "when this happens, do that".
If you can say it out loud, it can be automated. And if you can't say it out loud, no piece of software is going to work it out for you.
Start with one. Make it boring. Then do the next one. 💪
