Automate or do it yourself?

Claudia Academy cover with the title “Automate or do it yourself?” The subtitle says that automating is not always the best step, and promises an honest assessment: when doing it by hand works fine, when it gets difficult and which questions to ask beforehand.

Four situations in which doing it yourself often works well: the number of questions is low enough to answer everything the same day; everything comes in through one channel; there is a clear owner with a backup; and personal contact matters, as with sensitive or complicated questions.

Four situations in which doing it yourself gets difficult: questions come in through several channels at once; a large share comes in outside business hours; there are peaks you cannot handle, such as at lunchtime or after an ad; and the same questions keep coming back.

Five questions to ask before you automate: what exactly is the problem, measured for example with an audit; does the process already work by hand; what should a system do, and what not; who checks it and takes over when something goes wrong; and what does it cost in money and time, including setting it up and keeping it up to date.

Four honest downsides of automating: it needs maintenance when prices or business hours change; not every customer wants it, so a person must stay reachable; a mistake in an automatic answer repeats itself for everyone; and customer data needs care over storage and access, so get advice if needed.

Summary: only automate once you know what the problem is and the manual process works. Start small, with one task, and keep a person reachable.

Pointer to the free Claudia Academy lesson “Measure results and improve every week,” at claudia.bitsplease.org/en/academy/customer-service-system/lesson-5-measure-improve.