Workflow automation: what to automate first

Score each task before you automate it

Write down the repeat tasks your team does in a normal week. Then give each one a score from 1 to 3 on four questions:

Question	1	2	3
How often does it happen?	Monthly	Weekly	Daily or more
How long does it take each time?	A minute or two	5 to 15 minutes	Longer
What happens when it's missed or done wrong?	A small annoyance	A delay or a chase	Lost money, a lost client or a compliance problem
How clear are the rules?	Needs judgement every time	Mostly clear, a few exceptions	Always done the same way

Add the scores up. 10 or more: automate it. 7 to 9: automate the routine part and keep a person for the odd ones. 6 or less: leave it for now.

If a task scores low on clear rules, never fully automate it, however often it happens. That's where the automation gets the work ready and a person checks it.

Worked example

Say you get a new enquiry through your website a few times a day. Someone copies the details into the CRM, picks who owns it, sends a reply and sets a reminder to follow up. It takes about ten minutes each time, and if one gets missed, that's a lost lead.

• How often: daily, so 3.
• Time: 5 to 15 minutes, so 2.
• Cost of a miss: a lost client, so 3.
• Rules: always the same, so 3.

That's 11 out of 12, so you automate it. The enquiry lands in the CRM with where it came from, an owner gets picked by your rules, the first reply goes out within minutes, and then a follow-up task is made. Your team only steps in for the actual conversation.

The usual first automations

• Catching and sending on enquiries. Every form, call and message lands in the CRM with an owner. See our workflow automation page.
• Speed-to-lead replies. A useful first reply within minutes, written the way you'd write it. It's on our follow-up and nurture page.
• Booking reminders. A confirmation and reminders before every appointment, with an easy way to move it.
• Onboarding kick-off. When a deal's marked won, the welcome email, the onboarding tasks and the handover to your team all happen on their own.
• Weekly reporting. Numbers pulled from your tools into one view, instead of a spreadsheet someone rebuilds every Monday.

What not to automate

• A process that keeps changing. Agree how it should work first. If you automate something that keeps moving, you end up rebuilding the automation every month.
• Decisions that need judgement. Price exceptions, refunds, complaints and anything regulated. Let the automation pull the information together and put the decision in front of a person.
• Messages sent in your name without anyone checking, until you've seen enough of them to trust the rules.
• Work that happens twice a year. The time it takes to build and look after it won't pay back.

How we approach it

We start by mapping how work actually moves through your business, so where enquiries come in, where they sit and who has to chase who. Then we score the tasks with you and automate the high scorers inside the tools you already use. We add a check by a person anywhere judgement's needed, and we set up alerts so if an automation fails, someone hears about it and it doesn't just quietly stop. Our approach page goes through each stage.

Projects start at £4,500, with a written scope and price before anything is built.

What does "a person checks it" look like?

Our own product is an example here, not a client result. The Agentryx platform uses AI to turn a call summary into tasks and a draft follow-up email. The draft doesn't get sent. A person checks it, changes what needs changing and then sends it. The automation does the typing and the person keeps the judgement.

That's how to handle any task that scores low on clear rules. The Agentryx platform case study shows how it all fits together.