What should an agency automate first?
By Harish P, founder of Plux Labs · Updated · 2 min read
Short answer
Start with the repetitive work that sits closest to revenue and costs senior people the most time. For most agencies that means lead follow-up, prospect research and CRM upkeep, followed by client onboarding and reporting. Pick one workflow that happens every week, follows the same steps and currently relies on one person remembering to do it.
The three-question filter
- 01Does it happen every week? Rare tasks aren't worth automating first.
- 02Are the steps mostly the same each time? If every case is different, it needs a person.
- 03Does it cost revenue when it's missed? Slow follow-up hurts more than a late internal report.
Common first wins for agencies
- •Replying to and qualifying new enquiries
- •Researching prospects before outreach
- •Keeping the CRM up to date after calls and emails
- •Client onboarding: forms, welcome emails, folders and kickoff scheduling
- •Weekly reporting pulled together automatically
What not to automate first
Anything creative, anything client-facing that needs nuance and anything that changes every time. That is where your team adds the most value, and where a bad automation would do the most damage.
How Plux Labs approaches it
Plux Labs works in three steps: educate, diagnose, implement. Guides like this one are the educate part. To diagnose, a free 30-minute ops audit maps where the repeatable work is. Then we implement the system in stages, starting with whichever part is losing you the most leads.
Want to know where this fits in your business?
Get your free 30-minute ops audit