Have you counted how many tasks you do in a day?
On any given day, it could include responding to customer service enquiries, conducting product research and getting parcels ready for delivery. After the workday has ended, you might spend your evenings balancing the books and getting admin done.
Research from accounting software provider Reckon found that 46% of the 1,300 small business owners surveyed say that admin is “killing the dream” that made them start one in the first place.
Thankfully, there are plenty of apps that can help reduce that amount of administration on your plate and keep the dream alive. Instead of scouring the internet and spending even more time on finding effective software to automate your business, take a look at our top recommendations.
Time-Saving Customer Service Apps
“Where’s my parcel?”
“How much longer will it be?”
“Does it come in blue?”
Answering customer enquiries can seem like a full-time job in itself. It doesn’t help that 39% of customers expect a response to social media enquiries within an hour, according to Hubspot. Fortunately, these apps can help.
Our Picks
- Giosg: A combination of live chat, chatbots and AI that can automate your frontline support and capture quality leads for retargeting.
- Helpshift: In-app messaging support so your customers don’t need to leave the platform to interact with you.
- PushEngage: Automate personalised push notifications that alert customers of new products, update them on deliveries and keep them engaged.
- Manychat: Social media messaging app designed to satisfy customer queries, drive sales and gather leads.
- Okendo: Sends surveys to customers to gather insights, preferences and behaviours while also encouraging them to leave reviews for your business.
How These Apps Save You Time
Stopping what you’re doing every time you hear a ding on your mobile can kill momentum. Especially when most of the time customers are asking about the same type of questions that basic bot software could be answering. These time-saving apps can respond to your customers most common questions so you can focus on other high-value tasks that get your business momentum rolling!
Bookkeeping and Accounting Software
Balancing the books is something you want to take your time with. It’s also a task you don’t want to get wrong, as it can have direct consequences for your business instead of using Excel or Google Sheets. Try these tools.
Our Picks
- Wave: A one-stop-shop for invoicing, payments, accounting, payroll and more.
- FreshBooks: Whether you are self-employed or a small business owner, FreshBooks can help keep your accounts in check.
- TaxJar: If you’re worried about staying sales tax compliant, this innovative app can remove this worry.
- Reckon: Manage everything from your cash flow to your income to your expenses in real time and with ease.
How These Apps Save You Time
Even if you have a background in accounting or finance, managing cash flow and expenses can be time-consuming. Your day is better spent looking for opportunities to scale your business and reach new markets.
Apps for Administrative Tasks
The Alternative Board reported that small business owners spend almost 70% of their time on day-to-day tasks instead of long-term goals and strategies. Admin tasks make up the majority of these tasks, especially emails. These apps help reduce this time so it can be better spent elsewhere.
Our Picks
- Calendly: Don’t go back and forth on emails trying to find the perfect time for a meeting. Use Calendly to automate the process and find a moment that suits everyone.
- ChatGPT: Use AI to generate email responses that sound professional and satisfy all your customer’s enquiries.
How These Apps Save You Time
Many ecommerce owners work more than 50 hours a week trying to stay on top of it all. It can lead to physical and mental health issues, including burnout. Using time-saving apps like these can make running a business a little easier.
Product Development Apps
Customer trends can move at the speed of light. In order to keep up with what’s hot and what’s not, you need support that goes beyond employee insights and consultants.
Our Picks
- Hotjar: Discover how customers use your website so you can make enhancements and improve user experience.
- PickFu: Run polls, A/B testing and more so you can collect feedback on what’s working well and what isn’t.
- JungleScout: Learn the secrets to succeeding on Amazon by gathering competitor data and using it to scale your business.
- Helium 10: Collect product, marketing and keyword research to help grow your store on ecommerce platforms or marketplaces.
How These Apps Save You Time
Hiring consultants is expensive, and you already have enough on your plate to conduct data analysis on your business. These time-saving apps are designed to do all the hard work for you within seconds rather than forcing you to spend hours figuring out why a competitor is doing well. The answer could be that they’re using one of these programs.
Time Management Apps
Poor time management can lead to missed deadlines, increased stress, and burnout. It can also stop your business from reaching its goals. Clockify reports that 82% of business owners don’t have a dedicated time management system. They should check out these ones.
Our Picks
- Monday.com: Customizable workflows that fit any business and are designed to boost efficiency and productivity.
- Toggl: Forget about timesheets. Toggl can easily record billable hours, so you’re not manually counting the minutes throughout the day.
- Interparcel: Integrate Interparcel with one or all of your ecommerce platforms or marketplaces so you can import orders to manage in a single-view dashboard, automate manual fulfillment tasks and compare rates from Australia’s largest selection of courier providers.
How These Apps Save You Time
As a business owner, there are plenty of small and manual tasks that you might know you’re doing. They all waste time and stop you from focusing on your business objectives. Integrating these time-saving apps can automate many of these duties and keep you focused on your goals.
Fulfillment Automation App
Without the appropriate fulfillment app, you could spend a day shopping around courier provider websites for the best delivery rate. But it often requires you to copy and paste each order one by one into a postage calculator to get the quote. There is a better way.
Our Picks
How Interparcel Saves You Time
Whether you’re selling products using a Shopify store or exporting orders to a CSV file, managing them all in a single-view dashboard will save you much more time than manually fulfilling them one by one. You can easily integrate your ecommerce platform and then use the rule manager to create automation rules that fast track the entire fulfillment process. You can also use our other shipping tools, including Print Manager, Branded Tracking Portal and the International Bulk Solution, to save more hours in the day.
Reclaim Your Day Now!
If you’re experiencing burnout or want to find a better way to manage your business, these time-saving apps can help. Rather than integrate them all at once, start with a platform that won’t cost you anything and will make a significant difference to your operations.
Our pick is Interparcel! Sign up for your free account today and start saving time on manual and repetitive fulfillment tasks.
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