List the candidates
Write down every repetitive task someone mentioned in the last month. Typical candidates for a service business:
- Replying to new inquiries and assigning them.
- Sending booking confirmations and reminders.
- Creating jobs or projects after a sale.
- Chasing missing information from new clients.
- Sending invoices and payment reminders.
- Requesting reviews after completed jobs.
- Copying data between two systems.
Score each one
Use a 1–3 scale for each factor, using your own estimates. Precision isn't the point; comparison is.
| Factor | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequency | Monthly or less | Weekly | Daily or more |
| Time per occurrence | A minute or two | Several minutes | Longer |
| Cost of mistakes or delay | Minor | Annoying | Loses work or money |
| Rule clarity | Mostly judgement | Some judgement | Clear rules |
| Tool readiness | Tools don't connect | Possible with effort | Supported integrations exist |
Add the scores. High totals are your best candidates. A low score on rule clarity or tool readiness is a warning even if the total is high — those are the factors that make projects drag.
Sanity-check the top two
For each of the top two, answer:
- Can you describe the steps in one paragraph?
- Do you know who owns the outcome?
- Is the current process consistent, or does each person do it differently?
- What happens today when it goes wrong?
If the process is inconsistent, standardise it by hand for a couple of weeks first. Automating a messy process makes the mess faster. The workflow audit checklist helps here.
Common good first choices
- Inquiry acknowledgement and routing — frequent, clear rules, customer-visible benefit. See inquiry acknowledgements.
- Booking reminders — clear trigger, measurable effect on no-shows in your own records.
- Post-sale handoff — reduces dropped details between selling and delivering.
Common poor first choices
- Anything involving pricing decisions or custom quotes.
- Workflows that span many teams with unclear ownership.
- Processes that change every few weeks.
- Anything where your tools have no supported way to connect.
Then estimate whether it's worth it
Once you have a candidate, put rough numbers on it with how to estimate whether an automation is worth it, using your own figures.
Questions
Should I automate my biggest problem first?
Not necessarily. Big problems are often big because they involve judgement, unclear rules or several teams. Start with something smaller that you can finish, then use what you learn.
What if every candidate scores low?
That can be a useful answer. It may mean the bigger opportunity is a clearer website, a better form or simply clearer ownership — not automation yet.
Next step
Start with one workflow worth fixing.
Bring the real steps, the tools you already use and the place the handoff gets stuck. We review feasibility, access and approval points before quoting — no instant integration promise.
See Business Automations for what we scope, or prepare a custom quote brief.