Digital agencies struggling to automate their workflow: Here's why!

After talking to more than 300 agencies I have realized that more than 80% of these companies are still running on manual processes with next to automation. Surprisingly, for most, that's not down to a lack of trying. Most agency owners tried one or another tech product but when that didn't work out they went back to their old processes.

Any kind of change is tough and there is in general no real shortcut for long-term systematic changes. People are not going to take up extra work of changing their workflow because the most tangible benefit is for the founder, not the employees. But if you can forecast the bottlenecks at first, you can crack the implementation a lot better too.

Make sure your employees can save time too

At more than 90% of the agencies, we have had conversations with, the first meeting was with the management, then project managers and if they liked it, chances were high that we converted the client.

The problem generally happened afterward when we wanted to implement Onethread throughout the organization. Even after a trial with one team, the rest of the team struggled to implement it in their everyday workflow. Giving updates seemed like added work that no one was willing to do.

When we dug deep, we realized that all we cared about is what can we see when we use the solution. As in seeing who is working where, how your projects are going, making sure no one is missing a deadline, etc. Well, that's what everyone else does too so made sense. But that meant that an average employee who isn't looking to spend hours on this solution wasn't getting the use out of their time.

That prompted us to make a new UI of Onethread where we are making sure that the design is in sync with employees' everyday workflow and they can access their crucial info at their fingertips. We will have the feedback loop live soon so that it doesn't even seem like you are making a big pivot from using WhatsApp or google sheets if you have never used a solution before.

Make sure that your end users won't have to make a lot of adjustments to use the solution, rather the solution enhances their everyday lives and lets them breathe a bit more easily. So consult them before making the decision.

Employee perception of any solution:

We all have our preconceived ideas about everything. Tech products are no exception to that rule too. It might happen from seeing some social media post, hearing feedback from a friend, or just looking into targeted ads. When you are asking your employees to change something, it is imperative that they BELIVE that they can use the tech product that you are preaching.

In most agencies, we have seen a stark difference in terms of what employees think is usable vs what the management wants to use. You as a founder need to realize that your employees are the end user who will populate the solution with data and if they aren't comfortable then implementation will never be successful.

To do it in the best possible way, please understand the value proposition of a solution and the technical know-how of your employees. If most of your employees are non-tech and you try to implement a project management solution for your agency that is known within the high-tech industry, chances are high that your employees will outright reject it.

Extensive onboarding & implementation support

In this SaaS era, it is easy to think that everything should be automated. Well, every other SaaS company will tell you how easy it is to onboard into their solution but the harsh reality is that, for most agencies, this model just doesn't work.

You have to realize that this is a solution that is the betterment of the agency so the urgency that you have as an owner won't be reflected in the approach your employees take. You can provide all the documentation and tutorial videos but if your employees don't understand the solution very easily, they just simply won't use it.

Our experience at Onethread has been that less than 20% of our regular users have watched our tutorial videos and even less have gone through the documentation. You can make the solution as intuitive as you want but if these are users who have never used any solution to manage their workflow, they will just simply struggle to use it.

If possible, always do a training session within your organization so that everyone gets a basic idea of the product. Make sure that you don't overwhelm them. Like in Onethread the views of an employee and an admin are entirely different. There is no point burdening an employee with a lot more features that an admin can access.

Having a support system in their preferred medium goes a long way to help them understand everything better. Most people struggle with very minor stuff that can be solved in a few mins but if they can't figure it out, instead of watching a video, they will just go back to their old ways. That is why you need to make communication as easy as possible. We have thus made our support channel in-app, WhatsApp, Email, phone, etc. basically whatever you want.

Don't onboard the full team (for 30+ people teams) at once & be patient

Changing workflow is more of a process than most people would like to admit. This isn't something you decide today and from tomorrow everything magically changes. You need to give the whole process at least 6-8 weeks to be really beneficial.

Start with a small team especially if you are a large agency. Choose a team of 10-15 people who are most likely to adapt the solution quickly. Give it to them for 2 weeks and let them run 1-2 projects in it. They will come back with some feedback, use cases, and a general understanding of whether this is a good tool and if it is then how to get the best out of it.

Once you have created a critical mass within your agency, it is significantly easier to spread that throughout the company. Then you will have a team who knows the solution very well within your company and for most things, you won't even need external support to integrate. Also, having use cases mean that others have a clear blueprint on how to use the solution in their everyday lives.

If you are an agency owner and looking to automate your workflow, please make sure that your employees feel comfortable using it and that the solution is impacting their lives positively. If you are interested to understand the dynamics a bit more see how Onethread is helping digital agencies feel free to book a call with us and we will guide you through the whole process