If you’re a manager of a business in the Asia-Pacific region, you’ll need to juggle implementing the latest business techniques while working with employees from various cultures. It’s your job to stay current with industry trends, cultural events and changes to your own business. You’ll need to keep your finger on the pulse of issues like AI and automation.

This might seem like an immense challenge, but managing an Asia-Pacific business can also be incredibly rewarding. In this article, we’ll share some tips to keep in mind as a manager working in the region.

Outsource Payroll

Many tasks are too time-consuming to accomplish with your current team size, and you might not have the resources to hire new employees to tackle them. If you’re facing this problem, you should consider outsourcing payroll services and other tedious jobs to third-party agencies.

Outsourcing your payroll in particular can be a lifesaver. Paying your employees is a time-consuming and, at times, confusing task for APAC managers. You need to issue accurate paychecks, factoring in total hours worked, base pay, overtime, taxes and superannuation or retirement/pension fund contributions.

It’s easy to make mistakes in this process, and nothing will upset your team members more than not being paid their correct amount. What’s more, mistakes can be an absolute headache to go back and fix. An inefficient payroll system can cost you plenty of time going back and fixing the paperwork and, worse, skilled employees who might be growing frustrated with your company’s payroll mistakes.

By outsourcing your payroll to a company that can automate these tasks, you can rest assured knowing that this task is in the hands of a dedicated company with the latest technology. This allows you to spend your time focusing on other tasks, like finance, marketing and business planning.

Automate Invoicing and Accounting

If your business issues invoices to clients regularly, sticking with a manual process can be time-consuming and leave you vulnerable to human error. Thankfully, digital invoicing is on the rise. To avoid wasting time and making mistakes, you should consider investing in an invoicing or accounting tool that can automate tasks you previously accomplished by hand.

Many invoicing tools can be tailored to suit your company’s needs. For instance, you can program an invoicing software to automatically generate invoices and send them to clients based on the line items like goods supplied or services provided. You can even use one of these tools to issue late payment reminders based on whether or not the invoice has been paid on time. Another bonus of these systems is that they make end-of-financial-year reporting and tax returns smooth and seamless, as they can calculate the income you’ve generated via invoices when it is tax time.

If your business is currently struggling with manual invoice creation, an automated invoicing tool can save you plenty of time and stress.

Automate Customer Service with AI Chat Bots

Many APAC businesses deal with massive amounts of customers and customer inquiries, which isn’t surprising given the population of the region. There are plenty of common queries clients come to companies with, such as whether or not you have a specific item in stock and whether or not a particular product is suitable for their needs. Customers might also ask about late deliveries and missing items, damaged goods and more.

With the rise of AI in business, it’s now possible to automate answering queries. A great first line of customer service is a tool like a dedicated chatbot. These tools can be used for initial website enquiries and can be programmed to give pre-prepared responses to the most common questions. If the bot can’t address a more complex issue, it can prompt the customer to fill out an inquiry form or directly connect them to a frontline customer service agent. The human employee can then further investigate the problem and offer a resolution.

Marketing Campaign Automation

Marketing is an essential aspect of any APAC business as it allows you to build a stronger following, sell products and create brand awareness. There are an endless number of marketing tasks, including running search engine ads, managing social media pages and writing copy for promotional emails.

Like other business tasks, marketing can get incredibly time-consuming. You can leverage technology to your advantage to speed up many marketing activities. For instance, you can use social media marketing tools to schedule and arrange your posting across a range of platforms. You can also automate email marketing by creating flows with a tool like Mailchimp.

One common form of automated email targets potential customers who’ve abandoned their carts. This might be due to expensive shipping or because they found a better deal elsewhere. If you manage an APAC eCommerce business, you should create automated emails that target these customers. Send personalised reminders using customers’ names to get their attention. You can even throw in financial incentives like discounts or free shipping.

You can also outsource tasks like creating ad visuals, running your social media accounts and creating SEO-optimised website content with the help of a digital marketing agency with automation tools you may non possess in-house.

~

Business managers in the APAC region face unique challenges, but working in the region also offers incredible opportunities. Due to the fast-paced nature of APAC countries, you want to make your business as efficient as possible.

In this article, we’ve gone over some key ways to automate your business processes. Apply these tips today to turn your company into a well-oiled machine.