There was a time in my business when a new client enquiry effectively had to wait for me.

If I was working, away from my desk or simply busy with something else, the enquiry sat there until I was available to deal with it. I would respond, move the client into the booking process, send the relevant information and keep pushing things forward manually.

Over time, I changed how that process worked.

A new enquiry could trigger an immediate response and move the client into the appropriate booking workflow. The relevant information would go out, contracts could follow and the booking could be confirmed without me having to sit at my desk moving everything from one stage to the next.

I remember being able to run a promotion and then go away on holiday knowing the business could still deal with the enquiries it generated. A client could potentially go from their initial enquiry through booking, contract and confirmation within hours, where previously that journey might have taken days or, in some circumstances, weeks.

For me, that was a much bigger benefit than simply saving some administrative time.

I'd removed my availability from a large part of the client's experience.

They didn't need to know whether I was working with another client, away for a few days or asleep when they made their enquiry. The process could keep moving, while I could still see what was happening and step in whenever a decision genuinely needed my judgement.

That experience has shaped how I think about automation now. I don't see the objective as removing people from a process wherever possible.

I'm much more interested in removing the waiting and repetitive work around them, so their time is available for the parts of the job where being human actually matters.