4 ideas for how advisers can reduce repetition with technology

Technology should come to our rescue when we are faced with repetitive tasks we’d rather not take on. Addressing repetition with technology can provide greater efficiency, fewer errors, more profit and less stress. With that in mind, I’ve come up with several ideas for programs. Perhaps I’m about to give away a great idea (or more). If that’s the case, I’m OK with it as long as I get to use the final product. Or, it’s possible that one (or more) of these tools already exists. If that’s the case, I’m hoping my readers will point this out to me. Here are my ideas:

Task organizer: We have CRMs to manage workflows and assign tasks. I’d like to see this concept taken a step further. When I have several projects to complete, with varying time estimates and deadlines, I would value software that could automatically tell me when to work on what project. Let’s say I have a financial plan due in two weeks that will take me 15 hours, a tax-research project that will take four hours that is due in one week, a weekly blog to write that takes three hours each, and employee reviews to write and deliver that will take 25 hours and must be done within two weeks. Adding that all up, I have 50 hours of scheduled work in two weeks. Not counting meetings, I (coincidentally) have 50 hours available in the next two weeks. By inputting these items and the meetings already in my calendar, my handy task organizer will tell me which project to work on at any given time so I’ll meet every deadline.

Meeting scheduler: Between Outlook calendar and online programs like Doodle, groups of people enter their availability to find meeting times that work for all involved. I want something more automatic. For example, in my organization, we record all appointments in our Outlook calendars. If I want to meet for 30 minutes at the earliest possible time with Steve and Nick, Outlook should automatically find the next 30-minute slot that works for all three of us and schedule the appointment.

Voicemail options: Our phone systems let us record a multitude of greetings, including options for vacations, lunchtime, evenings, weekends, etc. Why not have options based on who is calling? Our CRM has phone numbers and names of all of our clients. When a call comes in from a client, they would hear a special greeting just for clients. A call coming in from a referral source would get a different greeting. There could also be separate greetings for family members, friends, employees and, of course, a general greeting. How cool would it be for the greeting to be personalized, such as, “Hi, Chris or a Ruby, I’m in a meeting right now but I’ll get back to you as soon as I get out. Please let me know what you’d like to talk about, at the beep.” Or “Hi, Dad, I’m in a meeting. If it’s urgent, please text. Otherwise, I’ll call you back later.”

Delete and unsubscribe: No matter how many filters I have or how many times I spend hours replying “unsubscribe” to unwanted emails, they always creep up and flood my inbox. As I go through my inbox, I may or may not respond to particular emails, then I either save the read email to a folder or delete the item. It would be nice to have a “delete and unsubscribe” button that would automatically remove me from email lists.

That’s it for my wish list. I’m hoping there are some bright, entrepreneurial programmers out there. Any volunteers?

Sheryl Rowling is head of rebalancing solutions at Morningstar Inc. and principal at Rowling & Associates. She considers herself a non-techie user of technology.