Do you feel your organization would benefit from a Virtual Assistant? Yet, you are unsure what a Virtual Assistant is or what they can offer? Then read on to find out.

The pandemic has caused many organizations to rethink their business strategies and make the most with less. The first and foremost cost-cutting method is reducing the staff size. Most organizations have let go of their employees and instead hired remote workers to do the same job. These organizations have sustained through the pandemic and are still going strong. Adaptability is the key here and is much-needed in the present global scenario.

Remote help is a driving force for many businesses. Let’s see how a Virtual Assistant can help you today.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A Virtual Assistant is an experienced person working remotely for an organization. They are usually part-time employees or freelancers hired to do various tasks. VA’s can be administrative assistants, social media managers, marketing executives, bookkeeping experts, etc.

What can a Virtual Assistant do?

Though a Virtual Assistant can do many tasks, we list some of the most sought-after ones here.

• Administrative tasks: A Virtual Assistant works remotely in place of a receptionist. Their tasks include-
  • answering phone calls
  • data entry
  • scheduling meetings, appointments, etc
  • travel arrangements
  • creating to-do lists
  • MS Office tasks(documents, spreadsheets, presentations)
  • MS Excel Macro creation
• Website handling: Your business website is the window to the world. Content for a website should be engaging and fresh. Blogs are a great way to increase traffic to a website. It boosts traffic to the website through search engine optimization. Virtual Assistants are perfect for content creation. You can assign the entire blog-handling task to them – writing articles, finding images, and uploading the blogs regularly.
• Finance tasks: For a small business, taking care of purchases, budgeting, and keeping track of expenses can be outsourced to a Virtual Assistant. It frees you from the day-to-day activities of finance but keeps you on track concerning taxes.
• Customer service: The advantage of hiring a VA for handling customer service is their flexible work hours. An on-site receptionist can only take calls during office hours, whereas a VA can answer calls and handle queries beyond office hours. This way, you do not lose out on potential clients.
• Email management: Business emails are a way of marketing and closing deals. Writing the perfect email to a client can be daunting. Regular email correspondence is a time-consuming and mundane activity easily outsourced to a VA. They can
  • organize your inbox
  • sift through daily emails and escalate important ones
  • reply to general emails and do follow-ups
  • carry out marketing campaigns
• Social Media Management: Businesses today use social media for marketing and promotion. As most customers are online and use social media as their preferred mode of communication, businesses invest in a solid social media management plan. Virtual Assistants can engage with customers and potential leads and lead them to your business website.

What is the right time to hire a VA?

A Virtual Assistant is a huge help to any organization. Consider hiring one when your business comes under these categories:

• Hiring a full-time employee seems unnecessary. There may be tasks that are simple but repetitive. These may not need many hours of work. Hiring a VA will cut down on wages as you would be paying only for the number of hours worked.
• You spend too much time on non-innovative tasks. Taking calls and sorting through emails can take all day and will not be productive in the long run. A VA is a perfect solution for this.

So if you feel it’s the right time to hire a Virtual Assistant, we give you a list of advantages to further seal the deal.

• Reduces costs
• Frees up time
• Increased marketing through social media
• Pay for expertise

How do you manage a VA?

Communication is the key here. Since it is remote, you can use tools like Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, etc., for video chatting or sending messages. There are project management tools that you can use to streamline daily/weekly/monthly tasks. Performance monitoring tools for tracking the productivity of your VA are helpful. It helps track working hours, idle time, activity levels, etc. You can use it to pay your VA based on the information.

Where to look for a Virtual Assistant?

AppsComp is one such service provider with years of experience in the industry. We have well-trained Virtual Assistants who can start from day one.

Contact us at hello@appscomp.com to know more.