Category: virtual assistance

learn the unheeded power of follow-ups

Learn the Unheeded Power of Follow-ups

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Follow-ups are often considered annoyance, which is why even virtual assistants forget and neglect how important it is. Do you know that it has immense power that you may be missing? Have you ever thought why some marketers usually take note of following up or reconnecting? This is not to cause repetitive offering of their products or services. Instead, it is one way of actually catching a client.

There are also reasons why you should consider follow-ups in your virtual assistance work as early as today. To begin with, the following facts will open your eyes relative to its efficacy:

Keeping your clients organized. It is understandable that clients are always filled with schedules and appointments to attend to. This means that you are hired as a virtual assistant for you need to at least keep your client aware of his or her upcoming endeavors. Yes, they do have calendars and software applications to remind them, but this does not mean that they would always notice it.

This is when follow-ups are best used. Before even a meeting starts, follow up with your client. This will not only help him or her be prepared but this may also open for early cancellation, if an urgent matter arises. At least, you can still reach out to other participants of the meeting and notify them of the unforeseen revocation.

Avoiding deadlines. If your client has a deliverable to submit to the management or company concerned, following up with him or her would definitely help. Similar to what has been indicated earlier, a client is anticipated to be filled with a lot of things to do, so he or she needs reminding.

This also goes the same with you. For instance, you will be missing the deadline if you still have not obtained clarification regarding the instructions of the tasks given to you. If you would follow up, you would urge your client to attend to your concerns right away; thus, avoiding your output from being late.

Tracking the progress of your team. Team leaders would find follow-ups useful, especially if your subordinates have to work in unison. By following up, you could always remind your team members to avoid deadlines and focus on what has to be done. Moreover, follow-ups also prevent your subordinates from procrastinating.

Naturally, when employees are not receiving any follow-ups from their superiors, the tendency is for them to think that they are not being monitored. Additionally, this could lead to lower productivity.

Ensuring seamless transactions with customers. Considering you are working for a client, who has required you to work on invoicing and coordination with their clients for payments, you should also learn the essence of follow-ups. It may be quite disconcerting for you to follow up regarding a payment, but remember that this is part of the sales system. Thus, there would always be a time wherein you have to remind a certain party of an upcoming bill or missed payment. You cannot always rely on the fact that your customers will remember their due dates.

Better customer service. If you are assigned as a customer support, follow-ups are also powerful in making your company’s clients’ experience better. For instance, there is an issue that has been reported to you and you have provided a solution. If you would add a follow-up treatment on how the client is doing subsequent to your support, you would definitely find him or her pleased with your relentless concern.

With the provided facts, hopefully, you would already be encouraged to use follow-ups at work. But of course, too much is never right. Thus, you should reconnect in respectable manner – professional and alike to a soft reminding.

Identifying the Requirements You Need for a Virtual Assistant

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Finding the right virtual assistant is not only about the employee alone. Be reminded that your selection will be based on what you have stated as requirements. There are cases wherein clients somehow point fingers when it comes to unsuccessful obtainment of virtual assistance. Be reminded that in the first place, you are the one to identify what you need for a virtual assistant. You need to think big – you may have actually made a mistake in conveying your expectations for one.

If you want to find someone, who is perfectly fit for your firm or your personal assistance needs, there are pointers you could consider, such as the following:

Identify your time-consuming and routine tasks. You would find out the tasks you need help with if you could specify those that seem repetitive and take much of your time every day. Usually, these activities are clerical and administrative work, such as documentation, e-mail management, calendar management, and even invoicing among others.

Once you have carried out this step, you would be able to list down the skills you would need for a virtual assistant. Take note that not all tasks are meant to be passed onto your VA. Only let go of those that you believe can be handled by a rank-and-file staff and is not that sensitive or critical. Assigning bigger assignments or projects to a VA is advisable once trust is already established.

Never forget to specify your preferred personality. Clients should also give way to pinpointing the personality traits of their expected virtual assistant. For instance, you would need someone who is very organized, for you need that trait to sort out your end as well. On the other hand, you may state that you would rather work with someone who is punctual and can keep up with a strict schedule since your personality is such.

Keep in mind the schedule. There are clients who forget how essential specifying your desired schedule for a virtual assistant is. Be reminded that commonly, VAs have other part-time work as well (which is usual for gig workers and freelancers). Thus, if you do not want any conflicts and you want to ensure the virtual assistant would dedicate his or her focus on your tasks, then a schedule must be set.

Alternatively, if you are a client, who does not mind a free-flowing working relationship with your VA, then it could work as well. You simply have to clarify that you would not bother about a flexible schedule as long as the deliverables are submitted without missing the deadlines.

Special requests are always welcome. Clients have the privilege to ask for VA with traits, which are not normally required. For instance, you prefer someone who has worked with an employer of the same nationality as you. In such way, you would not have issues with the VA adjusting to your culture. Also, you may ask for a VA, who has a keen interest in art and music, for your industry is centered on those.

If you would follow the aforementioned statements, you would have easier means of finding out what you need for a virtual assistant. Once done, you would find out that a good start would definitely give you a better experience in getting virtual assistance.

How to Be an Effective Virtual Assistant to a Busybodied Client

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Clients hire virtual assistants for they are busy and can no longer handle routine or time-consuming tasks. Thus, it is expected that you will encounter someone, who would not always be present to guide you with the tasks every day and give you instruction all the time. You must remember that if you are a virtual assistant, you are prepared to become the most proactive and independent employee you can be.

It is true that you would need training or orientation at the start of your shift. Nonetheless, this implies that following this training, you have to find yourself suitable for work with as little counseling as possible.

If you are struggling to become an efficient virtual assistant to a busybodied client, you can start understanding the how-tos first. Relatively, given below are pointers that could assist you:

Set up a once-and-for-all meeting. You can term it as the once-and-for-all meeting for you will treat it as the first and last call you will have with your client. In such way, you would believe that you need to ask all the questions you need to be answered before carrying out any task going forward. If your client is totally filled with appointments, this meeting will give you a chance to at least get to know him or her. Additionally, you may even get guidelines on some parts of your work, which are quite complicated for you.

Be reminded that the said meeting is very critical. Without it, you may waste a lot of time inquiring every time and waiting for a response after every several hours during your shift. This is not a loss for you, but for your client as well, particularly if he or she is paying you by the hour.

Get as much information as you can about the firm. You would be able to carry out your tasks for a client if you will obtain as many company details as you can. For instance, you would not be able to sort out your client’s e-mails if you are not even acquainted with the people sending them.

Also, by understanding the operations of the company, you would be able to position yourself effectively. A good example is understanding that the marketing department would need your research in order for them to finalize their creation of an effective advertisement. In other words, if you are not aware that they need your input, they will also fail to carry out their part.

Start learning to organize your client. Be reminded that when your client is the busiest person you have encountered, this means that he or she needs you to organize him or her. Most of the time, their schedules are a mess and they do not even know what to prioritize in a day. This is your chance to become an effective virtual assistant.

You could begin fixing his or her calendar and taking care of scheduling his or her future appointments, so that there would be no conflicts to arise. Moreover, you should start sorting out his or her documents. In such way, in case he or she needs something for reference, it would be easier for your client to access it.

Be a representation of your client. You should be confident enough to speak with your client’s colleagues in his or her stead. In such way, you would also be able to anticipate what he or she needs. This is the part wherein you would somehow put yourself in your client’s shoes.

Additionally, if you have easier connections to your client’s contacts, you could do more things for him. For instance, instead of your client confirming a deliverable for your co-worker, you may do it instead. This will save him or her time, so he or she could focus on other tasks.

The aforementioned pointers are essential if you are aiming to become a reliable virtual assistant for your client. Indeed, it will be a rough road at first, but as you get accustomed to it, you would be surprised by how dependent your client to you already.

Virtual Work: Its Bright Future Seems Evident Now

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If you have been aware of virtual work around a decade ago, you would think that it is nothing but a scam. Truth to be told, there are definitely a lot of offers online, which would lure you into doing some work in exchange with nothing. Many freelancers have definitely experienced loss during their initial year of working from home. Nonetheless, this does not signify what remote work really is – easier means of earning money. You just have to find the right job offer and you can find yourself getting a wage way higher than what your typical office job can give.

As time passed, more people came to appreciate the essence of remote work, not only freelancers but companies in need of staff as well. This is in conjunction with the advancement in technology. With more tools or software applications around making virtual work easier, it became more manageable for companies to take in online freelancers.

Simply imagine having employees that do not require your office space and will not even put you in tax jeopardy. This is indeed gold for many firms!

It has been predicted before that soon enough, almost every company will consider taking in home-based employees. If not, they would actually let their people work from home from time to time. Alas! It just occurred in the Philippines recently.

The President of the Republic of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has signed the law, Republic Act No. 1165 termed as Telecommuting Act, which provides the staff of private companies the privilege of working from home.

Under the said law, telecommuting refers to an arrangement wherein as an employee, you are allowed to use computer technologies and telecommunication at home as replacement to your typical office. It would be highly advantageous to the companies concerned as well. Why? This is due to the fact that they will not be required to even take care of the telecommuting arrangements.

Indeed, in the aforementioned setup, employees would still be mandated to report to the main office whenever necessary. Still, this is a big leap for virtual work in the Philippines.

There is more to look forward to in the near future. Simply consider the rise of more technologies for improved remote work. There are more conference and collaboration tools available today, either free or paid, which any company can integrate into their operations. These are applications that make remote work much easier. This only implies that the door for employee coordination regardless of the distance is wide open now.

According to HR Technologist’s exclusive interview to the CEO and Founder of Topia, Brynne Kennedy, the workforce will see more involvement of remove work and gig workers. Additionally, Kennedy even quoted “An effective talent mobility program and infrastructure will continue to be very important for companies to succeed in the future of work!”

With the undeniably mass acceptance to remote work, there are definitely more opportunities that await virtual assistants, freelancers, or gig workers like you. For certain, there is more means for you to be proud of being an online worker, which somehow been rebuffed before. Take pride in your work for definitely, you chose wisely to be part of the ever-evolving virtual work industry.

Why Setting Deadlines Matters for You and Your Virtual Assistant

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In the virtual assistance world, it is common that clients let their virtual assistants decide when to actually finish their work – somehow providing them this chance to be proactive and independent. Nonetheless, do you know that setting deadlines also have its considerable perks for both parties?

There are some cases that without a deadline, your expectations may not meet at all. You may suddenly need the work in a couple of days, whereas your virtual assistant has not been able to begin with the task given he or she thought it could wait for a week or so. This contradiction could be prevented with the help of deadlines. It is not a school type of rule, for it also conveys a lot of things ideal for your employer-employee relationship.

To give you ideas, provided below are facts supporting why deadlines matter for you and your virtual assistant:

Planning is being welcomed. Due to the lack of deadlines, the essence of planning is often disregarded. Remember, planning is highly detrimental to the success of a certain project. If your virtual assistant will not be provided ample time to plan out, things could end up with revisions or less than likely output for you or your firm.

If you will set deadlines, your virtual assistant could consolidate his or her other tasks with the concerned project. He or she may also outline his or her schedule efficiently in order to give way to the execution of activities needed. No more multitasking, which has been proven to be unexpectedly ineffective.

Late submissions are reduced. When you set deadlines, you have the power to make a submission earlier than needed. For instance, you need a presentation for the upcoming board meeting in four days. Instead of actually requiring your virtual assistant to deliver the presentation a day before the board meeting, you may simply give him or her two days to complete it. In other words, by the second day, he or she should have given you the work.

There will be no more procrastination on both ends. You can even pave way for revisions or changes since there is still a considerable time left for those.

Improved speed in production is being endorsed. Since you will limit the time your virtual assistant has to use in completing a task, you will also support him or her in increasing his or her pace in production. Whenever deadlines are absent, VAs tend to relax and set time limits according to their convenience. This is not a good thing for it closes the door for improvement.

The aforementioned three points prove that deadline, no matter how trivial it may sound for you, is totally necessary despite how trustworthy or reliable your virtual assistant is. It only takes a minute or less to decide when you need a certain work from your employee; definitely, it will not waste your time, but the contrary once you practice setting deadlines.