Tag: virtual assistance

Can You Assure Professionalism From a Virtual Assistant?

Leave a comment

Oftentimes, businessmen or professionals in need of assistance with their work find it easy to hesitate in hiring a virtual assistant. This is understandable, especially if it is a fairly new concept for them. However, this common misconception about virtual assistant being an ineffective choice of employment should be debunked. There are many reasons why, and you could start with the utmost professionalism offered by virtual assistants.

There is not much of a difference. Did you know that even business people could attest that there is very little difference in terms of hiring a local-based employee and a virtual assistant? This is due to the fact it is simply true. You could say that the most apparent discrepancy between a VA and an office employee is the location of their workplace. The former is at his or her home, whereas the latter is at your company headquarters.

VAs do not need much of an adjustment. Most virtual assistants have years of experience working in an office-based setting. Thus, it is rather incorrect to assume that they are not aware of how things work in a company.

Furthermore, one cannot deny that once a VA is on board, he or she has to follow rules and regulations, which they have complied with previously, as well. Obviously, there is nothing much to worry about in terms of their adjustment. Once again, the major difference is where they will work, which is at their home.

Virtual assistants are used to a fast-paced environment. Most projects or work required in an online setting is subjected to a deadline. You could be certain that despite the urgency of tasks in your workplace, you would not encounter the VA faltering or complaining. Why? This is due to the fact they are used to such a situation, wherein they have to manage their time effectively to assure submission of work without missing the completion time. This can also be attested by the fact VAs work on an hourly or per-project basis.

Communication can still be seamless. If you worry about the coordination proper, then you should know that communication can still be seamless with a virtual assistant. With the advancement in technology, you have tons of options on how to communicate with your VA – e-mail, voice call, video call, or message. Relaying information, assigning a task, or even conducting a meeting is undeniably easy.

Virtual assistants also guarantee that the said communication means will not be affected throughout their shift given they use a stable internet connection. Should there be a cut-off, a backup is just right the corner.

Absences or late reporting should not be an issue. With the convenience offered by their setup, virtual assistants are less likely to report late or miss their work. This is regardless of their schedule, particularly if it is a night shift one. This keeps you from worrying about delayed projects or missed deadlines. Take note that office-based workers often report late or miss work due to their issue with the difficulty of transportation.

With the aforementioned facts, there is no refuting that hiring a virtual assistant could be your easy solution to common problems you encounter with your employees.

What Flexibility Means With Having a Virtual Assistant

Leave a comment

You would definitely encounter lots of businesses or individuals, who are hiring virtual assistants, to claim that they found the flexibility of a VA highly advantageous for their needs. However, you may have a vague understanding of this matter. You see, there are two primary things that could explain why a virtual assistant is versatile.

To begin with, a virtual assistant is flexible in terms of skills. In other words, you would not have an issue in having a well-rounded VA, either in terms of administrative or non-administrative tasks. Unlike office-based employees, virtual assistants are often necessitated to do various tasks for one client. One can be very helpful in clerical work, marketing, graphic design, and even website maintenance all at the same time. For certain, finding one is quite difficult if you are in a typical office setting.

The aforementioned setup is common among virtual assistants and their corresponding clients. This does not imply that the VAs are treated unfairly or being assigned with too many activities to handle. One can do a lot of things by simply dedicating specific time for each. For instance, there are scenarios wherein a virtual assistant would carry out social media management for three days a week and focus on administrative work for the remaining two days of the work week.

Another amazing thing about virtual assistants’ flexibility in relation to skills is how one’s educational background does not influence what they can do as a remote worker. Did you know that there are VAs at present, who finished an arts-related bachelor’s degree but can also handle IT work? This is pretty astonishing for some, but their experience outweighs their educational background. They become equipped with necessary abilities through working with various clients of differing requirements.

Apart from the skills point of view, a virtual assistant may also be flexible in terms of schedule or shift. There is none more adaptive to any culture or professional environment other than a VA. A client is never required to adjust to their VA’s time zone. Instead, it is the other way around. Despite the difference in location, a virtual assistant must follow the current time zone of his or her client. This is regardless of working on a night shift basis.

From the given facts, it is irrefutable that having a virtual assistant is a great benefit for someone, who needs an employee that could comply with most of his or her requirements. Virtual assistance successfully breaks down the limitations that are often met in an office-based setting. This is the reason why, soon enough, more corporate entities will come to appreciate the essence of hiring remote workers.

Traits That a Virtual Team Member Should Possess

Leave a comment

Virtual assistance is not limited to working alone or carrying out tasks for your client individually. There will be cases that you need to work in teams. Thus, you need act as a team member and cooperate accordingly. Nonetheless, being a part of a group does not entail that you will simply handle your tasks and you are done. There are traits that you should possess in order for you to contribute well to the success of your team’s project. There is more to just receiving instructions and doing them.

In order to enlighten you, given below are the traits you should possess as a team member:

Open to Communication. You should note that even in team work, communication is a foundation for success. If you are not communicating well with your co-members, you may end up not understanding what exactly you have to do. Alternatively, they may not be aware of your concerns.

There should be exchange of not only instructions, but suggestions, propositions, and criticisms in a team. This is critical, particularly in a setting wherein all of you are working remotely. Relatively, you only depend on calls or messages to ensure a certain project is accomplished.

Friendliness. If you are too stoic, you may give an impression that you do not want to work with your team members. There is nothing wrong with establishing friendship with your co-members. In truth, this is your means to ensure that everyone is comfortable with one another, making your work more bearable, regardless of the pressure around.

Highly Professional. There will always be a possibility that not all of your team members will have the same perspective as you do. This implies that you have to be understanding at a greater extent, which can be synonymous to being highly professional. You are not meant to argue and win a discussion. Your goal is to stick by what is right and accept your mistake, should you commit one, minus the heated arguments.

Instead of simply focusing on your own beliefs, you should also put yourself in the situation of others. This is when you will have a better view of what is best for all of you as a team.

Benevolent in Sharing Knowledge. If you have been in the workplace longer than the others, you should be kind enough to assist and impart your knowledge to others. Remember, in teams, one’s success is everyone’s. If you will keep your skills to yourself, you may end up impairing the possibility of your team to carry out tasks effectively.

Whenever your team members are asking for your opinion or guidance for a certain task, do not neglect them. Instead, consider it your responsibility to train them.

On the other hand, if you are a new member, accept the learning being channeled to you. This is regardless of how skillful or experience you think you are. Note that one environment could be different from another.

Blunt. As mentioned earlier, criticisms are also exchanged among team members. Thus, if you want your co-members to improve, do not be afraid to voice out your concerns regarding their inefficient workplace behavior or need to better their skills.

In return, you should also let your team know that you are open to receiving negative feedback regarding your work. This will create an atmosphere of pursuing growth and learning rather than competition among your team members.

To sum all the points provided above, a quote from Henry Ford would definitely be ideal:

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

 

How Understanding Your Client Takes You a Long Way

Leave a comment

You need to understand that a relationship between you and your client is two-way. In other words, aside from your employer considering your situation as a whole when it comes to assigning you tasks, you also have to give regards to his or hers as well. This is a bigger picture that some virtual assistants miss.

To make it clearer, one good example is when your client misses providing you a task for your shift. As a result, you kept on waiting during the day and you wasted your hours, which is not a good feeling for you as a virtual assistant who is paid by the hour. This is despite the fact your client does not mind to pay for your stagnant hours.

When the said type of situation arises, you should avoid acting hastily and bother your client repeatedly. Indeed, there will be cases that you should already have the initiative to reach out and ask for tasks, either via message or call. Still, you have to keep it to the minimum. Otherwise, you may end up becoming an annoyance to your client. Why? This is due to the fact that you fail to realize first what should have caused him or her from missing to provide you activities to carry out in a day.

Keep in mind that your client is most likely a person, who is filled with appointments to attend to, not to mention the other tasks he or she has to carry out daily. This is highly applicable if your client is a business person. This only means that there is a big responsibility on his or her shoulders. A simple task (for you) of giving a task may not be the case for him or her, especially now that it would consume his or her valued time.

Another good example of understanding your client’s situation is in terms of analyzing his or her mood. You cannot simply say that a person is not fond of you or having negative feelings towards you due to a simple “short and direct” reply. Be reminded, once again, that your client is a busy person. Thus, you could anticipate that your client will not even have plenty of time to speak with you or elaborate things further when you are inquiring about something. They would be straightforward as much as possible.

Do you know that some virtual assistants even encounter clients, who do not even communicate after sending tasks? Hence, consider yourself fortunate for having a busy client, who still finds time to support you.

By being an understanding virtual assistant to your client, you would have a better approach to dealing with him or her. You would not demand too much for attention or time. Instead, you will do your best to ensure exemplary work delivered to him or her without putting much pressure on his or her highly engaged life.

With a personality as such, your client will be more confident to trust you and work with you going forward. This could also be a ground for him or her to keep you for the long-term.

Why Reporting Your Daily Accomplishments Matters

Why Reporting Your Daily Accomplishments Matters

Leave a comment

Communication has always been an essential part of taking the role of a virtual assistant. However, it is not simply a single entity, but is composed of various factors that should be identified individually. One of the essential components of effective communication in virtual assistance is updating the client of your daily accomplishments.

Various virtual assistants tend to make the mistake of not even giving their clients report on the things that were finished for the day. As a result, problems arise. For instance, clients would need to spend extra time simply to check if you have done your work for the day. This will definitely be a bother, especially if he or she is often caught up with tons of appointments daily. Remember, you are a virtual assistant for various reasons, one of which is to lighten the burden of your client.

Moreover, there is a possibility that your client may even doubt if you have done anything for the day. This is normalcy, especially if the virtual assistant simply logs in and leaves work without even considering to update his or her client. This has been experienced surely by a handful of VAs already. The end scenario is always that he or she has to defend his or her end. This is an event that could have been prevented in the first place.

By updating your client, you will also help in keeping him or her aware if he or she is still supplying you tasks as necessary. There are clients, who depend on what you report prior to delegating further activities on your end.

There are various ways to keep your client aware of your daily accomplishments. One good example is to maintain a habit of updating him or her every time you have done an activity. This is regardless of not receiving any response from your client often. As long as you are certain he or she is able to read your updates, this could already work.

On the other hand, you may report at the end of your work day instead. Simply ensure that your report is concise enough, which will keep your client from reaching out to you and clarify things out. Otherwise, this would just make the whole idea of updating him or her useless.

As a virtual assistant, updating your client could also be your opportunity to keep open communication between you two. This is also your chance to ask questions and even propose better means of executing certain activities for him or her. Alternatively, as you exchange words regarding your tasks, you can even learn from your client as he or she shares how things should be done more effectively.

Always keep in mind that even though you are a virtual assistant, this does not imply that you have to alter your work ethics altogether and adopt robotlike manners. Even if you are working home-based, you should still preserve human touch while reporting to your client. You may not be physically present, but you can appear to be such with the way you work.

Communicate continually.