Tag: virtual assistant

Quick Roundup of Productivity Tips for Virtual Assistants

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Virtual assistants could be considered among the busiest professionals at present. This is due to the fact that being in the online industry provides you the freedom to select different fields to enter. You could be an administrative VA while working as technical support for another client. Freelancing had given people a wider scope of opportunities to take advantage of. Nonetheless, this also implies that one may likely encounter issues with productivity one way or the other, particularly when tasks become heavier.

Every virtual assistant or even an office-based employee will find an instance wherein he or she will procrastinate. This is perfectly normal, but it does not mean that you should let it be. There are ways for you to remain productive in the midst of stressful environments and a stack of projects. Given below is a quick list of these tips:

Have a healthy meal before working.There is nothing better than ensuring your body is nourished properly before it goes to work. The more nutritious your food choices are, the more your system will have the energy to carry out both mundane and nerve-wracking projects at work. Vitamin C, B-vitamins, DHA, and magnesium are among nutrients that are found to boost productivity.

Get adequate sleep. Many would say that it is impossible to get enough sleep nowadays as a virtual assistant, but this is untrue. Regardless of being a night owler or a typical daytime employee, you have the power over the number of hours you doze off. All you have to do is get rid of the distractions, which keep you from sleeping well. The nuisances you may want to cross out are internet browsing, television, and social media.

Create a to-do list. By planning out your day, you would be able to prioritize the most important assignments and get rid of the tasks that are unnecessary. You could even allocate certain periods of time for every activity, helping you to make the most out of your day. You could create this list the day before or hours prior to your shift.

De-stress. You have to get rid of the stress of facing unfinished work, which affects your productivity. In order to do this, you should spend time with your family and friends. Alternatively, you may select hobbies that will keep your mind off your work.

Take a break when things get restless. You have to take a “real” break, which means you should clear your head off from anxieties and stress. This could be done while you are at work. A few minutes of breathing in and out could be a great thing to reset your mind and body. This could even give you a clearer judgment of what to do next with your work-related problems.

Follow the aforementioned pieces of advice and you could boost your productivity easily. Take note that you have control over your performance at work, both in improving and making it poor.

How Important Customer Service Is to Your Business

How Important Customer Service Is to Your Business

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You are certainly aware of how word of mouth works in terms of marketing your business. Relative to this, people will not recommend you to their peers unless you have provided them good service or product. As for the former, it includes customer assistance, as well, whether it is simply for answering inquiries or solving a dispute.

At present, there are still businesses, which fail to provide exemplary customer service, resulting in their poor reviews from clients or even prospects. Did you know that a simple act of responding to a customer’s inquiry in short notice matters a lot? This is due to the fact it implies how you want to cater to the client’s needs immediately, which should always be the case.

You should push your organization to take customer service into consideration greatly. Given are the following reasons that could enlighten you:

Prevention of Buying Barriers. If people would find out that you have a good record in customer service, which includes handling issues like returns and refunds, they will have no issue purchasing a product from you. Even the ones hesitant to do so would be persuaded to deal with your business.

Representation of Your Brand Image. Your customer service also embodies your firm. If you will fail to provide exemplary customer service, you may taint your brand image, making people assume that your values as an organization may not be as solid as these are claimed to be.

Customer Retention. Did you know that companies successful in retaining their clients tend to earn at least 25% more profit compared to acquiring new customers? Clients would likely obtain more of your products or services by 67% by convincing them to stick with your brand. One good example is in groceries where one research was conducted. Apparently, with a rating of one to five, an increment of one point in satisfying customers have resulted in higher customer retention percentage. Although it is not specifically stated that customer service is the sole reason for keeping clients, still, it influences people not to look the other way in choosing a brand.

Better Understanding of Your Offer. People, at times, tend to have a misconception regarding the scope of your product or service. By having a customer service team to entertain inquiries regarding your product or services, customers will have a better understanding of what to expect from your business.

Improved Anticipation of Customer Needs and Wants. If you maintain a consistent stream of communication with your customers, you would also have the advantage to find out what they need or want. This could be beneficial in improving your existing product or service. Alternatively, you may also have more ideas on what to offer next.

With the aforementioned facts, there should be more reasons for you to revamp your customer service. If you believe your hands are already full to handle client support, then probably it is time for you to hire a virtual assistant experienced in the field. By having an extra hand with assisting your customers, you would even have more time to focus on other aspects of your business.

Understanding How Critical File Management Is to Businesses

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There are many aspects in a business that one often takes for granted, disregarding the fact they are as relevant as any other firm’s matters. Be reminded that a structure of a business would not be complete without its so-called trivial parts, such as administrative stuff. One of the things that are often brushed aside by business owners is documents or file management. There will still be instances wherein you would encounter a company, having a less organized set of files.

Prior to knowing how critical file management is to your firm, you should first have an idea of what it looks like in a well-designed condition. Primarily, a filing system that is effective should make the task of finding information or records less tedious. This is to enforce the prevention of time wastage. Furthermore, an efficient file system must be flexible, which implies it could be expanded, as necessary, as your business grows.

In order to give you further encouragement in applying documents management to your business, here are its advantages to your business:

Time Savings. Saving time at work could be considered the kernel of cost reduction. If you will allow your people to have a system for easier information obtainment, there will be no more delays in tasks’ accomplishments. Furthermore, instead of picking up the wrong files, documents management will allow them to select ones that they should use in any given situation.

Conclusively, with time being saved accordingly, your staff’s productivity and effectiveness in carrying out their tasks will further improve. It could also allow them to take in other activities, making the most out of their shifts.

Easier Referencing. Every employee in your company would likely need your files as references. In order to keep them from wasting time and effort, you should have an easy-to-use filing system. This will ensure that their work will be done in the best way possible for the organization.

One good example is in your human resources department. Without having further references on how you recruit upcoming employees previously, your current staff may end up selecting less-than-qualified applicants. If they have references, such as in terms of qualifications, interview phases, and screening among others, finding the right talents will be much easier.

Dispute Protection. Did you know that your well-kept files could be your protection against unnecessary disputes from your clients? If you have an organized set of files, you would find it easy to ensure that contracts or agreements between you and a complainant will be present to serve their purpose – keep you from unwanted or false charges.

Uniformity. Most businesses use a filing system to ensure that there is a lack of diversity in documents they submit either to their clients or members in the organization. If you will manage your documents, all employees will be able to access templates approved by your team. This goes especially for proposals, contracts, and memorandums among others.

Audit Preparation. Be reminded that as a legally operating business, you will be required to undergo audits. Thus, if you will let your firm lose vital files, this could lead to penalties. This is not only limited to financial records, but other essential documents as well, which pertain to your business as a legally operating entity.

If you think that handling the file management for your business is wearisome on your end, you can simply employ a virtual assistant, who specializes in such task (regardless of the platform you want to use – offline or cloud-based filing system). This will keep your current employees focused on the tasks provided to them while ensuring that their productivity will enhance over time. This is due to the fact a sound solution to their referencing requirement will now be present – file management.

Top Reasons Why Calendar Management Is Important

Top Reasons Why Calendar Management Is Important

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Every executive or business person encounters a situation wherein he or she misses an appointment or probably ending up forgetting an important tête-à-tête with another person. This may be normal for seldom times, particularly if one is filled with appointments daily. However, if this becomes frequent, there should at least be a solution to mitigate this issue. Be reminded that a missed meeting may be a lost profit, potential client, or opportunity for growth.

Instead of sitting back and letting a predicament ruin your career or business, you should accept that calendar management must be enforced in your everyday life. There are various reasons why this task is totally crucial for you to maintain a good reputation amongst your colleagues, partners, or clients. To give you a few, here are the following:

Productivity Aid. If you want to be more productive, calendar management is a must. It specifically helps you develop a routine daily, which keeps you from prioritizing unimportant things. Furthermore, calendar management will allow you to allocate your time effectively, protecting you from delayed accomplishments of critical jobs.

Clutter Prevention. By effective management of your calendar, you will be able to get rid of the unnecessary tasks or appointments in your calendar. This is through scheduling your daily or weekly routine in advance.

Be reminded that not all meetings on your calendar now are actually in need of a large chunk of your time. Furthermore, there are calls that are not a priority in comparison to others.

Goals Achievement. A certain goal will not be met unless it is planned to be attained. For instance, you want to create a fetching proposal to your prospective client by the end of the month. As an efficient approach, you should use your calendar to identify and schedule the activities needed to be done to meet your deadline.

Take note that goals pass through every firm’s structure. Even in terms of reaching a certain amount of revenue, there are, for certain, tasks involved in this, which require proper allocation of time.

Well-Deserved Break Allocation. If you do not manage your time accordingly, you will end up working almost the entire week, leaving you less effective over time. Through calendar management, you would discover that you have means to at least allocate a certain number of days or hours for breaks. It does not hurt to dedicate a block of time to simply breathe or de-stress. As long as your appointments are well laid out on your calendar, you do not have to worry a lot.

Collaboration Support. You will enforce a more effectual collaboration in your workplace and extending to your partners or clients through calendar management, particularly in setting up meetings. You can resolve schedule conflicts whenever you have to meet up with them. Also, you will encounter ease whenever you propose meetings, particularly now that declining or accepting invites is much easier. In addition, calendar management allows you to set a suitable duration for every meeting you will have.

Indeed, you will think to yourself that calendar management should be a part your professional life going forward, but you may not find time for it. There is no issue relative to this, especially if you will have a virtual assistant to handle your calendar. Most of the time, businessmen allow their VAs to carry out the difficult part of scheduling their appointments and coordinating with key people.

Get control of your time while you can instead of continuing to suffer from extraneous pressures at work.