Operating a business with a virtual assistant working in the background undoubtedly saves a significant amount of time for businesses to maintain stable productivity within the company. On the other hand, the lack of a proper and systematic delegation of tasks instantly defeats the purpose of hiring remote staff.

Contrary to popular belief, the appointment of tasks and responsibilities to virtual assistants can prove to be quite tricky especially for businesses that are fairly new to the setup.

For the most part, experienced and skilled virtual assistants are aligned with a vast array of expertise. As such, it is necessary for companies to employ their services to know how and where they can best utilize their skills. Virtual assistants come in a variety of expertise, and can thus be maximized to take on a multitude of tasks ranging from basic administrative tasks that are usually similar to a personal secretary to more technical fields such as website building and search engine optimization.

The question now is, how can businesses determine what type of virtual assistants to hire if they want to boost productivity and make operations more seamless?

Enumerated below are some of the most prevalent services that are commonly outsourced to virtual assistants:

1. DATA AND ANALYTICS TRANSLATION

Some virtual assistants are experts in translating collated data from different reports, business insights and sources, and then creating a concise presentation out of it. This not only saves time in organizing a meeting but also enables the intended audience to have a more in-depth understanding of every information shared or tackled in each presentation. Data translations and analytics are usually transformed into PowerPoint presentations, graphs, and handouts that provide a clear interpretation of information.

2. BUSINESS EMAIL MANAGEMENT

Managing the business’ inbox is fairly easy at first. But, as the business grows and gains a greater number of clients and leads, so does the inbox of the business’ email. 

Thankfully, virtual assistants can be assigned to manage all incoming emails and answer them accordingly on behalf of the company’s name. To ensure that emails are managed and handled aptly, employers should make sure that a clear and concise set of instructions or guidelines are provided to the virtual assistants. Specify do’s and don’ts when it comes to organizing emails and if needed, instruct VAs on how to respond to emails or queries sent by customers.

3. RESEARCHING

Keeping up with the latest trends is a surefire way to gain stability and stay afloat.

Time-consuming tasks such as conducting research is something that virtual assistants can gladly take on. VAs experienced in in-depth research are capable of finding trending topics in a variety of genres. They are adept at digging information based on the topic or subject matter that they are tasked to focus on. Among the most common types of information that remote assistants are made to research include corporate websites of competitors, new and trending products, product ideas, and even assessing potential customers or business collaborators.

In other instances, a virtual assistant can even conduct travel research. Travel researchers are those who find hotels with the best deals, book flights, and other factors related to business travel.

As always, entrepreneurs should remember to provide detailed instruction, together with all the login credentials needed to execute the required tasks. It is also highly recommended that performance-based constructive feedback be given on a periodical basis to help enlighten virtual assistants on their strong and weak points.

4. BOOKKEEPING

Entrepreneurs who want to save more time when keeping track of their businesses’ bills or expenses, along with other bookkeeping-related matters can hire a virtual assistant to do the job.

They can just simply sync all the related data along with the required login credentials to their virtual assistants to allow them access and enable them to perform follow-up tasks as needed. Among the tasks related to bookkeeping that remote assistants can undertake include overseeing business accounts whenever there are unpaid invoices, contacting clients regarding their payment balances, and settling utility bills of the business on time.

5. SOCIAL TASKING

Not all tasks delegated to virtual assistants involve them being stuck within the four corners of their home or shared workspace.

At times, they can also be delegated to do social tasks such as writing back and sending thank you or greeting cards to customers who availed their services.

This way, the business can set a lasting impression on their new and existing clients without compromising the time needed to focus on the growth of their business.

6. DIGITAL MARKETING

If an entrepreneur wishes to expand the demographics reached by their business, then a virtual assistant can help them look for potential clients and business collaborators.

A good number of virtual assistants are knowledgeable and experienced in the field of digital marketing. This means they can be relied on to discover suitable business and marketing opportunities to drive higher customer engagement to the services offered by the company. They can also determine specific issues and trends directly affecting the purchasing behavior of target customers, thereby helping the business to realign their strategies and product designs accordingly.

WHY DO WE BRAG ABOUT VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS?

Presently, virtual assistants are among the key components needed to maintain an organized workspace. While they may be stationed remotely, that does not mean they are incapable of accomplishing their assigned responsibilities and perform as well as in-house employees can. They allow business owners to focus on growing their business in terms of translating collated data to gather results and insights, arranging meetings, scouring the web for potential clients, and ultimately helping the business maintain its stability and increase its relevance in the midst of an unpredictable industry.