What is a virtual assistant and how can they help your business?

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There are many definitions of a virtual assistant, but the most widely accepted definition is a virtual assistant (VA) is an employee who works from a remote location and provides administrative support to clients. An assistant can be an independent contractor, freelancer, full-time employee, or part-time employee. The nature of the employment may vary, but essentially, the role remains the same. Online assistants work from remote locations to provide support in various activities. They can be differentiated based on the activities, but essentially, businesses hire assistants for administrative support.

In this post, we will look at what a virtual assistant is, how they work, what they can do for you, how they can be helpful to your business, and where to find a good assistant for your business.       

What is a virtual assistant? 

A virtual assistant is a remote employee who provides administrative support to clients. A skilled assistant can help you with administrative activities, marketing and sales, online research, operational processes of a business, and management. Business owners, C-level executives, and entrepreneurs hire assistants to save time and money for their businesses. 

How do virtual assistants work?

Virtual assistants work from a remote location. You need an IT setup to work with your digital assistant. The IT setup includes a computer, a headset, collaboration tools, and an internet connection.

Based on the type of employment, the workflow of an assistant differs.

A freelancer: a freelancer works directly with your business as per agreed terms and conditions. You need to adhere to the employer’s responsibilities of working with a freelancer.  

An independent contractor: if you hire a assistant from an independent contractor, your service provider is responsible for managing your assistant. They are not on the company’s payroll. You just have to pay the fee for the services.

A virtual employee: if you hire a virtual employee on a part-time or full-time basis on the company’s payroll, the virtual assistant is a part of your team. You are responsible for managing your assistant, and you have to adhere to the employer’s responsibilities.

What can a virtual assistant do for your business?

A virtual assistant can help you with administrative tasks, such as scheduling appointments, making phone calls, replying to emails, calendar management, preparing reports, managing office supplies, making travel arrangements, etc.

But nowadays, Assistants with special skills can help you with marketing and sales activities, social media management, website management, online store management, customer service, bookkeeping, data entry, and various other skills-based activities. Have a look at what different operations a VA can perform for your business.   

Administrative tasks   

An assistant can help you with time-consuming and repetitive administrative tasks, such as scheduling appointments, answering customers’ queries, replying to emails, preparing reports, calendar management, etc. Your assistant can help you save time on these tasks.

Social media management

A virtual assistant can help you with posting on social media, managing content for social media, reviewing content before posting on social media, running social media ads, researching for content, replying to comments, and other social media management tasks.  

Marketing, Sales, and Lead generation 

An online assistant can help you with cold calling for marketing, sales, and lead generation activities. A marketing virtual assistant can help your marketing manager or marketing department with keyword research, content calendar management, competitor research, and various other marketing activities. Your marketing assistant can also help you with website management and keeps your website updated.

Data entry

Data entry is an integral part of any office operation. Virtual assistant skilled in data entry and office tools can help you with data entry tasks. Your assistant can perform data entry operations on Microsoft Excel, update the data in the CRM and help in bookkeeping.

Customer service

A virtual assistant can help your business with customer service operations. Your assistant can reply to emails, answer phone calls, and provide customer support, or if they are not able to provide a resolution to the customer query, they can escalate it to the right person within the company.       

These are some of the tasks a VA can do for your business, but there are no set tasks that VAs perform. It varies from assistant to assistant based on the skills.

How can virtual assistants be helpful to your business?

A virtual assistant can help your business save time and save money. Have a look at how an assistant can be helpful for your business.

Save time 

A VA can do repetitive, time-consuming tasks for you. Administrative and other time-consuming tasks can easily take 2-3 hours in a day. By assigning those tasks to a VA, you can focus on what is more important for your business. This helps you save time that you can invest in other core activities and expansion of your business.      

Increase productivity

A VA acts as an extra pair of hands. Virtual assistants are highly skilled in performing administrative operations. They add productive hours to your business. They can perform office tasks more efficiently than a regular employee. They have amazing communication skills, knowledge of office software and collaboration tools, and are skilled in office operations.         

Save money

An online assistant works from a remote location. This can help you save money on operational expenses. You do not have to invest in the office infrastructure, rent office space, or make logistical arrangements for your assistant. If you hire a virtual assistant from an independent contractor, you can also save money on HR responsibilities, taxes, insurance, hiring, managing, employee benefits, and other administrative responsibilities.          

Where to find a skilled virtual assistant?

You can search online for virtual assistant service providers in the USA. Top virtual assistant companies can provide your skilled assistants as per your requirements. GetCallers is among the leading virtual assistants providers in the USA. The company has served more than 800+ satisfied clients. You can hire a virtual assistant starting from $5 per hour per agent from GetCallers. Visit the website for more information.