The global virtual assistant market size is expected to reach around USD 178.80 billion by 2034, expanding at a CAGR of 24% from 2024 to 2034. North America intelligent virtual assistant market size reached USD 4.99 billion in 2023 and it is continuously growing. However, How to Manage Virtual Assistants is not fully understood. This blog post will let you know 10 key points.
As you know the Virtual Assistants are the intelligent people who work online from a remote location and are contracted by businesses to render service on a project or a specific job task. While working online with someone else, there are unique challenges.
If you have never worked with a Virtual Assistant before, it may be difficult for you to adjust and get work done from Virtual Assistant.
Unlike in the real office, once you adjourn after a meeting, you will still see each other within the room. You know your collaborator is sitting across your table working.
However, while working with a Virtual Assistant, once you have logged out the meeting and after that it is dead silence. You know your Virtual assistant is working remotely. Although, things are getting done, still there may be misconception.
In order to get past these old beliefs or misconception, you will have to re-orient your way of thinking and make the necessary adjustments to your management approach.
How To Manage Virtual Assistants: 10 Key Tips
- Give the clear work instructions
Misunderstandings are bound to happen in any relationship including work engagements that may be in real office or in virtual world.
In the case of virtual assistants, the incidence of misunderstandings is higher because of language and cultural barriers plus the filters created by the virtual world.
To avoid that, when you have selected your Virtual Assistant, take the time to clearly discuss and establish the scope of work.
Your Virtual Assistant must know for sure the parameters of his job and the summary of his responsibilities.
After discussion and establishing the work responsibility, it is better to give him all relevant details in written i.e. what is work type, what is your expectation of work and what is the timeline, etc. that will avoid misunderstanding.
It should be expected that at the early stages of his appointment, there will be mistakes in his/her work conduct.
Take it upon yourself to periodically review the performance of your Virtual Assistant and ask intermittently if he has any questions or need any clarification on his set of tasks.
- Keep Moderate expectations
Hiring a Virtual Assistant is a major step in taking your business to the next level.
You will now have the assistance you need to focus on more important functions while the rest of the business can be attended to by the Virtual Assistant.
However, Entrepreneurs need to understand that the Virtual Assistance is not a “cure all” formula or a “genie in the bottle”.
Although, He plays a key role in helping your organization to attain its goals but he is still just another component of your business development plan.
So make sure to keep moderate your expectations on the Virtual Assistant. Make sure these commensurate with your business goals and objectives. Keep an open mind on his performance and conduct periodic evaluation to determine progress.
- Know your Virtual Assistant
Building a good work relation is crucial in any successful business. When you’re managing a business with someone who is located thousands of miles away, in another time zone and with distinct cultural and social nuances, hence building a relationship becomes crucial for successful business engagement.
Even though it is a pure business engagement, it should never just be about the business.
Your Virtual Assistant is probably just as curious to know who his client is.
Share your thoughts, opinions and experiences and create openings for your Virtual Assistant to come in and engage, if possible.
The first step in building a relationship starts with engagement. It gives you and the Virtual Assistant an idea of each other’s perspective.
It will be easier to work together when you gain mutual respect on each other’s perspective.
In most of the cases it is not necessary to build business relations with your Virtual Assistant.
- Make effective communication a priority
Exchanging so many e-mails and chat messages are not enough to ensure there is no miscommunication between you and your Virtual Assistant.
In the virtual world, it is better to discuss over a live call. It is a good idea to do a pre shift call every day during the first month of the engagement.
For a period of 10-15 minutes, go over the agenda for the day.
Discuss goals, resolve pending issues and concerns. Always ask your Virtual Assistant if he understood everything perfectly.
To be sure, ask him to relay the instructions back to you. Establish communication protocols that should be strictly followed.
- Set your work schedules ahead of time
Entrepreneurs often forget that a Virtual Assistant is not a full-time employee. A Virtual Assistant is likewise an entrepreneur and on average they will manage three to four other clients at one time.
If there will be changes in the current work schedule, these should be relayed to the Virtual Assistant at least one week in advance.
This will give him enough time to re-work his schedule with his other commitments.
If your Virtual Assistant is from a remote location such as the Malaysia, India, Indonesia or Bangladesh you should have a calendar of their special holidays especially those with religious significance.
On those days, people from the Philippines and India do not work as part of the religious observance.
Keeping track of these holidays and respecting its significance, shows deep regard for their culture and will go a long way in building a trusting relationship.
- Make use of effective work flow
As a businessman, you’re the expert. You know exactly what needs to get done in order to get the business run smoothly.
Therefore you should design an effective work flow for your Virtual Assistant to follow. Prepare a set of standard operating procedure or written instructions which clearly describes the process work flow.
The standard operating procedure should cover the different stages for the conduct of work.
- Show some gratitude
Every person wants to be acknowledged for doing a good job.
It does not have to be in money. Sometimes a sincere verbal acknowledgement of excellent performance carries more value than anything monetary.
Extending gratitude helps build confidence, creates a positive work environment and prevents disengagement. It is a simple act that makes a huge impact on productivity.
Another good gesture is to remember special dates such as birthdays or Christmas or Diwali.
Some clients will send well-wishes or small tokens of appreciation. These actions will help build a stronger bond between you and your Virtual Assistant.
- Respect the Learning Curve
A common mistake clients make when they outsource services is to expect high-impact results right at the beginning.
For example, if they outsource telemarketing services and the benchmark number of sales is two per day, they expect the agents to hit this target from day one.
If not, they get disappointed and initiate moves to replace the current roster of agents.
The client fails to understand that outsourcing is all about building businesses. It takes time to get things run smoothly.
Agents have to deal with their individual’s learning curves and only consistency can make it happen. This applies to virtual assistants as well.
It doesn’t matter how tenured your Virtual Assistant is. He will have to contend with his learning curve.
Instead of pressuring your Virtual Assistant, work with him to get his learning curve to manageable levels.
- Let virtual assistant to work
Close association is a key element in a virtual assistance arrangement but at the same time, you should not hover over your Virtual Assistant as he works.
If you constantly check up on him, it will create the impression that you are not confident of his abilities to get the job done right.
Instead of interrupting your Virtual Assistant while he works, encourage him to get in touch with you if he has any questions.
Another effective strategy would be to include a 10 minute post-shift call to review the work that has been turned in and discuss pending issues.
- Get your Virtual Assistant occupied
Most of the virtual assistants are highly experienced personal. Many have had project management experience in different industries. They have encountered their fair share of situations and found ways to resolve the issues.
A Virtual Assistant can be a valuable resource for advice on managing your business. Also, because he is not emotionally attached to your business, he will see it from a different angle; without biases and given straightforward suggestions.
Encourage your Virtual Assistant to get involved with your business. Invite your Virtual Assistant to share his views, ideas and opinions on current performance and inputs on how to improve the figures for the following month.
It may take some time to overcome old beliefs and habits but eventually you should arrive at a comfort zone when working with a Virtual Assistant.
You will realize that working with a Virtual Assistant is both a rewarding and enriching experience.
Above key points will help the business person to understand How To Manage Virtual Assistants.
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