Tasks you can outsource to a virtual assistant
Technology has advanced at such an incredible rate that most businesses have adopted more digital operational models to take advantage of newer innovations and make life easier. One of the most cost-effective ways for companies to become more efficient is outsourcing tasks to a virtual assistant.
The demand for outsourced virtual assistants has sky-rocketed since the pandemic as many businesses started operating remotely. Under these circumstances, virtual assistants were the perfect solution. They perform business-related tasks remotely on any platform or software – the ideal tonic to streamline business operations and get ahead of the pack!
Read on as we delve into some of the key tasks that virtual assistants can help you keep your business running like a well-oiled machine.
Managing emails
Email has proven to be one of the most effective communication tools for businesses that now can have an electronic trail of correspondence in an instance. It comes as no surprise then that most small to medium-sized businesses rely heavily on email to effectively run their businesses.
Business owners can become quite overwhelmed with their inbox, more so when managing it yourself. It is said that attending to business emails can take up to 11 hours each workweek, valuable time that business owners could be channelling towards more strategic activities to enhance their business. Outsourcing this function to virtual assistants makes perfect sense as these are skilled professionals specifically trained to manage business inboxes.
Whether those are client or supplier queries, prospective clients, finance or account queries, spam emails, or merely organising your inbox for easy reference – the contribution of a virtual assistant is priceless. You can be assured that matters of priority will be dealt as such and your business will operate efficiently as all email queries will be handled both timeously and courteously – leaving you with valuable time on your hands to grow your business.
Answering calls
It can be quite frustrating when you call a business and wait for ages for somebody to answer. It becomes even worse when you reach voicemail after holding on forever. Most callers simply put the phone down out of sheer frustration – the effect of which could be losing a customer or prospective business opportunity.
As a business owner, you must do everything in your power to attract new clients and engage with your current clients who impact your bottom line. By outsourcing a virtual assistant to answer your calls, you will guarantee that all calls will be attended to promptly and effectively – leaving your customers happy and helping your business flourish.
Creating client invoices
While every business opportunity is great, business owners will do well to forge long-term relationships with their customers to establish their business. One way to enhance your relationship with returning customers is through an effective invoicing process – something that will earn you great respect and credibility.
While effective invoicing is incredibly helpful with reducing processing errors, saving time, and increasing productivity, it also plays a massive role in how your customers view your business. With the help of your new virtual assistant and a Customer Relationship Management tool for invoicing, you can showcase how much you value your clients with detailed invoicing that includes:
- Tracking of products or services rendered;
- Breaking down costs and charges;
- Outlining the payments that are expected; and
- Detailing what payment is required for.
Virtual assistants have the requisite skills to create detailed invoices for your clients – giving them more confidence in your company and helping you to establish your brand.
Managing basic payroll
Irrespective of the size of your business, payroll processing can be extremely time-consuming and labour intensive – enough to give you a headache for days. Payroll processing relates to salaries and wages and financial records about employee deductions, taxes, overtime pay, leave owing, and incentives and bonuses.
This is a critical function that cannot be neglected, so it is imperative that you stay on top of things whether you like it or not. Once more, outsourcing this function to a virtual assistant can help you ensure that all staff salaries and compensations are calculated and given timeously – leaving you with extra time to improve other aspects of your business.
Efficient and accurate payroll processes will go a long way in protecting the reputation of your business as you will remain compliant with local laws. In addition, virtual assistants are highly skilled with payroll processing and can effortlessly complete your business payroll remotely using a cloud accounting platform.
Handling live-chat support
Technology has spoiled us for choice, with plenty of digital communications channels giving many businesses the option to offer live-chat platforms for seamless engagement. While this is fantastic for business, it can become quite time-consuming for you to attend to multiple chat platforms’ queries.
Live chat platforms have made customers more demanding as they expect service much quicker with faster resolutions to their queries. With that being said, using a virtual assistant to manage your live support platforms will be invaluable in establishing your brand and set you apart from your competitors.
Your virtual assistant will help you efficiently attend to live chat queries with CRM live chat tools that can be managed remotely to provide easy and fast service to your customers.
Social media engagement
Almost all businesses today have some sort of social media presence, with the majority using those platforms as engagement tools to attract new customers, retain current customers, boost sales, and answer queries. Commonly referred to as community engagement on social media, this function is critical to establishing your brand.
Although managing social media platforms can be time-consuming, businesses that fail to engage on social media do themselves a disservice as they lose out on a plethora of business opportunities with new customers. In addition, they run the risk of losing their current customers to competitors who have a strong social media presence.
A virtual assistant can effortlessly fulfil this function on your behalf as a Social Media Engagement Specialist who enhances your business reputation through online community engagement. Like live chat platforms, people who inquire about your brand expect fast and efficient service – something your virtual assistant is trained to provide.
Final thoughts
No matter the size of your business, engaging in the services of a virtual assistant will work wonders for enhancing the efficiency, effectiveness and credibility of your company. Not only are virtual assistants a convenient option, but hiring an assistant virtually is a strategic masterstroke that frees you up from doing tedious tasks and gives you the time to enhance your business offering.
