Small business owners, executives, and managers are typically overwhelmed with repetitive and never-ending tasks on their list that don’t maximize their talent or directly translate to business growth.
A survey by West Monroe found that most managers spend three to four hours of their day on administrative tasks, such as sending emails, tracking time, submitting expenses, and more.
But what if managers, executives, or entrepreneurs spent those four hours instead on people management, self-development, or strategic planning? Their businesses could’ve seen more growth and productivity!
Virtual assistant services address this pressing problem that businesses have, whether they’re small businesses or big corporations.
Remote work has made it easier than ever for business owners to outsource tasks and hire seasoned professionals at affordable costs.
Discover Proven VA Benefits Through Practitioners:
Virtual assistants help free up your precious time and offer tons of benefits that will transform and bring your business to the next level.
If you’re curious about how virtual assistant services can transform your business, then keep on reading!
What are virtual assistant services?
Simply put, virtual assistant services are provided by remote professionals and are designed to boost business efficiency and productivity.
Virtual assistant services cover many tasks, from administrative to creative to technical. Another appealing aspect of virtual assistant services is that they can also be customized according to the company’s needs.
Hiring a dedicated virtual assistant makes it easy for business owners or managers to outsource their repetitive or routine tasks and focus on the company’s core activities.
There are many types of virtual assistance services:
- General administrative services: These tasks mainly cover administrative tasks such as calendar and email management, travel arrangements, and more.
- Specialized services: These services typically require specialty training or a more technical background. Some examples are lead generation, social media management, copywriting, and other tasks that require a more technical background.
- Industry-specific services: These are services catered to specific fields or industries, like real estate or virtual medical assistance.
What are the best virtual assistant services available for your business?
Virtual assistants perform a variety of tasks tailored to fit a business’s goals and needs.
Here are the best virtual assistant services you can use to boost growth and efficiency in your business:
Administrative support
Businesses often hire an experienced virtual assistant (VA) to give them administrative support.
Some of the tasks administrative VAs typically handle are:
- Managing and responding to phone calls and emails
- Setting and managing appointments
- Entering data into work systems
- Organizing files and documents
- Taking minutes during meetings
The main goal of these virtual assistants is to ensure the smooth running of the business’s day-to-day activities.
A few examples of virtual assistant jobs that provide administrative support are:
- Virtual executive assistant: They handle daily operation support for founders or senior executives, mainly in small businesses or startups.
- Virtual personal assistant: A personal assistant helps clients manage their personal affairs through setting reminders, travel planning, and managing personal schedules.
- Virtual medical assistant: Industry-specific businesses like healthcare providers can also use VAs for administrative support, such as providing medication refills and managing patient records.
Customer relations support
Customers are an essential part of a business. After all, if there are no customers, there wouldn’t be any business too.
To ensure your business keeps growing, you should continuously improve customer relationships and maintain their loyalty through customer relations support.
Customer relations support is a vital skill that aims to create a positive customer experience – a task that you can also outsource to virtual assistants.
This virtual assistant service covers tasks such as:
- Answering queries from customers
- Handling complaints through different channels
- Providing information to customers
- Gathering feedback through customer satisfaction surveys
Some specific positions that businesses can hire for are virtual customer service agents or customer success managers.
Healthcare businesses can also get medical receptionists to handle patient inquiries and support tickets.
Social media management
Almost everyone uses social media nowadays, making it a great avenue to advertise your business and attract multiple clients.
And if you regularly use social media, certainly, you’ve also seen posts from other businesses trying to engage their followers and subtly introduce their products or services.
Due to the large presence of potential customers in social media, many companies use virtual assistants to manage their social media.
The tasks that virtual social media managers cover are:
- Creating a content calendar and implementing posting schedules
- Responding to messages and comments to enhance engagements
- Managing social media accounts across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and more
- Tracking and reporting metrics to improve social media marketing
Content creation
Content creation is another crucial virtual assistance service that businesses typically outsource.
This service mainly involves creating or producing of written or digital materials for businesses’ blogs, newsletters, websites, social media accounts, and campaigns.
Virtual content creators should also stay up-to-date with trending news and create engaging content around these topics.
Some specific tasks that content creation VAs do are:
- Writing articles and blogs
- Creating and editing posters, infographics, or promotional videos
- Proofreading and optimizing content for search engines
For specialized businesses like healthcare providers, content creation can help educate their patients, provide health-related tips, and reach more of their target market.
Accounting and bookkeeping
When entrepreneurs start to be busy strategizing and growing their business, managing their finances start suddenly becomes an afterthought.
In this scenario, the best option for businesses is hiring an accounting professional or outsourcing to a virtual assistant who has accounting and bookkeeping skills.
Accounting and bookkeeping virtual assistants ensure that financial records and reports are accurate, and help businesses make more informed financial decisions.
Some tasks that virtual accountants and bookkeepers handle are:
- Creating and sending invoices
- Tracking the business’s incoming and outgoing cash flows
- Handling financial reports like cash flow statements, income statements, and more
- Managing payroll and taxes
Another specialized role related to revenue management is virtual medical billing assistant, which takes care of the following:
- Management patient bills
- Medical coding
- Insurance claims submissions
- Processing of pre-authorizations
Digital marketing
Like social media management and content creation, digital marketing uses online and digital channels to promote a business.
Digital marketing assistants aim to improve the online presence of a business, attract new clients, and increase sales using ads that specifically target their audience.
Digital marketing tasks specifically include:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Managing pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns
- Email marketing
- Monitoring and analyzing website traffic
Project management
If your business has multiple projects and not enough manpower to handle them all, having a project management virtual assistant will be beneficial.
Some examples of projects that virtual assistants can help you manage are company events, process improvements, website development, and more.
Like traditional project managers, VAs can also help companies oversee projects throughout the different stages – initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure.
Project management tasks typically cover the following:
- Planning and coordinating tasks
- Managing and monitoring deadlines
- Communicating with team members and stakeholders
- Managing project risks
- Ensuring the project remains within budget
Research assistance
Companies can also tap into a virtual assistant’s research skills to help them with strategic planning.
Through web research, virtual assistants can help with the following:
- Reviewing relevant studies and academic papers
- Analyzing market trends and conducting competitor analysis
- Collecting data from reliable sources
- Creating research reports
The results of the VAs’ research provide businesses with reliable information to improve their practices and stay competitive within their industry.
Transcription
Certain businesses require additional support in transcribing day-to-day interactions in the company.
An example of such a business is healthcare providers, where physicians must record every doctor-patient encounter while also focusing on their patients.
Virtual medical scribes are perfect assistants for this task!
Virtual medical scribes take over the tedious task of transcribing notes during check-ups or consultations, and allow doctors give their full attention to patient care.
Besides reducing the physicians’ workload, virtual scribes ensure that patient records are always accurate and updated.
Data management
Data is a valuable asset to businesses as this information serves as their guide when creating strategies, making decisions, and analyzing business performance.
Managing data may sound simple, but in reality, this involves numerous routine and time-consuming tasks that can be challenging for business owners and managers to handle alone.
For these kinds of tasks, hiring a data management virtual assistant is the most efficient solution.
Data management VAs handle the end-to-end process of managing databases, including:
- Data entry
- Organizing and categorizing data
- Conducting quality checks
- Monitoring data access and permission settings
Having one dedicated virtual assistant handle your data management tasks ensures that company data is always accurate, consistent, and secure.
What are the benefits of virtual assistant services?
Virtual assistants offer many advantages to help your business maximize its growth and efficiency.
Here are the different ways your business can benefit from VA services:
Enhanced productivity
- Virtual assistants improve business productivity by primarily handling repetitive, time-consuming or non-core business tasks, so business owners can focus on their essential activities.
- Moreover, a Stanford University study shows that remote work led to a 13% increase in productivity, showing that virtual assistants can perform better than in-person assistants.
Cost-effective choice
- Hiring a suitable virtual assistant is definitely more cost-effective than adding another employee to your payroll.
- Most virtual assistants are on a contract or freelance basis, so you can hire them only for certain periods.
- Hiring a virtual assistant also means you don’t need to pay taxes and benefits that companies commonly give to regular employees.
Greater flexibility
- Virtual assistants are more flexible in setting their work hours – you can hire them as full-time or part-time assistants.
- Another option is hiring virtual assistants on a project basis, which means they’ll only work with you for a specific project.
- If you need assistants to work around the clock, you can hire VAs from another country, like Philippine-based virtual assistants, so they can work easily during the wee hours in your time-zone while it’s still daytime for those assistants.
Increased number of specialized skills
- Many VAs offer specialized services depending on your business needs.
- No matter what kinds of tasks you need to outsource – technical, creative, or administrative tasks – there will always be a virtual assistant with that expertise ready to help you.
How to choose the right virtual assistant service for you?
As more businesses embrace remote work, the demand for VA services is also continuously increasing.
But before you hiring virtual assistants, companies should first assess what kind of service they really need.
Similarly, aspiring virtual assistants should look at what niche best fits their skills and goals.
Here are the different things companies and aspiring VAs should consider to identify the right virtual assistant service for them:
For businesses
Businesses don’t have unlimited budgets, which is why they should identify what virtual assistants services they need before hiring a VA.
These are the things you need to do:
- Assess your business needs: Review your processes and identify which tasks you’d rather not do, need help with, or consume too much of your time.
- List down required skills: Identify the skills needed for the tasks you’d like to outsource. For example, graphic content creators need good editing skills, and virtual bookkeepers need to be knowledgeable in business finances.
- Review the VA’s relevant experiences: To ensure you’re hiring the right person, always review your potential assistant’s relevant experiences and background. Hiring from agencies or VA service providers also streamlines the review process since they’ll vet the assistant for you.
- Conduct interviews: To fully assess the virtual assistant’s skills, it’s best to meet them during an interview and see if they’re a culture fit in your business. This is also a chance for you to start a positive working relationship and get to know them better.
For aspiring virtual assistants
For beginners, entering the world of virtual assistants can be overwhelming. But once you prepare yourself and put trust in your skills, becoming a virtual assistant can be exciting.
Here are the things you need to consider if you’re an aspiring virtual assistant:
- Assess your core competencies: Assess your strengths and weaknesses based on any past experience – whether from previous jobs or even academic performance. What skills do people usually tell you you’re good at? Or what skills are you interested in learning about?
- Select a virtual assistant niche: Virtual assistant niches can be anything around the sun! As long as there are businesses in need of it, it can be your niche. Choose a niche that aligns with the strengths you identified and what you’re interested in. You can also take courses first to improve your expertise in the selected niche.
- Look for virtual assistant opportunities: There are many places you can visit to explore virtual assistant job postings, like Upwork or Fiverr. Another option for aspiring VAs is to join a virtual assistant agency that provides training and make finding clients easier.
What tools do virtual assistants use?
Tools and technology are a virtual assistant’s best friends when it comes to working effectively.
Here are the following tools that virtual assistants use to make remote work easier:
- Communication tools: Since virtual assistants work remotely, these professionals need communication tools to stay connected with their clients no matter where they are in the world. These tools include Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, and more.
- Project management tools: These tools help virtual assistants remember all their tasks, manage deadlines, collaborate with other team members, and remain organized. Typical examples are Trello, Asana, Monday.com, ClickUp, and Basecamp.
- Time-tracking software: Some companies require time-tracking software to monitor the virtual assistant’s daily work hours. Time-tracking tools include Hubstaff, Time Doctor, Toggl, and Harvest.
- Document-sharing platforms: Remote assistants use document-sharing platforms to keep their files on the cloud, access them from anywhere, and share them with clients or team members. Tools like Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox are perfect for this purpose.
The role of virtual medical assistants in your healthcare business
Whether you’re an individual healthcare professional or part of a healthcare business, hiring virtual medical assistants can be a game-changer in your practice.
What tasks do virtual medical assistants handle?
Virtual medical assistants are highly skilled professionals who can help you manage a wide range of assignments.
Virtual medical assistants’ tasks may vary depending on what the business needs. But generally, here are the main tasks that these VAs cover:
- Answering calls and email correspondence
- Managing patient medical records
- Responding to patient’s questions
- Managing medication refills
- Verifying insurance coverage
- Scheduling and managing appointments
What are the benefits of remote medical assistants?
Given the busy nature of healthcare practice, having one dedicated virtual assistant can lift a significant burden off the shoulders of many medical practitioners.
Some of the benefits of having virtual medical assistants are:
- Improved quality of service to patients
- Less time spent on administrative work
- Consistently updated and accurate records
Final thoughts
Virtual assistant services are the perfect solution for business owners or managers looking to improve their productivity at an affordable cost.
The diverse roles and responsibilities across virtual assistants ensure that no matter what your business challenges are, there’s always a virtual assistant service designed to help your company.
If you’re looking to boost your efficiency, and have more time to focus on your business, take the first step now and explore how VA services can help your business.
Virtual assistant FAQs
What is a virtual assistant, and what services does one offer?
A virtual assistant is a seasoned professional who can support your business remotely. The services provided by a virtual assistant vary depending on their niche.
Administrative assistants typically handle email management, appointment scheduling, and other such tasks, while other specialized assistants can manage your social media, create content, focus on lead generation, and more.
How much do virtual assistants cost?
There are many factors that determine how much virtual assistants cost, such as the type of service you need, their experience level, the amount of workload, and more.
On average, a virtual assistant’s hourly rate can range from $10 to $30, and can even be higher for highly-specialized tasks.
How do I communicate with my virtual assistant?
Clients can use many communication tools, such as Slack and MS Teams, to communicate tasks and responsibilities to their virtual assistants. If you already have an existing communication tool in your business, it would be best to use that to contact your assistant.
Are virtual assistants beneficial to small businesses?
Hiring a virtual assistant is a great way for small businesses to get access to specialized skills at an affordable cost. Virtual assistants saves you money from paying the usual employee benefits like insurance, PTO, and even payroll taxes, making them a cost-effective solution for small business owners.
