Looking for ways to maximise the benefits of working with a virtual assistant? These are our top 5 tips to ensure you’re getting the most out of your investment and freeing up your time to focus on what matters most:
1. Communication is Key
The first and most important factor in optimising your virtual assistant experience is communication.
A virtual assistant's role is to assist you, and to do so, they need to understand your needs, requirements, and preferences. Establishing a regular and effective communication system is critical for this to happen. It could be a daily phone call, a weekly check-in, or even messaging apps like WhatsApp, which many clients prefer as it is easy and convenient to communicate with their virtual assistants.
Over-communicating is better than under-communicating, as it helps the virtual assistant to understand your priorities, what’s on your radar, and what is essential at the moment. Giving feedback, whether it is positive, negative, or indifferent, is also critical as it helps your VA perform better.
This might look like:
Daily or weekly meetings with your VA: Set up a recurring meeting with your virtual assistant to go over tasks, priorities, and deadlines. This is an opportunity to discuss any issues or questions that might have come up during the previous day/week, and to make sure that everyone is on the same page. By having a regular check-in, you can ensure that your virtual assistant is working on the most important tasks and that there are no surprises or missed deadlines.
2. Joint To-Do List
Creating a joint to-do list is the best way to keep track of assigned tasks and make sure everyone knows what they need to do. It helps your VA prioritise your tasks and allocate their time to where it’s needed the most.
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If your VA manages your calendar and scheduling appointments, your joint to-do list will ensure that you're both on the same page with regard to upcoming events and meetings. You can share your priorities and preferences, such as which meetings are the most important or which ones can be rescheduled if necessary.
By having a joint to-do list, your virtual assistant can keep track of all your appointments and make sure you're never double-booked or overscheduled. This allows you to focus on your work without worrying about managing your schedule.
3. Delegating Effectively
Some clients find it challenging to delegate because they've always been in control, and they worry about things going wrong. However, handing over control is essential for growth and getting out of that state of overwhelm!
When delegating, make sure you’re giving all the necessary background information, the purpose, and the expected outcome. Consider providing both written and videoed instructions, and be available to answer any questions that pop up.
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Let’s say you want your virtual assistant to look after your social media channels. To effectively delegate these tasks, provide them with all the necessary information about your brand's tone, voice, and messaging. Give clear guidelines about the type of content and frequency of posts you want. Additionally, you can provide video instructions and examples of successful posts to align your VA's work with your brand's values and goals.
4. Efficient Task Requests
Making task requests should be easy and efficient. You can use messaging apps like WhatsApp, which has a record-your-voice feature. This enables you to verbalise your requests, giving them more context and ensuring that your VA understands the requirements. It also saves time as you can talk more quickly than they can type or write! This helps eliminate any barriers that may hinder task delegation and make it as easy as possible.
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Imagine you're running from one meeting to the next and need to request your virtual assistant to book a flight for your upcoming business trip. With the record-your-voice feature on WhatsApp, you can quickly and efficiently send a voice message outlining the details of the trip, such as the dates, destination, preferred airline, and budget. Your virtual assistant can then listen to the message, take note of the details, and get to work on booking the flight.
5. Password Vault
Sharing a password vault like LastPass is a great way to ensure secure access to login credentials without sharing sensitive information. A password vault stores all login credentials, including credit cards, securely, and your virtual assistant can access them without you having to provide the password each time. This method saves time and eliminates the need to remember multiple passwords.
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Let's say you have a virtual assistant who needs access to your social media accounts to post on your behalf. Instead of sending them the login credentials via email or chat, which can be risky and unsecured, you can use a password vault like LastPass. You can add the login information for your social media accounts to the vault, and your virtual assistant can access them securely without ever seeing the password.
Virtual assistants are a truly great investment that can boost productivity, save time, and help you achieve your business goals. Communication, joint to-do lists, effective delegation, efficient task requests, and password vaults are just a few ways to get the best out of your virtual assistant.
By implementing these tips, you can optimise your virtual assistant experience and focus on the big-picture tasks while your virtual assistants handle the rest.
