Virtual Assistants Who Understand Your Business

Nurturing that relationship between clients and Virtual Assistants has many tangible organizational benefits. With a good working rapport, the client can delegate with minimal instruction and the VA will know what to do. On higher levels, the VA can even anticipate the client’s needs, almost as if they were reading the client’s mind. Planning a trip? Your VA can schedule it, create your itinerary exactly as you’d like it – maybe even better. But going beyond even that, a VA who develops a great grasp of the business can contribute in many ways. Here’s what happens when Virtual Assistants’ understanding of their clients’ businesses reach a higher level:

Developing Autonomy

An ideal employee is one who has a good grasp of the business’ processes. So he or she won’t perpetually ask for input or instructions whenever something new crops up. Otherwise, this can be frustrating for the higher ups, not to mention time consuming. Autonomy is important for VAs because they are operating from vast distances. They’re not physically there in the workplace. What will the VA do if the client is late in giving instructions, or when the office is overly busy or in an energy like a power outage? VAs shouldn’t just sit idly and wait for instructions. They should have the presence of mind to work on something and exercise their own good judgment on what to prioritize in the meanwhile.

Being Engaged Improves Outcomes

Virtual Assistants can better fulfill their tasks when they have an understanding of the organization and its products or services. Here’s an example: You have a Virtual Receptionist taking customer calls. The task entails just taking down their details, informing them of their appointments or telling them when they should call back or when to expect a return call. But when the VA knows what the business is about, he or she can talk to these customers and engage with them more authentically. In turn, the customers will appreciate this, because no one wants to talk to a robot or someone reading off a script. The VA can even take the initiative and offer sound advice and suggestions in keeping with the client’s wishes and the company’s objectives. The VA’s recommendations might be a major factor in making sales and sealing deals! It’s the same with content writing, web design and social media management. When they have a good feel for the business, their output will be improved with more depth and nuance. Otherwise, you’ll get generic results.

Gaining Initiative and Creating Cohesive Plans and Suggestions

This is on a more proactive level. Virtual Assistants can go beyond just creatively responding to situations or fulfilling tasks. They can suggest, plan out and implement strategies and new tasks that will benefit the business. This happens when they know what the business and client needs, and leverage their own expertise and prior experiences. Such contributions can make a major impact on the organization and really help clients out.

Growing the Business

A Virtual Assistant who fully understands the business and is completely engaged has much to offer. These contributions will ultimately give the company a much needed shot in the arm, boosting it to new levels. VA, and to a much greater extend Virtual Teams, have so much to offer businesses and startups. When used right, they have all of the strengths of conventional workforces. The perceived “limitations” of working remotely, of being off-site, are minimal. But what they can give in terms of time flexibility, multi-role capacity, specializations and expertise, all while reducing costs – this is priceless.

Seeing the Big Picture

When your VA gains a better understanding of the business, he or she won’t just be chugging away doing menial tasks. An appreciation of the company’s values, goals and objectives will emerge. Through this, the VA’s performance will improve because he or she will fulfill tasks in ways that better match the brand’s aims. So try and cultivate this with your Virtual Assistant and watch them bloom!