Boost Client Experience with a Customer Support Virtual Assistant

Boost Client Experience with a Customer Support Virtual Assistant

What it is about virtual assistants that elevate customer service experience?

Accessibility? Round-the-clock service? Efficiency?

Well, it’s all of those things combined and more.

Customer service is striking to be of value which is why it can be a really difficult task for any business, especially for a startup.

Then again, the promise of customer support virtual assistant stretches across all customer life cycles, taking a life of its own with new job roles filling in the industry such as a virtual customer service Amazon.

In a modern business setting, customer support teams rarely operate without a customer support virtual assistant on the side. They’re a favored addition because VAs can help an entrepreneur or an organization modify each customer’s journey based on their wants and expectations.

When done right, customer support virtual professionals can be a strong selling point of your marketing strategy and increase customer satisfaction simultaneously.

Let’s explore how virtual assistants are transforming the customer service experience in this day and age.

What Exactly Does a Virtual Assistant Do?

The duties and responsibilities of a virtual assistant are heavily reliant on two things; what you need and what skills they can offer.

Most virtual assistants handle administrative tasks such as answering phone calls, setting appointments and planning travels. While others with areas of expertise deal with more complex tasks, such as social media management and content creation.

Yet, considering the myriad of tasks a VA can attend to, it’s impossible to know for sure where the industry ceases to exist.

In fact, by embracing the benefits of virtual assistance, a company can smoothly transition through many business functions from covering for someone on maternity/paternity leave to bridging communication barriers.

Needless to say, the main role of a virtual assistant is to conserve your most precious resource; your TIME. In doing so, you get more hours working on the important business tasks that can lead your company to growth.

A Customer Support Virtual Assistant: How It Adds Value to Customer Service Experience

Wondering why you should invest in a customer support virtual assistant?

A customer service virtual assistant job description details providing assistance to customers by giving solutions to their concerns —thus, exceptional customer service creates happy customers.

Here’s how the magic of virtual customer service works in your overall business operation and profitability.

  • Boost Engagement

    According to social media marketing industry report in 2013, 62% of marketers use social media for more than 6 hours a week. And, we can only assume how that engagement increased over the years, considering the continuous ascent of social platforms.

    As your social media maven, your customer support virtual assistant will set up your social media profile, find new leads, automate posts and comment on blog posts.

    They will leverage your online content and invoke all positive reactions in order to lead your market to the sales funnel.

  • Speed Things Up

    Do you feel the need? The need for speed.

    No matter what walk of life you’re in; speed is an essential element that fuels satisfaction. But even more so, in a customer support team, wherein every minute can cost you the sale.

    Research suggests that conversions are 21 times more likely when the response time is around five minutes. While that may not be problematic for big businesses, small startups may feel the hack.

    Virtual assistant for small business offers the most cost-effective way of keeping tabs on your audience, fast and rapid.

  • Customer Retention

    On a daily basis, people spend almost 3 hours on social media. This is why it’s not surprising at all that 93% of customers are strongly influenced by what they hear and read on these platforms.

    Hiring a customer support virtual assistant is an exceptional way of attracting customers by taking them to a more personalized customer experience.

    By taking the time to know their wants and needs, you not only win their trust but also maintain brand loyalty with a promise of attracting new ones.

  • Meaningful Conversations

    One thing that separates a human virtual assistant from let’s say, a chatbot, is emotional intelligence. From the outset, you may find it unimportant, but meaningful dialogues create real conversations that stick.

    When pitching a sale, you do not want to sound robotic. A customer support virtual assistant can help you do just that.

    From running social media campaigns to prepping comments in blog posts, a virtual assistant can add a unique personal touch while covering a large workload in your organization.

  • Create Opportunities

    Creating opportunities starts with understanding the customers, their wants and needs. Customers provide insights that can be helpful in creating targeted marketing plans.

    With the help of a customer service virtual assistant, you can build and maintain a relationship with your target audience for long-term business success.


What Skills Do You Need to Be a Virtual Assistant for Customer Service?

Breaking out of your business comfort zone and ready to hire your first virtual assistant for your customer support team?

Hold up, don’t get too excited with your customer service VA hiring just yet. If you want to find the most suitable customer support virtual assistant, you need to identify beforehand the traits and skills that make an impeccable VA.

  • Quick-Thinker

    Since customer service requires dealing with a variety of people on a day-to-day basis in a fast-paced environment, a customer support VA needs to act fast, making decisions as quickly as possible.

    A virtual assistant should be able to look for ways to solve a problem rather than waiting for the client to reply.

    After all, speed is the ultimate weapon in business.

  • Emotional Intelligence

    Emotional intelligence helps build strong relationships, which is what a customer service agent needs when supporting customers.

    By keeping feelings in check and understanding the client’s emotions, a virtual assistant can communicate effectively and empathize with others. Not only can they respond to clients in a timely manner, but they can also make them feel valued.

  • Communication Skills

    How can you provide excellent customer service without great communication skills?

    Sure, communication skills don’t stop at being a good conversationalist. It also extends to being patient and being an active listener.

    A virtual assistant with effective communication skills has the ability to understand what the clients want, their expectations and challenges. And by adhering, they can relay the right message at the right time.

  • Organizational Skills

    Customer support agents have a lot on their plates. They have to juggle answering queries, prompting requests and solving complaints under the pressures of time and client expectations.

    Hence, a good customer support VA needs excellent organizational skills to maintain focus amidst office pandemonium. By keeping in line with resources, a VA is on track to meet the common goals and make progress without holding back any team member.

  • Adaptability

    Change is the only thing constant in this world. And in business, that mantra applies at an even greater speed.

    This is why it’s important for a customer support VA to be adaptable. They should be confident and comfortable to move around when unprecedented changes call for it.

    Adaptability means learning from customers and being malleable to what needs to be changed and improved.


What Is the Difference Between Customer Support and Virtual Assistant?

The difference between a customer service representative and a virtual assistant is impossible to see looking from the outside. They do almost the exact same things.

Still, if we look closely at their respective responsibilities and how they choose to go about their work, we can see how different they are.

Customer service representatives are usually tasked to handle complaints, answer queries and process orders. They typically go to a physical office and work in a seemingly choreographed manner.

Like a CSR, a virtual assistant also provides the same services, but with a wider array of tasks. Their workday is much more dynamic, shifting from being your personal bookkeeper to being a full-blown technical support virtual assistant in an instant.

And unlike customer service agents who handle different clients while working closely with a team, a virtual assistant serves as an extension of an organization that focuses on a specific client, often as a solo act.

Conclusion

Whether it’s marketing or customer experience strategy, a virtual assistant can fill a huge hole in a company’s customer support system.

So, learn to invest with a customer support virtual assistant and transform your customer service experience into a light-bulb moment.

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