Virtual Private Assistant: Stepping Into the Right Direction

Companies of all sizes rely on a virtual private assistant. With more flexibility and lower costs, VAs offer a smart solution for your changing business needs.

Running a company is becoming increasingly hard. Why? There’s the fast-moving technology and the emergence of new businesses taking a piece of the market share.

So, yes, it can get really tricky, even if you wear too many hats to keep the daily operation running smoothly.

However, hiring a full-time onsite worker isn’t always the best option, especially with fluctuating demand where you sometimes need to scale up or down. That’s where a virtual private assistant steps in.

For as long as the internet paved the way for remote work, that’s how long virtual assistants have existed.

Having a dynamic working arrangement proved to be highly advantageous, and the trend has grown rapidly every year. In fact, the VA market is expected to swell even more, with a market share of $25.6 billion by 2025.

But what exactly makes this spread-out team from all over the world click as a staffing solution? And why, despite the rise of virtual assistant AI, does the human touch of a human VA remain irreplaceable?

What Does a Virtual Personal Assistant Do?

A virtual personal assistant is an independent contractor who offers general administrative services to business owners and entrepreneurs from outside the traditional office.

These remote professionals are skilled in many ways. From creating graphic design and blog post writing to social media management, VAs provide opportunities for many companies to access specialized skills for a small price without long-term commitments.

Basically, what a virtual private assistant does is carry some of your daily workload and give you more time to focus on what matters in your business.

What Are the Duties of a Virtual Assistant?

Here are the most common duties that you can assign to your virtual assistant.

  • General Administrative Work

    Virtual assistants are typically hired to take on the admin work. These tasks include managing your schedule, booking travels, sorting emails and answering phone calls from clients.

  • Research

    Even though research plays an imperative role in staying competitive, it is also very time-consuming. Using a skilled virtual assistant to compile important information is more effective for a task that is more manual. They can create a comprehensive report and analyze the data in less time.

  • Personal Assistant

    One of the best things about virtual assistants is that they can go beyond the standard office chores and help you out with some personal errands.

    If you need someone to purchase gifts for a family member or manage your family travel itinerary, you can count on your VA to take care of them.

  • Customer Support

    A virtual assistant can be your first point of contact for clients seeking advice and assistance. Thanks to time zone differences, they can address concerns promptly with some personal touch while also providing an outlet for feedback.

  • Data Entry

    In this role, a virtual assistant is tasked to compile and enter data from various resources into the company’s database system. They maintain records, check for accuracy and make sure to delete unnecessary files in the system.

On a side note: A skilled VA with a specific talent can manage your social media, write a blog post or boost your SEO. This is why it’s highly, highly important that you know what position needs filling and who is the best person to fill it.

Topics you might be interested in: The Difference Between a Virtual and Personal Assistant

Why a Human Virtual Private Assistant is Superior to a Virtual Assistant AI?

With our world going full-on digital, a virtual private assistant is becoming an integral part of running a successful business or even just in our simple daily lives.

But it’s not just the human VAs taking the world by storm nowadays; AI-powered virtual assistants have also created a remarkable impact in recent years—from Apple’s Siri to Amazon’s Alexa.

Let’s take a closer look at these two popular business assistants and dive into the reasons why a human virtual assistant remains superior to your smartest chatbot.

Emotional Intelligence

This is perhaps the most significant advantage of a human virtual assistant—their emotional intelligence.

Unlike Siri or Alexa, your human VA has a unique ability to decipher your feelings. They show empathy, care and compassion, responding to changing emotions with comfort and reassurance.

Yes, an AI virtual assistant can stimulate human-like awareness through a pre-programmed response. However, they still lack that deep, genuine understanding that allows them to deal with more complex personal issues only reserved for real people with real experiences.

When it comes to emotional support and understanding sensitive conversations, a human virtual assistant surpasses even the most intelligent AIs.

Human Connection

If you’re running a company, you understand how important human connection is to boosting the engagement and performance of your team. You need to build camaraderie and rapport in order to trust someone you’re working with. In that department, a human VA outshines any AI.

AIs rely on data-driven interactions. A human virtual assistant, on the other hand, carries with them memories of past conversations and personal details. This allows them to interact in a more personal and engaging way.

These human connections promote loyalty. While you sure are attached to your chatbots, we highly doubt it’s at the level of emotional attachment. In addition, a real person can adapt to preferences, whether it’s communication style or culture, allowing for a better user experience.

Creativity

One of the most important traits of a human that allows them to be innovative is their sense of creativity.

While AIs can munch on a large amount of data and speak any language you can ever think of, they hardly or don’t at all think innovatively or critically.

Well, human virtual assistants are built differently. They brainstorm new ideas and have all the creative solutions for unanticipated occurrences.

Human remote professionals go beyond the mundane approach. They have a mind that can adapt to shifting challenges flawlessly and find tailor-fit solutions for your needs.

Decision-Making Ability

AIs need data to work. Without algorithms and guidelines, they can hardly make any decisions at all.

Working with AI virtual assistants means consistency, but it also ensures predictability.

Chatbots lack the capacity to make moral judgments or any ethical reasoning. The reason? They don’t have real-life experiences that they can go back to, unlike a human virtual assistant.

Humans can draw on their personal experiences to navigate complex situations more effectively. When confronted with ethical dilemmas, a human VA can weigh in on the value of their options and offer guidance rather than following the rules set by their creators.

The Advantages of Hiring a Virtual Private Assistant

We could all agree on this one: the best advantage of hiring a virtual private assistant is cutting down on operation and overhead costs.

There’s also the too-flexible contract that allows you to hire without long-term commitments and just hire services purely based on what your needs are at the moment. Depending on the terms of the contract, you can pay a virtual private assistant per hour or per project.

For startups and small entrepreneurs, hiring remote workers gives you a wider reach and access to talent without paying a lot. Business owners get to free up their time and work on what matters most, handing over their most-tedious daily office chores to a skilled remote professional.

How to Hire a Virtual Private Assistant

Though everything is digital when you’re hiring a virtual assistant, the hiring process still needs a bit of preparation in order for it to be effective.

  • Set Expectations

    Before you reach out to a virtual assistant agency, you need to make a list of the tasks that you need to outsource and flag priorities and deadlines.

  • Create A Budget

    Yes, virtual assistant skills are cheap to hire, even so, you must understand the cost and where your budget lies. In this way, your flexible arrangement with a VA doesn’t get out of hand.

  • Reach Out to a Virtual Assistant Agency

    While you can always look for a virtual assistant yourself, we don’t recommend it.

    Don’t waste time scouring freelance marketplaces and landing on a virtual assistant that doesn’t fit your needs, reaching out to a virtual assistant agency like VAV Remote gets you the right person for the right job.

Virtual Assistants: Helping YOU Focus on What Matters Most

Your TIME is your most important resource when you’re running a company. Going over the daily menial tasks yourself is the fastest way to lose it.

Having a virtual private assistant take over the many tasks on your plate is an act of creating more opportunities for your business. You get to focus on the jobs that matter and impact the organization for the long term.

Steer your business in the right direction and work with a virtual assistant.

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