Everything You Wanted to Know About Virtual Assistants (Part 2)

In Part 1 of this blog post we discussed using a virtual assistant in your business. The topics included:

• The definition of a virtual assistant
• Advantages and disadvantages of working with a VA
• Tasks you can delegate to your VA
• Budgeting for a VA
• Finding and Hiring the right VA for your business
• The characteristics of your ideal VA
• Deciding the best time to hire a VA

If you missed this post, you can read it now.
Today we are going to look at the essential steps after you hire your ideal virtual assistant and what to do if she/he turns out to be “not so great.”

Best Practices for Onboarding Your VA

When you first hire a virtual assistant, you may dread the thought of training them to do all of your myriad. However, if you searched for and hired an experienced VA, you may be pleasantly surprised that she is already a pro with the systems and standard business practices. Be sure to have a conversation with her to learn what, if anything, you will need to train her on.
If there are some tasks she is not familiar with, it may take some work and patience, but once things are running smoothly, your VA will be a life-saver.
Since a majority of what goes wrong with outsourcing occurs in the onboarding phase, here are the best practices to help you do it right the first time.

Do They Get It?

Never assume that they ‘get it.’ There are always times when you think you’re both on the same page only to discover that you’re way off. Your VA may have her own website that lists all the services they offer and what you need done may be on that list, but always assume they need your guidance. When discussing new tasks, you will find it invaluable to use active-listening techniques.
Active listening is a structured form of listening and responding that focuses the attention on the speaker. The key to this technique is the listener states what she thinks the speaker said. This helps the speaker know if the listener really understood or if they need further explanation. This will save you time and reduce misunderstandings. Learn more about active listening here.

Pay Attention to Detail

When delegating a new tasks to your virtual assistant, unless you know she’s already proficient, make it more detailed than you think it needs to be. You should include each step as well as the final goal. If you are doing this via email, read it back to yourself to be sure you’ve included absolutely everything before sending.

Writing vs. Video

You should create your own materials to train your VA. These materials can be used again when you hire help in the future. Go step-by-step through each task. You can create your training either by making video tutorials or giving them text materials. The best approach is actually to do both. Video walks them through everything visually and skirts any communication barrier, while text provides reference materials they can look at when they get stuck. You can find programs to record your computer screen on line. One I have used is Screen-Cast-O-Matic.

Do a Trial Run

For each job that you outsource, do a short trial run. For example, if you need a massive list of blogs that accept guest posts in your niche, ask them to find ten first. Check these blogs out to see if they’re what you wanted before you go ahead and delegate the entire list to them. Make sure they’re on the right track or it’ll be a huge waste of your time and money.

Giving Feedback

Give clear feedback immediately, especially for the first tasks your VA does for you. Always give them at least one positive bit of feedback to tell them what they’re doing right along with one piece of constructive criticism. The positive feedback is just as important as the negative. There’s always something that a person is good at. Make sure your VA recognizes that you appreciate their work.

Take Responsibility

Even when your VA messes up a task completely, take the responsibility upon yourself. Maybe you could have explained it more clearly or given better feedback. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt, because just as they need to adapt to working for you, you need to learn how to delegate to someone effectively.

Managing Your Virtual Assistant

Your VA takes over the tasks you don’t want to do so that you can get to the things that add the most value to your business. Managing your VA can take up a lot of your time if not done well, so here are a few best practices for efficient management.

Do It Yourself First

Whatever tasks you’re going to assign to your VA, do them yourself first. If it’s something you’re incapable of doing like web design or content creation, don’t worry about it. But if it’s a routine task that’s not complicated, make sure you know the drill. If you do it first, you’ll know how difficult it is, how long it takes, and how much you should pay to have it done. You’ll also know whether or not your VA is doing it right.

Don’t Overload Your VA

You may be lucky enough to come across a VA who’s skilled at all the things you need done, but don’t dump all of your work on them at once. Instead, give them tasks to do gradually. Some VA’s who are looking for work may take on an unrealistic amount. When you first start working with a VA, there will be problems to iron out and it’s much easier to recognize them when you’re dealing with a smaller workload.

Know Their Limitations

It’s very rare to find one person who can perform all the tasks you need to have done. Chances are that your VA will be better at some things than others. As their client, it’s essential that you understand their strengths and weaknesses and work with these.
For example, your VA may be great at getting backlinks to your website, but they can’t write content for you. They may handle social media tasks quickly and efficiently but have trouble with site maintenance. If this is the case, hire multiple VA’s to handle various tasks, making use of the natural strengths of each.

The Lines of Communication

Keep the lines of communication open and make sure that you can reach your VA quickly and easily when you need them. Build good rapport by being friendly and getting to know them on the personal level. The more you communicate with them, the more likely it is that you’ll understand each other when you discuss some new project.

What to Do When Your VA Isn’t Working Out

A good virtual assistant is an amazing help to your business and can be the difference between stagnant profits and huge growth. Most businesses can’t survive without them. However, sometimes there are problems that need to be resolved in order for your VA to be the valuable asset you need. Here are a few common problems and what you can do about them.

Not Meeting Deadlines

What if your VA does great work but doesn’t meet deadlines? Stress to them the importance of getting the work done by the due date. If it’s a challenge to get the work completed on time, pad your deadlines. Ask them to have it done Tuesday when you don’t need it until Thursday.
Another way to handle deadlines is to set up a regular amount of work per week. When you schedule tasks at set intervals, you both get into a routine. For them, it may be easier this way rather than setting a separate time frame for each task.

Inconsistent or Poor Quality Work

If the work’s quality isn’t up to par, gently but firmly tell them they’re not doing it right. Show them exactly how you want the work done. A great way to do this is to make screenshot videos of you doing it yourself. Even better, share your computer screen through Skype or another VoIP program. Afterwards, ask for their confirmation to make sure they understand. If possible, have them perform the tasks on the screen-share so that you can watch and give feedback immediately.

Communication Breakdown

If your virtual assistant isn’t communicating with you the way you want them to, try another channel of communication. For example, talk through chat instead of email. You might try asking them for a suggestion and being flexible with what they give you. It may help to schedule regular communication times.
Communication is also something that’s good to talk about in your initial contract phase. Tell your new VA that you’re most comfortable using, for example, Skype and ask if they can do that. Make it a condition of hiring them.
Partnering with a virtual assistant can be a time saver but it can also be a catalyst for your business growth. When you delegate tasks you are not proficient in and you are free to build your business.
If you have questions about hiring or working with a virtual assistant, leave a comment below.