Running a business comes with countless demands. Whether you’re a startup founder or a seasoned professional, virtual assistants can be invaluable in streamlining operations and helping you manage daily tasks more efficiently.
So, why consider a virtual assistant over an in-house employee? Traditional hires come with added expenses. From salaries to workspace requirements, while virtual assistants offer flexible, cost-effective support without the need for additional overhead.
So, in this article, we’ll explore what services do virtual assistants offer. It will give you a clear view of how they can support and enhance your business operations.
Let’s dive in!
What Are Virtual Assistant Services?
Virtual assistants, also known as VA, are skilled individuals who assist you remotely to manage your business.
They are usually self-employed and work from home. But yes, there are agencies that provide VA services, too.
A virtual assistant does all the work that a permanent employee may do, sometimes even more. They are highly professional and know how to grow your business.
If you want the best outcome, hire someone with a specialization in the field where you need help.
Why Do You Need Virtual Assistant Services?
The global economic recession has made business owners focus on cutting their production and other associated costs.
Especially if you run a small to medium business, hiring a permanent employee might be too heavy on your budget. But at the same time, running the whole business alone is impossible. So, what can be done?
Yes, you have got that right. You can hire virtual assistants for small and medium businesses, but what services do virtual assistants offer that make them so helpful?
First of all, VAs are comparatively less costly. Secondly, you can hire them for a specific period only when needed.
Also, virtual assistants are already skilled. You don’t have to waste time training them to do their job efficiently. In fact, they give you room to breathe amidst your busy schedule.
What Services Do Virtual Assistants Offer?
Virtual assistants offer a wide spectrum of services, from scheduling meetings to managing administrative work. In today’s era of digitalization, you can find every kind of help you want, and that too at a competitive price.
The services offered by virtual assistants are listed below:
1. Popular Virtual Assistant Services
Virtual assistant services have become pretty popular in the last decade. As we have mentioned already, there are numerous services you can outsource.
Here are some of the most in-demand virtual assistant services that businesses usually acquire –
Administrative Support
A successful business may collapse within seconds if the administration is not strong enough.
Virtual administrative support services are crucial for business operations. If you’re wondering what services do virtual assistants offer under this category, you’ll find everything from scheduling appointments to managing internal communications.
They manages everything from hiring new employees to launching new products, maintaining quality, and cleaning monthly salaries and invoices, etc.
You can easily outsource virtual administrative support services to swiftly operate the hectic tasks.
Email Management
Missing out on important emails and thus facing loss are not new things for businesses. It’s difficult to check hundreds of emails piling up daily and reply to them thoroughly.
That’s why email management now ranks top of the virtual assistant services list.
Your VA will check and sort out important emails, reply to them on your behalf, send necessary emails to the subscribers, and answer customers’ queries.
Calendar Management
It’s difficult to keep track of all the meetings and appointments, especially if your business relies on face-to-face meetings.
Missing one single appointment may cause unrecoverable losses. Virtual assistants keep an eye on your availability and schedule your meetings and appointments accordingly.
They track them on calendar management tools like Google Calendar and send you reminders. It’s just one example of what services do virtual assistants offer for efficient time management.
Data Entry
Data is an important aspect of any business. There are various types of data that should be properly categorized, compiled, and arranged to determine the exact state of a business.
Though there are many software programs that aid in data entry, human supervision is needed to ensure the accuracy of the information added to the database. A virtual assistant does this job appropriately.
2. Creative and Technical Support
The technical part is one of the core segments of a business. It needs to be handled only by the experts.
You can hire skilled and experienced persons to support you through VA services.
Graphic Design
Nowadays, graphic designing is one of the most popular outsourced services. Most companies need logos, banners, and ads to be designed occasionally.
Hiring an in-house graphics designer is unnecessary for them. They prefer employing virtual assistants during the contractual period, which is cost-effective.
Website Management
Online marketing has gained immense popularity since the pandemic. Almost every business now has its own website.
However, developing and maintaining a proper website requires a lot of work. After all, you wouldn’t want your visitors to experience a lagged interface.
A virtual assistant will maintain your business website and fix small issues that may occur with time. He should also be responsible for deleting unused files and poor content and making the website user-friendly.
Social Media Management
One aspect of what services do virtual assistants offer includes social media management.
They constantly posts about your products on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It brings you new potential customers. But you can’t possibly be active on social media 24/7, right?
That’s the reason why you should outsource the service. Your social media assistant will post unique and captivating content to engage more users.
He should also handle the account outlays to promote your business properly.
SEO Management
Suppose you have managed to build a website on your own. You are also uploading content to it. But it’s useless unless there is enough traffic on your website. So, how can you bring visitors?
Leave that job to a VA who deeply knows SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
If your customers are satisfied, your business is sure to grow. But if they find any chance to complain, you should always be ready to solve the issues immediately.
Virtual assistants are trained to do this job skillfully.
Inbound Calls
When a customer calls to complain, your VA is always ready to hear him out. After understanding the situation, he should give the best possible solution to the customer.
Live Chat Support
Online marketplaces now have a live chat system. It is a great way for customers to communicate with the seller.
If they have any inquiries regarding the product or service, they can ask them directly via text. And a virtual assistant is always present on the other side to answer his questions.
Ticket Management
It is another digital system where a customer states a complaint, and it is automatically recorded in the system.
And the customer gets a ticket. This ticket remains valid until the problems are resolved and the customer is satisfied.
Virtual assistants categorize the complaints and then answer them in order.
4. Content Creation and Management
Contents are the life of a website. Uniquely written and properly structured articles engage more traffic on your website and make your business flourish.
Blog Writing
Uploading well-written blogs helps your website to rank higher on the search engine.
But if it’s not well researched, if the keywords are not trendy, and the words are sloppy, there’s no use for that blog post.
VA’s job is to make sure all the blog writings are perfect to generate traffic.
Copywriting
Another creative content service, copywriting, is also in high demand now. You can hire several virtual assistants to write and captivate consumers within your website.
Content Editing
Information always gets updated. That’s why, sometimes, previously written content needs to be edited.
New information should be added, old ones should be cut, and most importantly, optimization according to Google’s latest update must be done. Hiring a virtual editor makes this job a lot easier.
5. Research and Analytics
Getting assistance from an expert regarding the current market and analyzing your competitors’ business strategies are equally important to a thriving business.
Market Research
Market research is very important for any business. When there is demand, there is supply of products.
Virtual assistants study the market and discover the latest trends and customer demands.
They let you know the customer’s preference, and thus, you can set your business plans accordingly.
Data Analysis And Reporting
Businesses are operated depending on data. Data analytics take a proper look at the numbers, sales, consumer demand, feedback, competitors’ performance, business models, etc., and organize them to make a report.
Finally, they suggest you make the necessary changes that will benefit your business.
6. Project Management Assistance
Among what services do virtual assistants offer, project management is a common request. With the right virtual assistant, you can oversee tasks, delegate responsibilities, and ensure every project runs smoothly.
Here are the project management assistance services, offered by VAs:
Task Coordination
When a group of people works on a project, chaos is common. Someone must keep them all on track and maintain proper coordination among them.
Leave the job to your virtual assistant, who will analyze the market, supervise the production and ensure a smooth launch of new products.
Also if you need to fill gaps of staff in a team virtual assistants are always ready to coordinate with the existing team.
Team Collaboration Tools
Are you wondering how to use a virtual assistant to maintain collaboration among your team members?
Thanks to collaboration tools, assigning tasks, giving feedback, and sharing ideas have become easier.
Your VA can give access to the tools and give proper instructions to other team members.
Specialized Services
We have mentioned several times that, in the virtual world, you can get any kind of assistance you need from experts.
Here are some specialized services you can find on the virtual assistant services list.
Bookkeeping and Accounting Support
Accounts are the heart of a business. As it contains bills, invoices, monthly expenses, and other financial information, proper attention must be paid to it. Only experts with experience should be trusted for this job.
A virtual assistant should keep all the records of the payments, employee salary, and tracks of issuing refunds and add them to a balance sheet for better understanding.
Legal Support Services
If you are running a business, you have to follow certain laws. You have to get a license for your business, pay taxes to the government and not get involved in any heinous act.
Every business has its own lawyers to give them legal advice. However, small startups find it hard to hire one.
But you can get legal support from a virtual assistant possessing legal knowledge!
7. Industry-Specific Virtual Assistant Services
For industry-specific roles, what services do virtual assistants offer can vary greatly. Virtual assistants can be trained to meet the specialized needs of sectors like e-commerce, real estate, or healthcare.
The industry-specific services are the following:
The real estate business really needs more manpower and hard work. After all, listing properties, making appointments with clients, visiting the area, and finalizing the deal all need proper coordination. Not to mention, they are all time-consuming.
It is best to get virtual assistant services for different jobs to ensure smooth operation.
Here is our article on ‘What Does a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Do?‘ Have a look, if you want to know details about it.
E-commerce Virtual Assistants
E-commerce has now become a strong pillar of the global economy. So, no wonder the workload has also increased to a great extent.
From communicating with the customers to dispatching their orders, you can now hire Virtual Assistant for all of them. Select an assistant with good communication skills and knowledge about your products.
Differences Between Local and International Virtual Assistants
You can hire them from any country or part of the world. You can choose to work with your local people or hire foreigners. You are the boss to make the decision.
However, there are some differences you may notice between local and international virtual assistants. We are mentioning a few of them below so that you can make a better decision while employing virtual assistants.
| Aspects | Local Virtual Assistants | International Virtual Assistants |
|---|---|---|
| Time Zone | Works on local office hours | Available at various hours |
| Familiarity | Knows about the local culture | Cultural diversities can be seen |
| Language | Knows the local language and communicates better | May face a language barrier while communicating |
| Cost | Costlier | Comparatively cheaper |
| Local projects | Can handle local projects like listing local properties | Works only on global projects |
What is the Average Cost of a Virtual Assistant?
The average cost of a VA depends greatly on what services do virtual assistants offer and the complexity of those tasks. They usually work on an hourly basis or per task basis. Their pay rate depends on various aspects.
For example- countries play a major role in this. In the United States, a virtual assistant earns $10-$60 per hour, depending on the service he provides. But at the same time, an Indian or Filipino earns way less for the same job.
Depending on what type of service a virtual assistant provides, his pay rate may differ.
Here’s a list of average costs for the most in-demand virtual assistant services:
- Real Estate VA: $35-$45 per hour
- E-commerce VA: $17-$50 per hour
- Bookkeeping And Accounting VA: $30-$90 per hour
- Data Entry VA: $8-$25 per hour
- Graphics Designing VA: $25-$100 per hour
- Website Management VA: $20-$40 per hour
- Digital Marketing VA: $20-$80 per hour
- Research VA: $20-$35 per hour
Get the Best Virtual Assistant Service from Green Feather Technologies
Virtual assistants are efficient workers who can handle different tasks for you and help you run your business swiftly. Not only that, they also give you suggestions on how to grow your business.
Virtual assistants may work with sensitive data and crucial business information, so you should be careful when choosing one.
We always suggest hiring an assistant from a reputed agency who has built their trust in the industry.
Green Feather Technologies is a leading business process outsourcing firm and known for its top-notch services and customer satisfaction.
We provide popular virtual assistant services, like data entry, bookkeeping and accounting, graphics designing, content management and many more.
If you are looking for diligent virtual assistants with years of experience at a competitive price, contact us now!
Conclusion
If you are a business owner and want to free up your hectic schedule, it is high time you call for virtual assistant services.
By knowing what services do virtual assistants offer, you can effectively delegate tasks and focus on growing your business.
Do your research, see their portfolios, arrange meetings with candidates and choose the best virtual assistant for yourself and your business. Leave the boring and hideous job for then and take a little break.
