What Can A Virtual Assistant Do?

A virtual assistant is usually an independent contractor who provides support to multiple clients in a number of industries. The majority of virtual assistants work from a remote location, which can be their home or an actual office, and they provide administrative, creative and technical services. 

But what exactly can a virtual assistant do?

The most basic task of a virtual assistant is answering calls directed to your company. This task can branch out into a call forwarding and screening service by through which each one of the phone calls your company receives is screened and routed to any employee of your company or to any number you choose, whether it’s a business line or personal phone. Some virtual assistant services also provide the option to build your own custom call forwarding schedule, this will ensure that calls get routed to the right people. 

Outbound calls are also an important part of your virtual assistant’s set of tools. They are trained to expertly handle all outbound calling duties, such as lead generation calls, scheduling appointments, making follow-up calls, surveys and market research, subscription renewals and even sales due to them being trained on the specifics of your business. 

Another task you can delegate to your virtual assistant is scheduling appointments and managing your calendar. These professionals are proficient in many widely-used calendars such as Google Calendar and Outlook and can schedule all your appointments in real-time, while setting up email alerts or text notifications for new or upcoming appointments. On that note, your virtual assistant can also manage confirmation emails for the appointments they set up, even set up out-of-town meeting schedules.

Virtual assistants can also place orders and process payments through your very own e-commerce portal. They can also answer technical support questions and provide customer service. For this task, virtual assistants rely on customized FAQ’s that they later incorporate into the call flow so they can help your customers with questions regarding product details, order processing, shipping details, and policies.

More advanced tasks that virtual assistants can be assigned are scheduling deliveries, travel planning, providing meeting support.

The benefits of hiring a virtual assistant are numerous and the service can be tailored and personalized to the business needs of each client.