As remote working is becoming more popular with employers offering ‘flexible working’ or working from home for a certain number of days; or entrepreneurs and new businesses are getting busier and need assistance but do not want the added expense of having direct employees on their payroll, it is important to be able to recognise how remote working can benefit you and how it can work successfully.
Making the right choice
Once you have found a mutual connection with a Virtual Assistant, it is important to quickly establish how you will best work together. By identifying the tasks in hand and objectives to be achieved, your Virtual Assistant will be able to get to work relatively quickly. How do you prefer to work and communicate, what do you expect from people working with you and what happens if things go wrong? These are all questions that should be asked of one another, after all, you are starting a new relationship that has the potential to last for some time.
Invest the time at first
By investing the time at the beginning and providing answers to your Virtual Assistant’s questions then, you should not be asked them again. They will get to know how you like to communicate (telephone, e-mail, video call, etc), your travel preferences (forward, backward, window, aisle), dining preferences (and dietary restrictions) and all the other things that they need to know to make your life easier.
It may seem tedious for you to spend this time with them at the beginning, however, it will pay off for both of you in the long run. And by building up this knowledge base, your relationship will strengthen and your communication between each other will become natural and easy.
Keep the communication flowing
As things change on a daily basis and even hour to hour, let your Virtual Assistant know of any changes or updates they should be aware of. If someone has called you direct and your Virtual Assistant had that on their task list to do, let them know. Relationships are built on trust and communication and if your Client feels that there is an unsynchronised approach, it reflects badly on you.
If there is something that has been done in a way that you weren’t expecting or don’t like, let your Virtual Assistant know. They care and want to do their best to make you happy, if there is a way that things can be done better, they would be only pleased to hear about it. Better still, by combining the two approaches, it may allow you to streamline processes so that you are saving time and money and learn a new way of working, beneficial to your business.
Collaboration Tools
Make use of collaboration tools. Trello, Dropbox and Office 365 are all useful depending on what is needing to be achieved. By collaborating, you know you can have others work on the task in hand and be fully synchronised.
Feedback
Giving your Virtual Assistant feedback is hugely important to them and your business. The only way of knowing if things are going well or not so well is to keep the communication lines open, from both sides.
Effective communication together with honest feedback will allow the relationship to flourish and for both businesses to get the best out of each other, creating a long, satisfying and rewarding partnership.
To find out further what AKA Virtual Assistant can help you with, get in touch for a free, no obligation chat.
Anna