How to get the best out your working relationship with your Virtual Assistant (VA)

So you’ve you engaged an virtual admin assistant and want to get the best out of them. Here are our 5 top tips to get the best out of your working relationship with your VA:

 

1. Treat your VA respectfully, let them know when they are performing and be nice to them! Your VA is a person too and will respond well if you maintain a positive working relationship. On the other hand, if you are short, rude or mean to them they will do the opposite and wont enjoying working with you, which will yield you poor results. This principle is true for your employees so why wouldn’t it be the case for your VA?

2. Ensure that all communication is clear, concise and regular. The better your communication the better your VA will be able to perform for you. Let them know exactly what you need without overwhelming them with too much information. If your VA has requested some information, get it back to them quickly to allow them to do their job. It’s important to get the balance right, do not micromanage as that is just defeating the purpose of using VA as you will not be saving time. However, you must give clear instructions on what it is you need done.

3. Create easy to follow processes, this is a key part of clear and concise communication. These processes need to be step by step and shared with your VA. If you have good processes in place, you will be able to better manage your VA. If they don’t follow that process properly go back to it with them and better train them. If a process isn’t working, then simply amend it. It is very important that your processes are checked regularly and kept up to date if working with a VA.

4. Use cloud-based software systems to manage your business operations. This should include your email, customer relationship management, project management, accounting and if you’re a tradie, a job management system. If your software is cloud based it allows you, your employees and your VA to access and keep your systems up to date wherever they are. Cloud based systems are live so you should always have accurate information to better manage your business with.

5. Give the relationship time to work. Like all working relationships it will take time for your VA to fully understand your business, your customers, and your processes. Mistakes can happen, your VA is human and human error is a real thing. Though not all mistakes are on the VA’s end. So if you have to address an issue or error, be sure to understand where the error lies before accusing your VA. It is possible it could be yours, your staff’s, or your customers error. Also, not all customers tell the truth! Falsely accusing your VA for those errors could damage your working relationship. If an error occurs, be understanding and be clear on how you expect them to address it so it is not repeated in the future. If you give the relationship time to develop to maturity you will reap the benefit of having a cost-effective solution to help your business grow.

 

 

Office Shed are a specialist virtual administrative service for trades & service businesses with over 10 years of experience. Office Shed are dedicated to getting the best out of our working relationships with our tradie clients. Our experience allows us to guide the onboarding process to help ensure a strong working relationship. We specialise in working with electricians, plumbers, roofers, air conditioning techs and installers, pest controllers, cleaning businesses, maintenance tradies and have experience working with most trade types. Therefore we already understand how trades work. We also partner with major trades-based job management apps like Fergus, ServiceM8, Simpro, Tradify, Ascora and AroFlo. All this means as a VA service Office Shed can hit the ground running with minimal effort from our trades and services based clients. To find out more give us a call on 1300 779 529 or email helo@officeshed.com.au.