The other day I had to take my cat to the vet (cat is fine btw). During the consultation, chat turned to the subject of working-from-home and ever-changing work conditions due to the pandemic. The practice had to set up a sort of outside triage area for about a month and the vet was glad to be working indoors again.
I mentioned it hadn’t been a change for me because I’d been working at home for a while, now that I’m a Virtual Assistant. The vet asked “how do you work with a Virtual Assistant? Lots of phone calls?”. Good question.
The quick answer is whatever works for my clients – meetings, phone or video calls, email, text messages.
The longer answer is that after initial enquiries are made (and where possible), a face-to-face meeting is a good start. My personal experience is that speaking to someone in person is the most effective way to establish a rapport, communicate what needs to be done and for me to gain an understanding of a client’s expectations. After all so much of how we communicate is non-verbal. On a more practical note, sometimes hard copies of documents, memory sticks and so on need to be handed over.
I have some clients who are interstate and meeting in person isn’t possible so it is a good thing that, thanks to the pandemic, we are now all used to virtual meetings, whether it is Zoom, Teams or another platform (and if there are hard copy documents, snail mail is fine).
After that, work can be forwarded via emails, with instructions, web links or attachments included as necessary. I have one client who prefers to use a dropbox and another who has set up documents via Google docs. Another, for security reasons, liked using WhatsApp. So communicating with your VA doesn’t need to be complicated.
There are many automated systems in use for remote work so if you are using one, no worries. I’ve used so many systems over the years that I can quickly figure out the basics. If you have a specific system you like to use, let me know and I’ll do my best to accommodate it.
Many platforms these days, such as Mailchimp, WordPress or Wix, are web-based so entrusting passwords to me will be necessary (see previous post on confidentiality). Text messages work, too. Really, Virtual Assistant is a job that is made possible by the invention of the internet.
If you would like to discuss further, please feel free to contact me.