Businesses today are growing at an exponential rate, transcending regional boundaries and adapting to the culture and customs of the local markets elsewhere. However, with booming businesses comes the burden of systematically managing various tasks, interactions and relationships. In fact, outsourcing major industrial activities have become the norm of the Industrial Revolution 4.0. Modern digital technology based on automation, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence is assisting the companies to meet their goals in innovative and effective ways. One of the ways through which the companies are getting their work done with ease and efficiently is by hiring Virtual Assistants.
What is a Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant is an independent individual or an entity that provides various services, especially administrative services, to the businesses from a remote location. Based outside the client’s office, virtual assistants have become prominent with increasing internet usage by the companies to carry out their daily operations.
Hiring a virtual assistant is cost-effective because they provide contractual services. In other words, you don’t have to offer the same benefits as you do to your full-time employee. Additionally, they are based outside your office walls; therefore, there is no need to purchase a desk and a chair for a virtual assistant.
Types of Services provided by Virtual Assistants
An increasing number of independent contractors and freelancers has resulted in spurting of several web-based organisations that act as intermediaries between the clients and the contractors to provide top-notch online personal assistant services.
Virtual Assistant has proved to be one of the greatest assets for many companies, but, it is important to select a qualified virtual personal assistant depending on the nature of your business. Following are the important services provided by web-based virtual assistant companies:
Virtual Assistant for Administrative services:
The administrative tasks are usually repetitive, mundane and time-consuming. It is always wise to outsource such work to a virtual assistant and concentrate on other productive and core business tasks that require more attention. Virtual administrative assistant performs various tasks including:
- scheduling appointments,
- managing files in online cloud-based storage,
- formulating and responding to emails,
- making reservations and other travel bookings,
- Preparing presentations and other important documents for business meetings.
Virtual Assistant for Market Research:
Industrial Revolution 4.0 has intensified competition in the industry landscape. The cross-border dealings of various companies are affected by the competitors presents both on the national and global level. It becomes important for all the businesses to formulate growth-oriented and feasible strategies after a careful analysis of the latest and as well as forecasted market trends. These days, the virtual assistants for market research play an important role in assisting the companies to undertake effective market research.
Few of the tasks performed by a virtual assistant in this field include:
- Monitoring and analysing competitors’ activities,
- Identifying opportunities and risks by conducting a SWOT analysis,
- Analysing different pricing models,
- Undertaking surveys/interviews to identify the likes and dislikes of consumers,
- Identifying opportunities for online business networking, etc.
Virtual Assistant for Data Management:
Innovation in technology and internet had resulted in the proliferation of huge amount of data. Big Data management with efficient AI technology is required by all the businesses to keep track of their sales, consumers’ preference, the effectiveness of various marketing campaigns, etc. The virtual assistant for data management ensures that all the important data is entered into your computer database accurately without any delay. Virtual assistants help in:
- Examining the data and correcting the same to minimise errors,
- Filtering and categorising data that needs to be entered,
- Deleting irrelevant and old information,
- Interpreting the data and presenting them in a proper format, etc.
Virtual Assistant for Social Media and Digital Marketing:
Establishing a solid online presence over the internet including social media platforms has become an important marketing tool to attract consumers, increase sales and ultimately the revenue of a business. Social media is an effective platform to communicate and interact with potential customers. You can escape the effort and time invested in social media marketing by hiring a social media virtual assistant which will do the following things for your business:
- Manage your company’s profile on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
- Creating and scheduling posts for social media handles,
- Managing Google ads, Facebook ads, etc.
- Preparing a social media calendar and executing the same,
- Monitoring and analysing competitors’ social media activities, and many activities alike.
By hiring a virtual assistant, a company can focus more other crucial aspects of the business. Depending on your business requirement, you can contact any type of online personal assistant, which might be located in your home country or in a place a thousand miles away. Virtual assistants indeed lighten the burden from the shoulders of the company employees and make them more productive and efficient.