What has been your experience with Virtual Assistants?

Question

Has anyone hired a VA before or maybe still does? How did you find the experience and where did it help most?

Sukh Sidhu · Accepted Answer

@colinwinhall I get around 😬. Not urgent but often same day yes, also they weren’t quite up to scratch in written communications with customers which I wanted to be taken care of

Sukh Sidhu · Answer

Hey Colin, I've had mixed experiences with VA's

My advice is create a list of tasks that you would hand over, then document yourself doing each task and use that as an SOP so the VA knows exactly how to do what you want them to do

Often people will struggle to find enough for their VA to do or will expect their VA to just know how to do the tasks without a step by step process to follow (they most likely won't)

I've had some success with a VA from Upwork in the Phillipines in the past but last year decided I wanted someone UK based because of the time zone issues. Much prefer it despite the higher cost and she has become more of a business manager now and takes care of all administrative tasks, customer service, managing my diary, basic (nocode) software tasks, managing team, payroll, social media and more

Colin Winhall · Answer

@sukhsidhuuk Hey Sukh, didn't know you were a PH'er too :-) and thanks for your great input. I am actually looking only at candidates that are in an alternate working hours timezone so that they are able to prepare items for me while I sleep. You noted that the timezone difference didn't work for you... is that mostly because the tasks you were needing done were urgent ones?

What has been your experience with Virtual Assistants?

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