 Sooner or later, your business is going to grow. When you start realizing this, you will also learn that there are some growing responsibilities involved. As this happens, you will be thinking about handing over some tasks to make room on your plate. Passing off tasks to virtual assistants is a good move since it will allow you to focus on bigger picture strategies for your company.
If your business is at this stage, then you have reached an exciting time for your company! You are branching out. It may feel like uncharted territory and a bad time to hand the reins of responsibility over to someone else. There will come a time, however, when you will be sitting in an interview trying to make sure your first virtual assistant (or tenth) is qualified to work for you. No matter if you have hired VA’s before, or this is your first time, here are 10 helpful questions you should always have ready for your interview to determine if the person is right for the job. #1: What do you consider your core skills? This is an important question because it allows your VA to start talking about themselves. It’s here where you give them an opportunity to shine for you and pinpoint some of the key characteristics they can bring to your business. #2: How do you manage relationships with difficult clients? No matter how you try to avoid it, a difficult client will always rear their ugly head. Your VA may be excellent in understanding different responsibilities and roles which are placed before them. It is also important, however, to know whether they can handle these difficult clients when they come their way. Give them examples of past clients and the debacles you have personally been in and learn how they would approach the problem. While there are many correct ways to do this, pay attention to how they treat the client because this should always be your top priority. #3: Where do you see yourself within this company in 5 years? Asking your virtual assistant this question gives them an opportunity to see the future. This is a healthy way to invite them to dream about the open doors you have placed in front of them. Loyalty is a key factor in any successful business and you want these key people around you while you grow. It’s an ownership of sorts. If your VAs see themselves running particular branches of your company in 5 years, then they own that idea and will run your company with your vision in mind. You can’t get any better than that. #4: Can you work the schedule I give you? One of the many mistakes the first interview makes is not sharing a specific time frame within which you want your virtual assistant to work. Determine which time zone your worker is in and, if you haven’t already, have a set time during which you desire them to work. Approach them with this question and learn their schedule and how you both can make it work. #5: Do you have a backup plan for your work? It’s always important to understand your worker’s strategy. If your VA doesn’t have a backup plan for their work, how are they going to make a virtual meeting at 3 p.m. if their internet just went down? Make sure you implement this immediately and make the worker know a backup plan is needed in case of different natural disasters or other circumstances which would take away the internet, phone, or any other medium, leaving them disconnected from work or clients. #6: Where are you most comfortable communicating? Many people have different ways to communicate remotely. As a company, you probably need several modes of communication set in place to adhere to the different preferences throughout your business. Learn what these preferences are. Make sure your VA can be contacted through various channels throughout the day, i.e., phone number, Skype, Google Hangouts, etc. It’s imperative your VA has an open line to you and the other clients that they service under you so that they can be reached when they are needed. #7: Ask them about characteristics that you value in a VA This is a question where you would fill in the blank. What are you really looking for in a VA? What do you want this person to be? Loyal? Workaholic? Social marketing savvy? Ask them specifically. It’s important to know how to find the people YOU want for this job. #8: How would you fix an internal problem with another VA or employee? Here you will learn how well your prospect can problem solve within your business and if they are easy going, headstrong, stubborn, etc. The internal workings of your business are built on the foundations of people who can problem solve and know when to back down or speak up. #9: What do you know about our company? Asking them this question will determine how much homework they have done on your business. The more they know about you, your core values, and how you conduct business, the better they understand your main goals. #10: Do you have any questions for me? A very important question. This allows your VA to interview you in a way. It opens the door for new conversation and shows that you can be flexible to what they want of you. It’s important to get their questions answered in this interview because it isn’t a one-way street going your way. Both parties must conclude positively that this is the person and job they want to move forward with. It is important to the business that you are both comfortable with your arrangement. In Conclusion Here at WorkLink VAs, hiring a VA doesn’t have to be difficult. If you’re just getting started or you’ve been doing this a while, there are qualified workers out there who can do the jobs you have for them and do it all at a high level. These questions will help you weed out people and find the needle in the haystack.
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 Most of us move quickly in business as we often make decisions quickly than most, we are spontaneous, and we have technology at our fingertips to assist us even further and making things happen. But there are times in life and in business when we do need to take a step back and think it through more carefully than usual, especially during these rare times of global crisis, particularly with this COVID-19 outbreak. At WorkLink VAs, our goal is to provide continuous-resolution and motivation to our valued clients that we serve and to our employees we support. We always thrive on getting better at what we do and on always putting our people first with integrity and respect regardless of the challenges that might get in the way. Here are four guidelines you can do to support your business during difficult times: 1. Be flexible When it comes to property management, we do understand the importance of having someone to inspect or view the properties physically. Being flexible allowed us to better understand the process even better by sourcing out some new ways to manage our clients' business with the use of proper communication and technology. Part of this significant break is by having a reliable virtual assistant who is ready to assist all administrative tasks and other clerical duties, which helps me to take a step forward and focus on other essential activities. 2. Notify Your Clients Regardless of how certain situations may impact your progression, part of being successful is to deliver integrity to your clients. This includes sending notifications and updates, giving them motivational messages, and making sure to communicate with them and offering them assistance or alternative support for their needs. 3. Use Your Platforms to Provide Support And Resources Speak with your people and clients by utilizing your social media platforms. It’s a great way to communicate your support and provide much-needed resources. Always remember that people will pay attention to how you act in times of crisis. 4. Be Mindful of Clients Who Are Affected by The Crisis Quickly determine if you have people or clients who are personally affected by a crisis and immediately reach out to them. Helping those who have supported your business will keep their loyalty to you. As we are all aware, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has impacted many businesses in different levels of effect, which made us spend this extra time to work extensively and reach out to those who may require support building their work back to normal. If you would like to find out more about how we can help you restructure your team for less, feel free to contact us or register, and we’ll be happy to help you strategize your full-time virtual team with ease!  We all use many types of communication but most of us never spent much time knowing which one we’re actually using and whether or not it’s effective for us. Understanding the different styles of communication is very essential especially if we’re aiming to develop the effectiveness on how we interact with people on both professional and personal aspects.
Have you ever had a training or a business meeting before where you can actually tell that your listeners’ attention is somewhere else? Or perhaps they’re doing something not related to what you’re discussing about which is somewhat rude on your part, but why some those people do it? It is possible that the style of communication you are using at that time may not be suitable for those people or situation. Now to cite some of these examples, here are 4 styles of communication you might need to discover and how to potentially change the pattern in the way you approach or deliver your statements. ANALYTICAL COMMUNICATOR Analytical communicators are often the people who like real numbers, hard data, or any tangible proofs to confirm certain information given to them. Most of them are not rude, rather they are just as likely to become more of a critic than a listener especially if they cannot find specific answers from any given statements to prove your point. One of the examples for this type of communicator is if you mentioned to the group, “Guys, I appreciate your hard work! The results went massively high compared to the last quarter!” Analytical communicators would more likely to react as, “What does ‘massively high’ mean?” To best capture, their attention, instead of generalizing your statement, try to phrase your ideas in a way the best resonates with them like, “Great job! The total result of our closed sales has increased 20% since the last quarter!” In short, try your best to avoid emotional or expressive languages since analytical communicators are data-driven but they are perceived to have the informational intelligence to contribute and help the team. PERSONAL COMMUNICATOR Unlike analytical communicators, personal communicators' style works somewhat the opposite. They tend to value emotional statements and would generally try to use the style to gain or build relationships with others. As with our first statement example say when you mentioned to the group, “Guys, I appreciate your hard work! The results went massively high compared to the last quarter!” Personal communicators would either be contented and happy with what you said or you can upraise the emotional a little by saying, “Kudos to everyone! Our total result for closed sales have increased 20% since the last quarter and that’s the first time in two years we’ve done that! Thanks to everyone!” Looking at personal communicators, they are certainly very relationship-focused but you have to be mindful especially if some of your listeners are analytical communicators. INTUITIVE COMMUNICATORS Intuitive communicators are not difficult to handle, however, they are generally like to focus more on the bigger picture, trying to avoid or eliminate the details and cut right to the chase. You’ll find that these people would talk less and they are quite inadequate when providing complete information. They tend to jump right to the final step of the process after giving or skipping a few steps. In most cases, this style of communication would often be popular among bosses and clients. So it’s best to understand the right approach by giving them important information while keeping it social when matching the details with their interest rather than having them wait for your next episode. FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATORS This type of communicators can be the most favorable amongst all. Functional communicators are good listeners and patient. They tend to welcome most of the information given in the process and they like thinking through each of the details provided in which they would rarely miss a single information when implementing important plans or procedures. Functional communicators will find comfort with ideas presented to them but in most cases, these communicators are not fully compatible with intuitive communicators. Having a hard time finding which communication style works for your business structure? Here at WorkLink VAs, our Virtual Assistants are required to present their behavior assessment overview (DISC profile) as part of our pre-screening process. This helps you understand the character type of the VA before hiring them. Feel free to schedule a consultation today so we can help you get the right Virtual Assistant for you and your business.  Most people can have a good communication skills and styles during a course of conversation, but some have managed to practice an effective communication skills which both are entirely different at some point.
Technically, a good communicator knows how to control a conversation using fundamental elements of a language which involves knowledge and behavior. A person that has an effective communication skills, on the other hand, knows how to enumerate and specify an idea during a conversation by knowing the source and relying on facts. To cite a couple of examples as to how an effective communication skills can be developed, here are a few things to keep in mind: Good Communication Skills At any time you may want to extend your reach when connecting with people who respond differently than you, good communication skills is necessary to determine your results. It is one way of promoting your behavior by establishing a great sense of knowledge and competency. Many jobs require people with strong communication skills. Usually these are the types of people who often enjoy discussions and have interpersonal relationships with friends and family. Connect your Interest The best part of showcasing an effective way to communicate is by giving them the impression that you are on the same team by blending your interest to what give them importance. Find the common grounds by asking open-ended questions about their interests. This will bridge the gap as it provides you with insights into their needs. Analyze It is important that you scrutinize the topic based on where it leads the conversation. When you are connecting with 2 or more people, it is better to ask yourself these questions: 1. Do they find this conversation interesting? 2. Are they comfortable talking or dealing with me? 3. Do I make them feel understood? 4. Will it secure our connection even after the conversation? Most often, this can be solved by exhibiting your enthusiasm towards your point. The more your become excited, the better connection you create as you earn their trusts by revealing as much about yourself as possible while engaging to your momentum. Here at The VA Station, effective communication skills is really important as it connects our virtual assistants to to a much effective and enhanced workplace and it inspires great performance in the environment providing good motivation while cultivating awareness to what matters to your business. Team up with our eclectic multi-skilled virtual assistants honed to have a great and effective communication skills that fits your business environment! Feel free to schedule a free appointment with us if you want to learn more how you can get the best virtual assistant for your team today!  Digital marketing has become the main structure to boost your brand and grow your online presence for your business. By implementing the procedures of showing your brand online in a proper method, you’ll get close to targeting your ideal customers whether it's business to business (B2B) or business to customer (B2C) campaigns, you’ll be able to successfully secure more engagements which can eventually become converted to sales increase.
Here at WorkLink VAs, we always make sure to utilize the 4 important tips to promote and efficiently reach more people about our competitive virtual assistant service in helping clients to grow their business with visible results. Here are 4 tips you can use to build and grow your online presence: 1. Blog Everyone knows what a Blog is and what it ideally contains. That can also be the one of the reasons why you have found this article by the way. Well, a blog (a short word for weblog) is an online journal or a piece of article that provides useful information that can help others based on the topic of the blog. It’s one of the most effective ways to engage with many audiences by raising awareness and creating useful facts and articles that others may find beneficial. By regularly uploading blogs or articles to your website, it maintains its valuable connection to the people as it drives traffic to your website by increasing the SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It also helps the business to be placed in the ideal industry or niche of your business. 2. Social Media Social media has transformed the way we communicate with each other, and most importantly, with brands. Through social media, customers are now able to follow and connect with brands easily which what makes your business increase its engagement to the people. According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers claimed that social media marketing was necessary for their business indicating 80% of their efforts have increased traffic to their brands. Some of the major social media channels you need to focus on to market your business are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 3. Video/Video Podcasts Creating visual contents in a form of video is an effective method to snatch people’s attention, especially now that we’re living in the future, a full-on video content is an advantage to every marketers and entrepreneur. YouTube is one of the great media platforms you can use to upload videos while spreading them out across your other social media channels that creates the loop to stay connected and engaged with your customers and potential clients. 4. Digital Magazines/E-books Digital Magazines or Electronic Books (Ebook) is an electronic version of a printed book that can be read conveniently on a computer or any handheld device designed to reach the modern-day people. Publishing your own E-book can bring more income to your business as it also creates a great involvement of your business to anyone that grabs a copy. It’s low-cost native advertising which can also host ads related to your industry or to other topics you mostly deal with. Bottom line is digital marketing is really important to increase your online presence through the use of online marketing platforms. Part of our main service is to provide core functions to small and large business entrepreneurs, realtors, and property management firms help build their online presence and to keep transactions and all its movement in the loop by the help of a virtual assistant. If you want to know more information on how you can easily hire your social media management virtual assistant, feel free to schedule an appointment with us so we can guide you through the easy process.  Property Management: Back Office Tasks We know that a Property Management Back Office tasks would require a decent knowledge with the language of the business and the entirety of its nature. Being the first point of contact for the majority of you and your subordinates, your ideal candidate should be reliable when providing important information, committed when engaging to different types of issues, and someone who is generally well-oriented in performing business functions and its duties.
We are fully aware on how vital it is to entrust this responsibility to someone competent enough to hold this role and that’s why we, at The VA Station ensure that all our Virtual Assistants must have these 3 foundations that are initially assessed and evaluated by us to determine their competence and capability will strongly match the major qualifications property managers would require. Exposure Just like most employers, we agree that the importance of work experience and exposure related to the business’ environment is a serious matter.We always prefer to acquire Virtual Assistants with excellent involvement in customer service as their background. This will then eliminate the duration of time training them with their soft skills and telephone etiquette to focus more on the technical view of Property Management. Information As part of our hiring process, we also challenge each qualified candidate to express their knowledge about property management or real estate business as it helps us measure their level of understanding that allows us to gauge which component should we focus more on them and what product specific training should they take. System At the screening stage, once the two primary skill sets have been established, we would then proceed to applicants’ system and important tools such as computer specifications, internet speed, and power backups. We evaluate applicants’ technical qualifications and subject them to several testing procedures to streamline proper business operations for the client. We know that Property Management business is an environment which demands an immense teamwork and notable efforts from each member to succeed. That’s why each stage of our recruitment process would exercise necessary actions little by little to secure the perfect candidate who is worthy to call as your next Property Management - Back Office Virtual Assistant. Should you require further information on how we can help putting leverage to your business or any desk operational service such as Customer Service, Sales, Transaction Coordinator, Maintenance, or Virtual Assistant in general, feel free to contact us today!  There are a couple of things to remember when hiring your virtual assistant. But first, let me remind you why is it important to hire a Virtual Assistant. “Ring! Toot! Swoosh! Vroom!” Sounds familiar right? Yup! I know, in fact, those were the profitable noises that have provided plenty of profits to clients and business owners like you. Those phone calls, emails and notifications, paper works and even the honk your own vehicle that gets the most hours of the day just to arrive at your appointment destination on time. In fact, some businesses would quit since they hardly have enough time to prioritize what really matters - You. Unfortunately, most clients tend to focus on multiple tasks thinking that they can do it all by themselves and barely have thought about engaging to their main expertise, which is the core object of winning goals. Whether it be a small business, a startup campaign or even a large network always have to consider one important phrase of becoming successful: “Sell yourself and the product at the same time.” I know it would sound a little cagey to others, but if one would contemplate, essentially, you will then start to realize that everyone is already capable of knowing your service, so why not focus on ‘how can you deliver the service’ instead? And if you already know how to handle that part according to your abilities, then it’s time to concede that you’ll need a professional assistance in fulfilling your success. One most effective and sustainable method, which most top real estate, sales and customer service business in general have been talking about, is hiring a skilled professional offshore. An experienced individual doesn’t need to be with you physically but someone who can work for you remotely while providing you real time reports, accomplishing competitive results, and giving you the benefit of your coffee virtually through the use of the internet. Still wondering how are they going to do all those extra leg works? Well no matter how good we are at what we do, we still cannot afford to spend all day taking 200-300 calls per day, sending or replying to countless emails from clients, arranging contracts, organizing contents and important details, creating websites and web forms, managing our social media and marketing sites, or even talking to an important client on your behalf while you’re busy negotiating to the other client. So how can you be assured that your assistant can do those tasks? This is the part where you’ll need to consider the basics: Understanding the hiring process. As normal, it is beneficial to pick the largest fish in the bowl and how to create a mutual security from end to end of your transactions. Here are the important elements you need to remember when selecting your best virtual assistant: 1. Responsiveness - During an interview session, it is always important to determine that the candidate must be punctual and aggressive by asking their possible weaknesses and strengths. Moreover, these are the candidates who have great motivation about careers by knowing a little bit about their personal background or previous work experiences. 2. Experience - This can be critical as the foundation should be concrete. Although it may not always be necessary to others hiring someone who has a great or equal expertise as yours, but a professional aspirant whom you think can deliver tasks appropriately based on what they’ve been up to about a year ago is an ideal basis. However, one must consider that storytelling is way better than being the narrator of their own book. This involves the selling part of themselves by building a connection to you as their client and how well regulated they are in taking part of the ownership by giving importance to your business. In addition, this is the part where you can measure their skills in terms of listening and communication proficiency. 3. Technical - Internet speed, computer specs, and backup systems are the guns and bullets of your potential warrior. Initially, these are the major requirements that are usually prequalified by the candidate’s respective agency before they reach you. 4. Motivation - What made them decide to work from home? Is it just about to have more time for their families and get away from the outside realm? Or do they feel like it’s more productive focusing to work from the comfort of their own homes rather than spending the stress brought by their usual daily grinds? Either way, whatever motivation a candidate should possess, feel free to check mark that portion if it enlightens their eligibility. 5. Price - In connection to all four elements mentioned above, it doesn’t need to take a noblest person to picture money out of a file of documents. Once all four aspects have been observed and acknowledged accordingly, it is best to list down all responsibilities and obligations you wished to be covered by your virtual assistant as the price tag will then be meticulously determined by the agency for your convenience. Pretty exciting? How about which hub should you go to in finding the right virtual assistant? I know there are tons of remote staff hubs around and almost everywhere but investing to a much credible site is what you should look for. One site called WorkLink VAs is considerably one of the most competitive platforms in search for experienced virtual assistants to work virtually for international based clients! They have been committed to providing clearer standards for career growth and rewards by filtering, hiring, developing and training high-end candidates who are literally thirsty in establishing and showcasing best practices and as well as seeking for equal opportunities for better employment. It has become a home of talented VAs, dignitaries, and creative individuals who have taken several big and small businesses in extreme leverage - and their price is very competitive too! Just like most renowned ‘great minds’ have said: “A minute wasted is a dollar burned”, so why wait for extensive advancements that give ultimate benefit for your priorities when you’re just a click away from the other side of your goals? Visit WorkLink VAs to find out more about their Virtual Assistant service and how you can step up with your business in no time. LIZ FILANO |
AuthorSam Martinez Archives
June 2020
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