6 tasks to automate before hiring a virtual assistant

Hiring a virtual assistant is a fantastic way to free up some of your time by taking tasks off your plate. But before you do, it’s worth automating a few activities first, to leave your virtual assistant budget for the jobs that are better suited to a human touch.

Here are 6 tasks you can set up in your business before you hire a virtual assistant.

(Though a virtual assistant can also help you to set them up in the first place.)

1. Use appointment scheduling software

Whether you schedule regular meetings with clients, or just have the occasional call with a supplier, appointment scheduling software eliminates the time-consuming back-and-forth messages to coordinate schedules. With programs such as Calendly, Timely or TidyCal you can create a calendar of your available times and then send a link for the other person to choose a time in your calendar that also works for them.

Appointment scheduling software also makes it straightforward to reschedule meetings, and to send reminders before the call so that nobody is sitting wasting their time due to no-shows.

A VA can still support you in setting meetings if a personal touch is required, but the actual nitty-gritty of arranging the date and time is best taken care of by software.

2. Set up email filters

Email filters, also known as rules, automatically filter incoming emails from your inbox into specific folders or forward them to another person (depending on your chosen criteria). For example, you can create a filter to send all newsletters from a specific address to a separate folder, to read at a time that suits you.

Streamlining your emails with filters can be useful for:

• regular reports that you need to keep for reference, but don’t need to see in your inbox

• forwarding emails to another team member or a VA to take action on

• filing away newsletters to read later.

Email filters can reduce the noise and overwhelm in your inbox, allowing you to focus fully on the messages that do require your attention sooner rather than later. This also reduces the risk of missing important emails.

Even if a VA is going to support you in managing your inbox, using filters is an efficient way to reduce the number of emails before they tackle what’s left.

3. Create automated emails

These emails are sent automatically after a customer has taken a certain action. For example, a welcome email sent to new subscribers to your newsletter, thank you emails to new customers, or a request for a review after someone has purchased an item or used your service.

Once these emails are up and running, you don’t have to give them any further thought, but they will remind your customers and subscribers about you, and the emails can gather valuable feedback for you too. A VA can then follow up on any replies you receive to these emails with a personalised response.

To set up automated emails, use the Automations feature within your email marketing software, for example, Mailerlite, Convertkit or ActiveCampaign. Some software uses different terminology such as Sequences or Journeys.

4. Automatically gather links for your newsletter in one place

If you’re going to ask a VA to put together a newsletter for you, you still may want to include interesting links you come across yourself from your industry. Instead of emailing every link to your VA or copying them into a document, use a browser add-on to select links on the go, which automatically gathers them in one place for your VA. 

Airtable and Evernote’s Web Clippers are good options if you use either of those programs, or Pocket is a great standalone program specifically built for saving links.

You can also set up a similar option for social media posts, using a connector program like Zapier or IFTTT. For example, whenever you like an Instagram post, the post could be automatically added to a Notion board. This makes curating content for your newsletter from social media much simpler.

5. Connect your task management software with your emails

It might sound small, but being able to create a new task in your task management software without leaving your inbox will avoid a lot of back and forth. And even avoids the risk of forgetting to create the task at all.

You can assign tasks to someone else this way too, which makes it even easier to work with a VA.

You could also bring in the power of email filters here, by automatically turning certain emails into tasks as soon as they arrive in your inbox.

Some programs have an ‘add-on’ to install in your inbox, while for others you simply forward an email to a dedicated email address to create a task.

Of course, if you don’t yet use task management software (e.g., Trello, Asana, ClickUp), then when you start working with a VA is an ideal time to set one up. This helps you both to stay organised and on top of your own tasks.

6. Set up automations within your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software

With a wide variety of CRM software available, the level of automation within them varies considerably. If you don’t already have a CRM in your business, then you should look carefully at the automation options when choosing which one is right for you.

Many CRMs even include several of the automations mentioned above, including appointment scheduling, automated emails, email management and even task management.

CRM software can also automatically pull in leads from different platforms for you, and make sure each customer receives the right services, products and support from your business, with the right team member looking after them. The CRM can pull in contact information, business information and even messages exchanged with that customer.

Using automations within your CRM allows your VA to focus more effectively on those customer relationship activities which require extra customer care and personalisation.

A skilled virtual assistant can be worth their weight in gold but automating certain tasks before hiring means you can make the most of your virtual assistant’s time and skills. Your business will run more efficiently, and your VA will be able to focus on the tasks that require creativity or a human touch.

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