The days of relegating the mundane administrative tasks of everyday business to a competent assistant are long gone. Women who made their careers backing up executives and managers are now pursuing those jobs themselves. In fact, a recent Wall Street Journal indicates that thousands of openings for executive assistants are going unfilled as, increasingly, modern offices run without them.
However, those tasks still must be dealt with in a consistent manner. In fact, today’s world of emails, lead management systems, and a hyper-competitive environment make it more vital than ever that the responsibilities of the executive assistant be addressed in a reliable manner.
Hire a Virtual Assistant
There are a host of CRMs and AMS tools in the marketplace that automates a large part of what used to be handled by secretaries and assistants. However, they often generate a new level of requirements for continual and consistent follow-up. In other words, more administrative functions.
The same WSJ article notes that many salespeople and managers now spend as much as forty percent of their time dealing with these issues that are purely administrative in nature, not directly achieving the mission of the job description. That is now a major concern in a post-pandemic world where efficiency calls for team members to stay on-task.
The good news is there are now options to regain that efficiency and eliminate administrative clutter. Advantages in technology and the tools provided by the Internet allow individuals to offload any level of routine tasks and administrative routines to virtual assistants.
As companies grapple with the reality that they can’t afford to pay their lean staff and executives to be buried in mundane admin tasks. Thus, they are increasingly turning to services that provide Managed Virtual Assistants. While there is also a growing number of freelancer VAs, these more professional organizations make it their mission to hire, train, place, and manage competent assistants to work in the virtual world.
The benefits for those companies using the service start with freeing up their executives and managers and seeing real productivity gains. They also appreciate other advantages, including:
- Scalability. Firms easily and quickly add or reduce the level of support needed from virtual assistants based on demand and seasonal cycles. The help is there when needed and then eliminated when there is excess capacity.
- Lower Costs. Without the costs and burden of hiring in-house assistants, companies keep the costs directly related to what it takes to get the tasks they prioritize accomplished.
- Rapid Response. Rather than hiring and training personnel to staff or support big projects, companies simply access the VAs standing by to help.
A Matter of Focus
For the individual supported by VAs, the impact is immediate. A virtual assistant will immediately relieve the pressures that come from:
- Consistent lead management
- Responsiveness to emails
- More efficient prospecting
- Granular management of project management tasks
- Preparation of quotes, proposals, and RFPs
The list is long and growing when it comes to the many ways the virtual assistant is reshaping how today’s successful companies get things done.
