Are you confused about what skills you need to create a virtual team in your business? Doesn’t have the recruitment people to outsource a virtual team working remotely?
A virtual team or remote team collaborating harmoniously and efficiently is an important objective to undertake as an employer. If you were looking at how to provide the best delivery of services to customers or clients with less cost, virtual assistants (VAs) or virtual administrative assistants are the people you can call for help.
Statistics say hiring virtual workers reduce 78% of the total operating costs yearly, 87.7% of them are paid on an hourly basis, 13% are working productively between 31 to 40 hours weekly, and 59% are full-time virtual assistants where nearly 60% are professionals and college graduates.
Professional virtual team skill sets are essential to run your business in a faster and reliable manner. A virtual assistant who possesses unique skills can give support to your existing and future projects.
A remote team with amazing communication skills, excellent organizational skills, superb technical skills, and winning sales and people skills can help you to become a successful business owner.
Amazing Communication Skills
Checking expectations is the first step in communicating between you and your virtual team. If you were a boss who always wants to get any updates on the tasks, you should tell so. If you were a type of business owner who gives direction on how things are done, communicate it well.
But if you’re kind of a collaborator, simply ask your virtual team their inputs on some projects. Just give your remote team ideas on how to reach your objectives, to increase sales, and to boost brand awareness, etc.
Meeting deadlines is also important to get the job done on schedule. Be specific about what software or tools to be used to have collaboration within and between teams to flow communications smoothly, particularly in fast-paced operations.
If you’re comfortable with emails for updates, a lot of free email tools are available online. We’re in a generation that matured professionals are familiar with email, messaging, phone call, and video call to get the status of team projects.
A brilliant virtual team knows by heart how to communicate effectively with a client. A virtual administrative assistant is a good listener who can always be attentive and alert in all your instructions. A team player remembers and understands what you tell, and follows the right instructions to achieve the right output with your requirements.
Some of the apps regularly used for online communications are Google Mail or G Suite for businesses, Yahoo Mail, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype, Loom, and Slack. Any misunderstanding that may arise can be clarified quickly with just a phone call, email, video call, or chat messages away. You won't be "ghosted" by your virtual team.
Excellent Organizational Skills
An example of a virtual team with extraordinary organizational skills is doing projects with attention to detail and accuracy. Virtual administrative support who’s keen on time management, disciplined, and can work independently is a gem.
Remote administrative tasks are multi-facet and challenging jobs. It saves you time and money to do repetitive and time-consuming jobs, and it’s favorable for your business.
Collaboration tools with your virtual team can help you organize your workflow in project management, scheduling, and file sharing. These tools include Airtable, Trello, Asana, Google Calendar, Calendly, Google Drive, and Dropbox. With an increase in technological development, other tools can be utilized to make collaboration with your virtual team effective as discussed in our next skill.
Superb Technical Skills
Having a tech-savvy administrative staff is one of the good assets in your virtual team. A wide range of technical skillset is essential because numerous transactions nowadays are done online. Some of the technical skills in different software or online tools are needed to support your business processes.
From managing your social media and content, creating a website and online store, managing your online payment systems, bookkeeping, to creating design and sales pages for your campaigns, these commonly-used tools help you automate processes of your company like,
- Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) - for word processing, spreadsheet and slide presentations
- Hootsuite - for content and social media management
- WordPress and Blogger - for website creation and blogging
- Google Analytics – for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Shopify – for the online store creation
- Clickfunnels –for sales landing pages
- Paypal, Payoneer, Transferwise– for payment gateways
- Canva - for content and graphic design
- Clockify - for timekeeping and tracking
- Quickbooks - for bookkeeping
Administrative support assistants can do all your administrative and paperwork needs, but some are expert remote assistants who focus on specific job requests like social media management, administrative support, eCommerce support, digital marketing, project management, real estate support, logistics, and bookkeeping.
Appealing Sales and People Skills
A virtual team that can promote your business and sells your products/services is a bonus. Virtual or remote staff are not only contractors but also sales professionals who are ready to participate in what you believe in as a business owner. A virtual administrative worker is open to operating frequently used sales and customer service tools for instance,
For customer relationship management (CRM):
- Salesforce
- Hubspot CRM
- Zapier
For email marketing:
- MailChimp
- MailerLite
- ConvertKit
Machines and software are just tools to help your business automate its operations, however, one of the most important parts of your company are people. Humans are extraordinary individuals, therefore, creating relationships with your virtual team, customers or clients, and stakeholders goes a long way to be a successful business owner even in difficult times.
As a business owner, home-based or on-site, ultimately you’re not just selling products/services but also establishing trust and respect to achieve company goals, regardless of culture, race or origin, and background. People are vulnerable to mistakes, either no perfect virtual team or no perfect employer is exempted to failures. However, an awesome Philippines’ virtual assistant is always learning from its failures and tries to communicate vulnerabilities as their source of strength to progress.
If you’re finding virtual services or Administrative Support who suits your business needs, check out our blog on Top 10 Reasons You Should Hire a Virtual Assistant Now or shoot us directly a message.
References:
https://www.bestofbudgets.com/virtual-assistant-statistics/
https://www.thevirtualhub.com/blog/10-best-productivity-apps/
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-become-a-virtual-assistant-2064307
https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/critical-skills-every-virtual-assistant-possess/
https://www.thevahandbook.com/qualities-needed-become-virtual-assistant/
https://outsourceworkers.com.au/virtual-assistant-6-must-have-skills/