.No matter the size of your business, you may need a call center virtual assistant more than you think.
One of the utter miseries of starting out as an entrepreneur – especially if you’re bootstrapping your venture – is having to do everything yourself. And while you may at times feel like Sisyphus, condemned to eternally rolling his boulder up a hill, it isn’t the exercise in futility that you may initially have thought.
Doing everything yourself is actually an incredibly valuable exercise in determining exactly how to structure your business, creating optimum process flows, identifying your strengths and the core skills required to build your fledgling business, and taking a look at areas where you may fall short. One of the biggest benefits of the DIY approach is accurately defining future job roles and the skills required to perform these roles.
Although it might feel like the startup period takes forever, the great news is that it really doesn’t. In fact, you may be in a position to move things along sooner than you think.
As an entrepreneur, you might find yourself in a sort of limbo at that point. You KNOW you can’t keep up the merciless pace and that you NEED the help, but you’re not yet in the position where you’ve clearly defined the required job roles. Even more pointedly, it’s very often a stage where you probably can’t shoulder the cost of appointing a fulltime employee just yet.
The answer to that little problem is pretty simple. Hiring a call center virtual assistant for your business can alleviate a lot of the pressure you may be feeling – and the right one will prove to be an invaluable asset to your business.
What is a Virtual Call Center Assistant?
Call center virtual assistants (or VAs) work remotely and are skilled in a variety of areas that can include customer service, tech support, sales and marketing.
Their schedules are flexible and they can provide you with as much or as little assistance as you require. You can increase the number of hours you require during peak times and scale back hours when things are quieter.
What Can a Call Center Virtual Assistant Do for You?
Call Center Virtual Assistants can perform a number of tasks, all depending on your needs and what you’d like to achieve for your business. Here’s a number of tasks that they can take off your hands:
Customer Service
Your virtual assistant can answer inbound calls from your customers or potential clients and address any queries or questions they may have, as well as making outbound calls to your clients, if required.
A good call center VA is personable, professional, friendly and engaging. You want someone who won’t simply answer your customer’s questions or address their concerns, but who will take initiative and engage with your customer on a personal level. THIS is what is going to differentiate you from your competitors. Genuine warmth and connection is what is required – it’s not something that can be forced or faked (nor should it be).
They’re skilled at taking care of customer service needs, they can answer questions relating to your products or services, explain processes, handling billing and delivery queries and they can also assist with sales and marketing, helping to keep your business top of mind.
Call center virtual assistants are typically well-educated and experienced, making them an ideal option for businesses of all sizes. They can provide services via phone, email and live chat.
Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Your call center virtual assistant is ideally placed to be able to conduct customer satisfaction surveys. Clients often feel more at ease giving honest feedback to a virtual assistant, rather than to the owner of the business. In doing so they will be able to identify any unhappy clients and escalate this to you for personal attention. None of us like dealing with unhappy customers, but resolving a problem is an opportunity to turn a dissatisfied customer into a raving fan.
It’s also an opportunity to find out exactly what your customer wants and what you need to do to not only meet, but to exceed their expectations. And this can be incredibly useful when refining your customer avatars.
Appointments & Calendar Management
A call center virtual assistant can also assist with tasks traditionally performed by receptionists like making appointments and managing your calendar.
Tech Support
Your VA should have some basic knowledge and experience relating to tech support. Especially if your business is SaaS (Software as a Service). Their knowledge doesn’t need to be in-depth, but should cover basic troubleshooting. Because they need to address the most common issues your customers have. Call center virtual assistants identify the most common questions and collate these so you can address them in the FAQs section of your website.
A Call Center Virtual Assistant Can Double As A Personal Assistant
A call center virtual assistant is multi-skilled and can easily perform an array of tasks. And not just those specific to being a call center VA. It all depends on your needs. They can assist with tasks a personal assistant would undertake. Like taking messages, arranging travel arrangements and making bookings and even data-entry or research
What are the Benefits of Outsourcing to a Call Center Virtual Assistant?
Improves Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction
A call center virtual assistant can greatly improve efficiency and customer satisfaction in your business. By providing support via phone, chat, and email, a virtual assistant can handle tasks that would otherwise be extremely time-consuming for you. They can also provide a top notch customer service experience that is personal and professional.
Cost Savings
Outsourcing to a call center virtual assistant saves you money. You don’t have to pay the salary of a full-time call center agent. And you also avoid the associated costs, like mandatory employee benefits and overheads.
No Overheads With A Call Center Virtual Assistant
A call center virtual assistant works remotely. This means you don’t need to provide office space, a laptop, internet connection, desk, or chair. And you don’t have to cover the costs of hiring and maintaining a full-time employee.
No Training Costs
An experienced VA requires very little training. They are already skilled in the tasks you need them to perform. They are also experts at time management, and are current in terms of which software is best to use. You would cover your requirements during a streamlined on-boarding process. Minimal supervision or management is required after that. Simply assign the tasks and then check them off your to-do-list.
Frees up your time to focus on growing your business
There it is.
This is one of the biggest benefits to an entrepreneur outsourcing tasks to a call center virtual assistant. It frees up your time so that you can perform the tasks you need to. Logically, this will allow your business to grow and thrive.
It’s the smart choice.
Bonus Benefit: Actually Having Free Time
As experts in helping entrepreneurs who are launching and growing businesses, we see you.
We know you’re working crazy hours, trying to get through an ever mounting to-do list. That you keep promising yourself that you just need to get through the next week. ‘Things will slow down a little’. And then you’ll have some downtime.
The only way that’s going to happen, is if YOU make it happen.
Book a Discovery call with MYVA360 – let’s talk through the challenges you’re facing and find out how we can best assist you.
The only regret you’ll have is that you didn’t do it sooner.
