More than a third of consumers check their email constantly throughout the day. Although it may only take a few minutes each time, these minutes can add up to a several hours over the course of a week. The situation is even worse if you’re a business owner, due to the sheer number of emails you’re likely to receive. There is a solution, though: outsourcing email management to a professional assistant.
Make More Time
The greatest advantage of outsourcing email management is the amount of time you’ll save. When you no longer need to spend hours every day sorting, reading, and answering emails, you can focus on more important business matters.
Avoid Spam
If you need to make your email address public, as much as half your inbox may become spam. Whereas you could just delete everything in your spam folder, there’s always the risk you’ll lose something important.
When you outsource email management, your assistant will sort through the messages in your spam folder for you. Imagine never having to read a spam email again. This is the kind of peace of mind and organization you need to run your business effectively.
Control the Chaos
Having an unorganized inbox may not sound too bad, but it means you may be leaving people without answers, which can damage your reputation. It’s easy to forget about an email entirely and never reply. To streamline your business, you need a clean, organized inbox. Outsourcing email management means you won’t need to dedicate time to overhauling your inbox yourself.
Separate Work and Life
Many professionals check their inbox during lunch or even after work. This is problematic because it blurs the line between work life and personal life. When you outsource email management, you never need to think about emails, which can go a long way in creating a better work–life balance.
A best practice is to make sure you answer emails within 24 hours on weekdays and within 48 hours on weekends. This means your assistant doesn’t need to be available 24/7. In fact, the task should only require a few hours a week, meaning this is likely to be one of the most affordable activities you outsource.
Save Money
Time is money, and you aren’t making any money when you’re reading and answering emails. Email correspondence may be a critical aspect of your job, but there are many other important tasks you also need to focus on.
Think about how else you could be spending the time you’re spending on email. Then, calculate how much money you could be making for your business during that time. Most likely, you’ll find it’s significantly more than the amount you’ll spend on outsourcing email management.
Avoid Unnecessary Emails
Most of us have had that one coworker who sends completely unnecessary emails. Perhaps it’s a one-word confirmation email; maybe you’re CCed on an issue that’s irrelevant to you. By outsourcing your email, you’ll never even see these emails — your assistant will only highlight emails that are worth your attention or require a response. Furthermore, your assistant can create automatic email replies. This is hugely useful if you tend to receive many emails asking the same thing.
Eliminate Scheduling Hassles
Many people send emails for scheduling purposes. The coworker or client may email to ask you about your availability or insist that you agree to a particular time.
By outsourcing email management to a virtual assistant, you can also receive scheduling services. Your VA will schedule meetings and appointments based on your availability and preferences. To make sure you never forget an appointment, your virtual assistant will also send you a reminder — you’ll never need to check your calendar yourself.
Never Lose Emails
Losing important emails is a big problem in business. You may delete emails without realizing you’ll need them later or simply lose them in the chaos that is your inbox. You can usually recover a deleted email (especially if it’s relatively recent) and finding a particular message you haven’t deleted possible also possible when you use the right search terms. In either case, though, this requires time and effort.
An email management assistant will organize your inbox by categorizing messages into folders and subfolders. This means you won’t feel compelled to delete messages to avoid your inbox becoming overwhelming. Plus, you’ll never lose track of an important email, as every message you need will be just where you’d expect to find it. Besides, you won’t even need to go looking for the email yourself — you can ask your assistant to find it for you.
Receive a virtual assistant to manage your email with MYVA360. A general virtual assistant can filter your email, set up autoresponders, book appointments, and send you reminders. Schedule a consultation with us and we’ll give you a 10-percent discount on our services.
