Improve Your Workflow by Hiring a Remote Virtual Assistant
A remote virtual assistant is a type of assistant that is generally located outside of the United States. They are also known as offshore virtual assistants and are among the most in-demand in the market.
The demand initially has to do with the cost savings that remote virtual assistants offer compared to U.S. VAs.
Secondly, we must make an important differentiation; there are two types of remote virtual assistants for American companies, one is those located outside America, most commonly in Asia (India and the Philippines). The other remote virtual assistants are those located in Latin America and therefore, in addition to saving costs, they also work in the same time zone of the USA.
This is one of the main benefits that Americans get with Latin remote virtual assistants.
How Can a Latin Remote Virtual Assistant Help You?
First of all, all virtual assistants offer significant money savings by avoiding paying for expenses such as medical insurance, work equipment, among others.
Secondly, virtual assistants undeniably help free up time by taking care of repetitive or time-consuming tasks.
Thirdly, if you hire a Latin remote virtual assistant, you are also getting the best of American VAs and Asian VAs: cost savings, same time zone, and quality of work.
What is Workflow?
A workflow is the automation of the work processes that a company develops on a daily basis. This work structure allows the tasks to be performed and the information to be passed from one worker to other following pre-established patterns.
Depending on the activity carried out in each company and the type of tasks to be organized, one or another type of workflow will be needed.
There are three main types of workflow:
(a) Ad Hoc Workflow.
This type of workflow has quite flexible rules that can be modified according to the needs that arise.
b) Administrative Workflow
The administrative workflow is usually implemented to perform tasks without a defined structure. These are usually repetitive, predictable, and with relatively simple coordination rules.
c) Production Workflow
This is the most rigid or strict type of workflow. It generally follows a pre-established direction that is widely known by the team members.
In general, we have found that the most user-friendly type of workflow for working with a remote virtual assistant tends to be a mix between administrative and Ad Hoc. However, some of our clients prefer to set up production workflows because they have found them more beneficial in achieving results.
How to Create a Workflow?
The same method of workflow creation applies to all workflow types and essentially consists of 4 simple steps:
1. Defining objectives
First of all, you should always set goals, preferably based on the SMART method.
Your goals are the cornerstone on which you will start building your process automation system, so you should be as precise and concrete as possible.
This way, your remote virtual assistant will have all the information about the focus it should have.
2. Design
This is the most visual phase, where you can use diagrams to show the processes.
Ideally, all the routes and their variations should be well contemplated in the scheme so that no scenario is left unconsidered.
This is how your virtual assistant can be guided through the execution of its tasks.
3. Implementation
It’s time to put everything into practice! Ideally, you should first test it with a fictitious user. After verifying the effectiveness of the design at this stage, you can work with your remote virtual assistant.
4. Measuring results
We reach the most analytical phase where the performance obtained is evaluated through KPIs.
This is the moment when you can modify the design according to the results obtained and the expected results.
Sometimes it will be necessary to repeat this step many times, but each time, you learn more about how to develop the best strategies to work with your remote virtual assistant.
How Does a Remote Virtual Assistant Support Your Workflow?
As we mentioned before, the most common type of workflows used with virtual assistants is the administrative or Ad Hoc ones. In this type of workflow, tools that facilitate the processes are usually used.
The most popular tools are Asana, Trello, Evernote, Act-On, Hubspot, among others.
Remote virtual assistants tend to work very well with project management tools such as Asana or Trello. This way, they can report in a collaborative tool, the progress of their daily tasks.
And if you have an administrative workflow, you will generally be performing fairly repetitive and time-consuming tasks.
Some of these tasks can be administrative, such as calendar management, appointment confirmation, email management; marketing, such as content creation, online community management, content optimization; sales, such as cold calling or SQLs nurturing; accounting, such as bookkeeping, payments, and collections, among others.
Needless to say, taking on these types of tasks frees up a lot of time that you can use to focus on growing your business.
Where to Get a Remote Virtual Assistant?
Let’s be honest, you can get a remote virtual assistant on almost any job-related platform. However, it’s important to note the amount of time it takes to screen the ideal person.
That’s why even though you can get virtual assistants on places like Fiverr or Upwork, it will never compare to an outsourcing service like the one we offer at There is Talent.
Here we not only take care of finding the ideal person for your company, but we also do the follow-up.
Our goal is that you can achieve your goals with the help of qualified personnel that saves you costs and frees up your time.
If you would like to learn more about our benefits, book a strategic call with our director, Claudia, today!
