Task Automation and Your VA: Make Your Routines Easy

Running a business can feel overwhelming at times and at some point, you’ll need some additional support and resources.

A virtual assistant is a natural next step for many business owners.

The challenge comes when you take a hard look at your to-do list to figure out what tasks to assign to your VA, and which you should keep.

However, there’s a third option to consider – automation.

When you leverage automations in your business to streamline workflows, you have a powerful resource that frees up time for you AND your VA to work on tasks that truly need your personal touch.

Tasks to automate

Contrary to popular belief, automations can be a customer service tool. They provide 24/7 support and are available 365 days a year. Automation also helps your team by handling repetitive tasks so they can spend more time with clients who truly need their attention.

Contracts

Sending out client contracts and tracking whether they’ve been signed and returned can be a Herculean chore – especially as your business grows. Sending out a client contract automatically upon purchase, and subsequently sending program login details when the contract is signed and returned takes this task off your plate.

Personalized Group Posts

Birthday messages and milestone achievements are just two types of group posts that you can automate in your online community platform. Your clients feel recognized and important. And you’re not manually tracking birthdays or course progression.

Email Management

Many businesses will add your email to their list if you opt into a free download. You’ll then receive a series of emails to sell you a program or service.

You can take this a step further and create additional email automations based on whether your emails were opened or not, whether a purchase was made, or if a call was booked, etc.

Posting Zoom Meetings

Zoom meetings have become a way of life for many of us in the last few years, but particularly for online business owners. But when you’re running a course, not all of your clients are able to make a live call. Even those who attend like to have the replay.

As a result, sending out a Zoom replay has become a standard procedure. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can automatically post the replay in your online community platform immediately after the meeting. No additional email needed!

Help Desk Customer Service

There are questions that you get over and over in your business, for instance “how do I log in?” or “how do I change my username?”. Your customers are looking for a quick answer, and the best way to provide that 24/7, 365 days a year, is through an automated response.

Tasks for your VA

What’s left for you VA to do in your business? Plenty! Here are a few examples.

Research

From competitor analyses to hashtag research, your virtual assistant can help. Outsourcing the task of filtering out unimportant information will save you a lot of time.

Bookkeeping

Your VA can reconcile transactions and maintain financial records with software like Freshbooks or Zero. They can also compile monthly and annual financial reports for you to review.

Social Media Management

When you’re building an online business, social media can be tough to manage. Even if you’re using scheduling software like The Hub, a virtual assistant can schedule posts, engage with your followers, and moderate your groups.

Content Editing/Posting

Blog posts, newsletters, ebooks – you know you need content but it’s not easy to edit your own writing. Your VA can help with editing, proofreading, and adding content to your website.

Automation and the customer experience

Staying focused on the needs of your clients will help you decide what tasks can be automated and which need human interaction.

Sending personalized messages or completing repetitive tasks are perfect for automation. More complex service issues may need a unique response directly from you.

Conclusion

Using automation helps you work smarter in your business. It streamlines workflows and frees up time for you and your VA while still delivering a high level of customer service.

All-in-one platforms like Systems with Strategy make it easy for you to automate processes without resorting to third-party tools like Zapier to string your processes.

Learn more about how Systems with Strategy can help you put the human back into automations and give you back the time to focus on what you love. We’d love to talk about how we can help you achieve your business goals!