Thursday, February 26, 2009

Increase your Company’s Marketing Efforts - Hire a Virtual Assistant

I realized a long time ago that the key to my business’s success is marketing. Without marketing and new clients consistently coming through the door, my business was not going to grow. And, if it was not growing, it was dying. With the continued advancement of the Internet as a marketing tool, I realized quickly that I needed to leverage the techniques to capture leads online. But, I had very little time to spend on Internet marketing and so I was looking to hire staff.
As a new business, my budget for hiring an administrative assistant was low. So, I was having trouble finding someone of quality to perform the marketing functions that I required. When I became frustrated, I decided to search for alternative options. If the Internet was a great marketing tool, maybe it could also be the answer to my marketing needs. After spending some time searching, I found a company online that provided virtual assistants called 247VirtualAssistant.com. They offered professional virtual assistants who could perform all of the marketing functions that I required.
Some of the initial tasks that I was looking to have done for my business included email marketing, lead collection and sorting and organizing marketing campaigns. On an occasional basis, I also considered using the personal assistant service to handle incoming client service calls. Once I realized that this virtual assistant service would be able to provide all of these services, I decided to give it a try. I hired the company at their initial plan level for over half of what it would have cost if I had hired a full time or part time assistant locally.
I sent my initial assignment using their online client service management system and waited the outcome. I decided to have my virtual assistant work on an email marketing campaign that I had intended to send out for several months. I had unfortunately never made the time to finish implementing the idea. So, I decided to use my virtual assistant to implement this email marketing program.
My virtual assistant entered in leads, managed the development of the actual email to be used, implemented the lead capture program onto my website and then managed the distribution of the email to the selected leads. I had given my virtual assistant a week to implement the program and waited until it was completed. My virtual assistant was great. Not only did they ask clarifying questions as needed, but they finished the project on time.
I was not only happy with the progress of my virtual assistant, but was able to see an increase in the amount of revenues for my business. Once I was able to see the results from working with my virtual assistant, I continued to use this service on an ongoing basis.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Does Your Customer Service Department Need a Boost- Hire a Virtual Assistant

Your customers are the most important assets to your business’s success. When you provide great customer service, you are positioning your business for long term revenue generation and a higher lifetime value. But, when you are growing your business, you may not have enough time to spend in the area as you desire.
As I was growing my manufacturing company, I noticed that my administrative team was stretched and that they were not paying enough attention to our current customers as required to grow the business. I evaluated several options to provide better customer service and found a website called 247VirtualAssistant. When I looked over their service options, I found that they offered customer service support options that would meet the needs of my business. Their virtual assistants were able to provide order processing, invoicing and incoming/outgoing calls as required.
I reviewed the available service plans and was able to find one that fit into my monthly budget. I reviewed the instructions for how to post my first project and selected one to begin the relationship with. The process was easy to understand and simple to implement. My virtual assistant reviewed the instructions that were provided and agreed to the terms as outlined. So, once I had posted the material, I simply waited for the assignment to be returned to me through the online portal.
After a few days, the tasks that I sent out were completed exactly as I had anticipated. So, I began to use my personal assistant on a daily basis for a variety of customer service support functions. There were a variety of benefits that I received from utilizing this virtual assistant service, including:
· Increased client satisfaction scores
· More time to spend on important revenue activities like lead generation and sales calls
· Reduced overhead due to optimization of my company’s staffAs I began to use my virtual assistant on a daily basis, I realized that they had become an integral part of my business’s administrative team. The price that I was paying for my virtual assistant was significantly less than I had previously paid for staff, allowing me to boost my business’s profits immediately. I have been so happy with my virtual assistant that I have recommended the service to other business owners in the area.