If you’re considering using a Virtual Assistant to cover while you’re on holiday, but you don’t currently work with one, you really need to get to work onboarding someone ASAP. The best results will occur when your Virtual Assistant has had a chance to find out how you work. And when you’ve had a chance to refine how you work with the Virtual Assistant.
No matter how good your Virtual Assistant is things will come up that they’ll need your input into. When they first start working with you, they will need input on more things than they will once they’ve been working with you for a while.
By starting your Virtual Assistant well before you need their help – you get a chance to work through all the “out of the ordinary” issues that come up. After a while, your Virtual Assistant will know which of these issues need to go to you and which they can deal with.
If you don’t you run the risk of either having urgent issues wait until you get back, or being contacted regularly to sort out trivial issues that could wait until your return.
To avoid problems, here are 2 things to do now if you want to get your Virtual Assistant to cover you while you’re on holiday:
Start the onboarding well before your leave.
That way most issues can be dealt with before you go and your Virtual Assistant will have a better idea which are really urgent and which aren’t. They’ll also have learned more about your business and will be able to help your customers better than someone who doesn’t know much about your business.
Document things that your Virtual Assistant needs to know.
The more you have written down, the easier it is for someone to come in and work with your business. It’s not just useful for your Virtual Assistant. You can give a list of Frequently Asked Questions to your Virtual Assistant, your customer service staff, your administration staff, your reception staff and anyone else who is either a new staff member, a temporary worker or a remote worker. If you don’t have a FAQ and staff manual created, ask your Virtual Assistant to write one as they learn.
Just get these two things in order well before your holiday and you’ll have no problems when you get your Virtual Assistant to cover for you.
If you’d like some more ideas, check out my previous Working With A Virtual Assistant posts
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