When communicating with your Virtual Assistant, it’s important to find a way that works for both of you.
Personally, I prefer email. Email communication gives a written record of exactly what was requested and when it was requested. It’s easy to refer back to if needed. And, it’s also really easy to flag an email for follow-up.
Email works on your schedule – so if inspiration strikes at 1am, you can just fire off an email. Similarly, receiving an email means you can deal with it when you can give it your full attention rather than be distracted from whatever you’re working on.
Lastly, use tools like Outlook or Gmail. They make it easy to sort, categorize and flag emails so that you can keep organised with a minimum of effort.
Telephone
Some people prefer telephone communication. It’s relatively instant. That is, if the other person answers you can have a conversation and the issue is covered. You can quickly and simply ask and receive answers to your questions.
There is the possibility that something may be misunderstood, or misheard if the connection is bad. If you worry about that, make sure you don’t end the call without clearing up any issues. Then send a quick email to summarize the conversation as an easy double check that you’re both on the same page.
Others
Of course, there are many other ways you can communicate with your Virtual Assistant, including Instant Message software, SMS, internal messaging solutions and via your CRM. They all have their positive and negative aspects and as a general rule, you will find that others are best used in conjunction with email or telephone.
Most important however is that the method is irrelevant if the message isn’t clear. Never be afraid of being too detailed in your instructions. Never be afraid of saying you’d like something changed – even if it’s only a tiny change. If it’s important to you, it’ll be important to your virtual assistant.
The most important thing, is to find a virtual assistant that you can communicate well with. You should always feel that communication is easy. You shouldn’t feel like you’re being too detailed or too vague. And you should never feel that you are being intrusive or unwelcome.
If you’d like some more ideas, check out my previous Working With A Virtual Assistant posts
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