There are many ways a Virtual Assistant can help with your email, and it’s easier than ever to share access. I current access clients email accounts through Gmail, Microsoft Exchange and by logging into their Webmail. So I’m sure it’s possible for you to have a Virtual Assistant help with your email as well.
Some of the ways I help my clients with email are:
Dealing with certain emails.
Some clients have me handle all emails that just require a certain action. That includes things like:
- Emails from a specific person or business. There are often emails that need a specific action based on who their from but depend on what else is happening. If it’s too complicated to set a rule, then I deal with them instead.
- Forwarding emails to one of a few people depending on their current workload. This is a perfect example of the criteria above. So all emails from Acme Inc get forwarded to Wile E, but if he’s currently under an anvil, they go to Buggs instead.
- Responding to all emails with simple queries. So many emails we all get can be answered quickly and easily. You can do them yourself, but you could also get your Virtual Assistant to do it and save yourself some time.
- Setting appointments for anyone who requests a meeting with my client (and meets certain criteria that my client has an interest in)
- Responding to social media connection requests. Again, depending on preset criteria.
- Checking messages received via social media accounts and responding, deleting or flagging for my client to review
Looking after an email account
Many of my clients have set up a dedicated admin@ or sharyn@ email account. I use these as my email account, and the clients use the email address for anything they don’t need (or want) to handle. These are great for:
- Customer service, particularly for people who are often unavailable such as tradies, or people who spend a lot of time in meetings.
- Accounts emails. This might be receiving bills and forwarding them to the accounting system. And it might include receiving payment receipts from clients and sending final invoices.
- Subscription reminders, and emails from services the client subscribes to. Generally, the emails you receive are unimportant. Occasionally, they are vital. So, I do a quick read through everything and make sure my clients know about the important stuff.
Sending emails
Occasionally there’s a need to send an email on behalf of a client. So, having access to their email accounts is important. Some of the ways I do this for my clients are:
- Sending regular updates. Whether it’s an internal memorandum or a reminder about something. My clients just send me the text and I send it out in as many emails as are needed.
- Responding when the client is on leave. I have a few clients who travel a lot. Occasionally I get a call from one who is unable to access their email fully or has unpredictable coverage and they want me to respond to an email in their inbox.
- Sending bulk emails. Occasionally, I’ve had a client who wants to send a one-off bulk message and they don’t want to use MailChimp or their CRM. I do these, and make sure that everyone is BCC’d correctly.
Filing emails
Finally, there’s filing emails. For some clients I log in to their email account on a regular basis and file emails. It’s always based on a preset criteria that comes from the client, but it makes it easier for them to find emails. It also keeps their inbox to a minimum, which makes email accounts a lot less stressful.
So there are 13 ways a Virtual Assistant can help with your email. Based solely on things I already do for clients. I’m sure there are many more. And I’m sure that if there’s something that you find particularly painful, that your Virtual Assistant could probably help you with that too.
