When you’re working with a Virtual Assistant, you’ll often want them to interact with your customers. In the past, several of my clients have been a little concerned with how to address the fact that there’s someone other than them ringing, emailing or even writing on behalf of their company.
Really, it’s up to you how you handle the naming issue. Most people these days have no problem with hearing something like “I’ll get my Virtual Assistant to get back to you”. Outsourcing is far from rare, and as the number of soloists and small business owners increases it’s only going to get more common, if not expected, that certain areas are outsourced.
On the other hand, you may have reason to prefer to give the appearance of having onsite staff, particularly if your industry considers it important to have an actual office or physical shopfront. If that’s the case, then you can give your Virtual Assistant a title in your company. Some I’ve used with various clients in the past are: Personal Assistant, Assistant to XXX, Membership Coordinator, Accounts Receivable. If I’m making a call I usually just introduce myself as “Sharyn calling from Company XYZ”.
The last way, and by far my least preferred, I only do for one client where I only correspond via email: I actually send and receive emails using the business owners name. In those cases, I’m only responding to things using pre-set responses and the business owner handles all queries and replies to the emails. I have also occasionally replied as Sharyn for Business Owners name.
A lot of the naming issues will depend on what your Virtual Assistant is doing for you, however even if you’re just starting to work with a Virtual Assistant, it’s worth considering early in the relationship. Generally, I prefer to go with:
- Telephone: Just say “Virtual Assistants name calling from Company Name”
- Email: A signature block with the Virtual Assistants name, the email address they can be contacted on, and the generic office phone number (unless they have a dedicated phone number at your company)
Once you start working regularly with a Virtual Assistant, you’ll find the issue of how to handle them when talking to customers and colleagues becomes pretty much irrelevant. Good help is good help and you’ll all just be glad to have things running smoothly, so don’t let worries over the window dressing cause you to put a hold on outsourcing any problem areas.
