How to best communicate with your Virtual Assistant!
Have you ever hired a virtual assistant? If not, you’re missing out on one of the best ways to run your business. It can make all the difference in how quickly and smoothly your day-to-day operations run, and it opens up room for you to focus on what matters most: working with clients! But just like any relationship, there’s work to be done if you want to get maximum benefit from your virtual assistant.
We will discuss just how many wedding professionals can work with their VAs and how they ensure that it works well for everyone involved.
Respect your virtual assistant’s time
As you start working with your virtual assistant, it's important to remember that they are also a professional. They have other clients, and their time is valuable. Because of this, it's best to set aside a specific amount of time for your VA to work on your project so that they can do the best job possible in the allotted timeframe.
If you feel like your project would benefit from more than one session or if there are changes that need to be made after the initial drafting process has been completed (or even during), consider asking for an extension instead of making additional requests for edits after your original session is over.
Save your virtual assistant time
Use a tool like a calendar to schedule meetings
Use a tool like Trello to organize tasks
Use a tool like Slack or Zoom to communicate with your VA
Be clear with your requests and instructions
In order to get the best results from your VA, it's important that you're clear about exactly what you need.
Be specific with your requests and instructions: If you just say "email me," make sure to clarify exactly what information should be included in the email. If this person is creating an entire website for you, outline exactly what goes on each page and how it should be formatted. This will help prevent any confusion or miscommunication between you and your VA during the process.
Get everything in writing: It's important that both of your teams communicate clearly about expectations so that everyone understands their role and has access to all of the necessary details at all times. Make sure every detail is written down so there are no misunderstandings later on down the road!
Have your materials ready
The first thing you should do is make sure you have all the materials ready for your VA to work with. You don't want to be waiting on them to get back to you before they can help with something, and it's helpful if they have everything they need in order to do their job.
You should also have a clear idea of what you want out of this project before communicating with them. If there are any specifications or details that are especially important, make sure they're included in your initial request. This way, if there are any miscommunications down the road, at least everyone will be on the same page about what needs doing and how long it should take (or at least as much as possible).
Finally: don't expect your virtual assistant (VA) to do all the work! Make sure that when asking questions about how things are going or requesting changes, there's not too much pressure put on them by making it seem like their job depends on getting things done accordingly within an unreasonable timeframe—it's okay if something slips through because no one person can do everything perfectly every time without some kind of assistance from others along the way."
Know what you want vs. what you need
Make sure you know what you want, and what you need.
Communicating with a virtual assistant is not like working with an in-office employee. You don't have the luxury of casually asking for things or expecting them to be done at your convenience. It's easy to get frustrated when the VAs don't respond immediately or do exactly what they're told to do—and it's important to remember that this is largely a cultural difference between how we were taught to interact with people who worked for us and how we should interact with people who work for us virtually.
There are also some pretty obvious differences in how virtual assistants work compared with office employees:
They're never going to come into your office or give you their full attention when they're working on something else (at least not without asking first). You can't expect them always be able to drop everything at a moment's notice so that they can answer questions about flowers or send over some updated information about your venue. Instead, think of most interactions as more like text messages than phone calls; keep them short and sweet so that there isn't any confusion about what needs doing next time around!
They probably won't answer every single email right away (though if someone needs urgent attention from me personally, then I'll jump on it). That said...
Communicate like a boss, not a bridezilla
As a wedding professional, you have many responsibilities. You need to be clear with your virtual assistant about what you want them to do and what's expected of them. In other words, don't micromanage or ask for tasks that aren't part of their job description—for example, asking them to sort through photos or send out your tablescapes is not the same as asking them to help find invites online.
One way we can help with this is by giving our customers access to an online tool called Smart Calendar™ that enables clients and vendors alike to communicate more effectively through shared calendars; it also makes tracking progress on projects much easier!
Your VA is there to help!
Your VA is there to help you! This is a very important point. The more you can communicate clearly and efficiently with your VA, the better she will be able to help you.
While it can be tempting to give your VA every single detail of what you want done, that may not always be necessary. If a task is small or repetitive, consider sending over instructions after the first time it's completed correctly. If there are any specific tools or applications your virtual assistant needs access to in order to complete a task (i.e., database software), make sure these are made available before asking her to do anything else on top of learning how they work (or at least let her know that those things exist).
When communicating with your virtual assistant about projects relating specifically back into wedding planning pursuits—like RSVP tracking—make sure that all necessary materials are ready when needed so as not waste anyone's time going back-and-forth over something as simple as providing an address label template for guests' reply cards (yes, this happened).
Your virtual assistant is there to help! They’re an extension of your wedding business, so treat them as such. Communicate like a boss, not a bridezilla and you’ve got yourself a VA who will respond quickly and efficiently to all of your wedding requests.
At The Social Attendant, we love all things social media and helping wedding professionals take their businesses to the next level. Lori was a wedding planner for 17 years and has been helping wedding creatives like you since 2020 with their social media management, consulting/coaching, and virtual assistant tasks . Let’s chat about how we can help!
