Essential Skills In Becoming A Virtual Personal Assistant

The business landscape has been dramatically changing for the past decade. The booming gig economy of freelancers and remote workers has been shaping the working economy in the first world countries like US, Japan and Australia. Experts believe that the future of freelancing is very bright and promising.

Exponential growth in the freelancing economy has been observed in the past few years. Within the US alone, 35% of Americans freelance in 2018. In just a span of five years, the population of American freelancers grew by 7%, from 53 million workers in 2013 to 56.7 million in 2018. On the other hand, the non-freelance workforce only grew by 2%, from 103 million people to 105.3 million in the same span of time.

The ever-evolving digital world paved a way for freelancers and remote workers to gain more popularity. That being said, businesses nowadays opt to hire freelancers and remote workers instead of Irl employees mainly because it’s cheaper and cost-effective.

Working as a freelancer can be a bit challenging but if you wish to have enough work freedom and work-life balance, it can be fulfilling. To give you a headstart of becoming a successfulfreelancer, you may want to start working as a virtual personal assistant.

Skills You Need to Master to be an effective Virtual Assistant

As a virtual personal assistant, you’ll need to possess the following skills:

1. Communication skills.

Whatever industry you work in, good communication skills is a must, especially when you are working as a virtual assistant. The ability to effectively convey as well as receive messages from clients, colleagues and superiors is an essential skill for all VAs.

In the digital world we’re living now where communication has been made unlimited and borderless, VAs are trained to communicate through electronic media devices. Oftentimes, VAs communicate through phones, emails and via social media. Needless to say, if you want to get hired or be promoted to higher positions in the BPO industry and have a successful career course, it is imperative that you develop a superior communication skills.

2. Interpersonal skills

One of the most sought after characteristics by employers to any worker regardless of the nature of industry is an excellent interpersonal skills. Without this, a working environment cannot be conducive for work. Harmonious relationship, collaboration and teamwork will be impossible to achieve.

Interpersonal skills refer to how well you can work with others. It also includes setting aside individual differences to achieve a common goal. Virtual Personal Assistants are expected to have excellent interpersonal skills, especially those who are working with customers. CSR together with marketing agents are often the frontliners of most companies and it is highly required that they have strong interpersonal skills to be able to handle customers’ needs professionally no matter how irate they can be at times.

3. Intrapersonal skills

While interpersonal skills refer to how we communicate, work and connect with other people, intrapersonal skills is quite the opposite for it’s about how we do those things for ourselves.

A person with good intrapersonal skills is confident, open-minded, self-aware, enthusiastic, can handle his own emotions very well, disciplined, motivated, patient and can overcome boredom and struggles in his personal life or at work.

A person must be able to understand himself first so he could be able to understand others. Take this as an advice, it’s pretty normal to communicate with yourself even if it means that you would literally talk to yourself. However, just don’t do it in front of others or they will think of you differently.

4. Computer literacy

Everything nowadays were aided with computer and VAs are no exemption. Most tasks that are assigned to virtual personal assistants need to be done using computers that is why it is a must that you know how to operate and properly use them. Some employers hire VAs for data mining, data entry and digital marketing tasks which may require basic computer skills. Other clients require more complex computer knowledge from their VAs especially if their tasks are also complex such as SEO, website and mobile development, graphic designing, product school and lead generation, etc. Nevertheless, computer literacy is a key skill that every VA should have if you want to succeed in this line of work.

5. Phone etiquette and netiquette

In whatever kind of job or situation you have, you are expected to be respectful. Here are some pointers to keep in mind about phone etiquette and netiquette:

 Phone etiquette:

●     Answer the call within three rings.

●     Immediately introduce yourself.

●     Speak clearly.

●     Only use speakerphone when necessary.

●     Actively listen and take notes.

●     Use proper language.

●     Remain cheerful.

●     Ask before putting someone on hold or transferring a call.

●     Be honest if you don't know the answer.

●     Be mindful of your volume.

●     Check for and respond to voicemails.

Netiquette:

●     Remember the human.Never forget that the person reading your mail or posting is, indeed, a person, with feelings that can be hurt.

●     Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life.

●     Know where you are in cyberspace.

●     Respect other people's time and bandwidth.

●     Make yourself look good online.

●     Share expert knowledge.

●     Help keep flame wars under control.

●     Respect other people's privacy.

●     Don't abuse your power.

●     Be forgiving of other people's mistakes.

6. Internet and software-savvy.

It is imperative for every virtual assistant to have the knowledge and skills to use the internet and some softwares. Some clients require their VA to have a training using specific software that they are using for their business.

Those are the basic and essential skills you need to possess if you want to work as a personal virtual assistant and if you have decided to pursue a career in this industry, you might want to start working at 24Task virtual assistance company. They offer a pretty good compensation and benefits and surely, you’ll love the company culture and values.