The Ultimate List of Virtual Assistant Software To Make Virtual Assistant Life Easy
- January 26, 2023
- 10 min read
- By Sabeeha Banu
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Businesses go above and beyond to maintain productivity since low productivity leads to a cascade of issues.
Image Source: Clockify
The above graphical image showcases perceived time spent on repetitive tasks across countries.
Thus businesses confined to repetitive and monotonous chores make it difficult for organizations to concentrate on their top priorities.
Studies reveal that lost productivity costs employers $1.8 trillion each year.
To enhance productivity and leverage their resources, companies turn to virtual assistants.
A virtual assistant (VA) is a skilled individual who can manage your schedule, organize your files, answer customer queries, and more.
In essence, using a VA is all about time and money savings.
A Virtual Assistant with the right software tools can effectively manage your daily tasks. They can free up your time so you can focus on your top priorities.
What Makes Virtual Assistants Productive?
Virtual assistants are a pathway to a higher rate of productivity for organizations. They increase the efficiency of tasks thus improving productivity.
A study shows that 72% of small business owners feel overburdened by their responsibilities and the volume of work at hand. 64% of business owners believe they need to delegate more duties to experience less stress.
Thus delegating tasks to a virtual assistant can increase the efficiency and productivity of any business. And a great way to understand productivity is to define KPIs and goals. Clocking in and out is the wrong way to measure productivity because it doesn’t tell you if work happened.
While working with a virtual assistant, the biggest roadblocks to productivity are poor communication and a lack of the right productivity tools.
Also read: 7 wonders a virtual assistant can bring to your world
What is Virtual Assistant Software?
There are modern technology and software tools developed for virtual assistants to complete tasks faster. The following are the best virtual assistant software tools accessible online. These tools can help virtual assistants finish their work in managing appointments, social media management, time tracking, communicating with clients, and more.
1. Time Tracking Virtual Assistant Software
Virtual assistants live in different parts of the world and work at different time zones. And, it becomes difficult to time track and run payroll smoothly.
To this extent, businesses need a reliable time tracking tool to calculate the number of hours a virtual assistant works.
A good time tracking tool not only calculates the number of hours a virtual assistant works but also gives the time utilized protecting businesses from time theft.
For every dollar a company makes, time theft can cost them up to 20%.
a. Time Doctor
Time Doctor is a time-tracking and employee productivity management tool. From big to small organizations, use Time Doctor to enhance employee productivity.
The tool allows businesses to:
- Find out how much time your VAs spent working
- Record the time spent on each project and with clients.
- Check out the programs and websites the VA used while at work.
- Utilize precise reports to analyze VAs productivity
b. Hubstaff
Hubstaff aids businesses in monitoring the efficiency and output of virtual assistants. It enables organizations to automate timesheets for virtual assistants without the hassle of manually tracking hours.
The tool provides in-depth information that makes it evident how VA operates. Businesses can monitor data like activity levels and the amount of time spent on particular websites and apps.
Organizations may acquire thorough reports on the virtual assistant work and track their performance using a dashboard.
2. File Sharing/Storage Virtual Assistant Software
Working with a virtual assistant involves plenty of file sharing and document management. Emailing files is outdated and time-consuming.
Businesses can use file-sharing tools to streamline document storage, sharing, and work collaboration. Some software even lets organizations edit and organize files in real-time.
Here are some of the best tools for file sharing and storing with virtual assistants:
Dropbox
Over 500,000 companies utilize Dropbox, a reputable file-sharing service. It allows businesses to streamline the work of virtual assistants.
Businesses may draft documents, make modifications, and maintain files from one site. The tool is designed for enterprises and has many admin features suitable for businesses of any size.
Pricing
- Professional: $19.99 per month (for individuals)
- Standard: $15 per user/month (for small teams)
- Advanced: $25 per user/month (for larger teams)
Box
The Box allows limitless storage and document management when employing virtual assistants. Along with excellent security safeguards, the tool has 256-bit encryption.
Using Box, businesses can lock data and limit access only to an individual virtual assistant. Therefore, organizations can utilize Box to limit their virtual assistant’s access to only particular files and data.
3. Social Media Management Tools
Businesses utilize virtual assistants for social media management. Virtual assistants need social media management solutions to handle social networks effectively.
An effective social media management tool allows businesses to:
- Schedule social media posts
- Connect with the target audience
- Conduct social media campaigns
- Analyze the performance of social media campaigns
The following tools can make managing social media for virtual assistants simpler:
a. Buffer
Buffer consolidates all social media accounts under one roof. As a result, virtual assistants don’t need to log on to their social media accounts like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
Virtual assistants can handle all the company’s social media accounts by connecting their social media profiles to Buffer.
Additionally, Buffer offers a feature that permits multiple users to access the account. Thus, it makes it easy for companies to monitor virtual assistants’ performance while they work on it.
b. Hootsuite
Image Source: Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a popular social media tool that allows businesses to schedule and manage content on all their social media pages.
Using Hootsuite’s inbox feature enables virtual assistants to track, view, and respond to followers’ messages across all social media platforms from a single place.
Businesses can assign work to virtual assistants and keep an eye on them with the help of advanced team collaboration tools from Hootsuite.
Additionally, utilize the courses available on Hootsuite to train their virtual assistants to improve their social media skills and gain certifications to demonstrate to potential clients.
Related: What You Need to Know About Social Media Virtual Assistants
4. Operations & Process Documentation Tools
Virtual assistants can do their work with the help of precise documentation.
These document-based tools help virtual assistants become proficient in their work. As business practices change, the virtual assistant also assists businesses in keeping their paperwork current.
Here are the tools listed to help businesses to organize their business operations.
a. Process Street
Businesses can design checklists and procedures to direct virtual assistants through their work using Process Street, a workflow management platform.
Businesses can maintain accuracy and consistency in their work using this effective tool. Additionally, Process Street makes task execution simpler by streamlining onboarding and removing uncertainty.
b. Trainual
Trainual allows businesses for procedural documentation. It eases the onboarding of virtual assistants. For virtual assistants to understand corporate procedures, it saves company regulations and produces playbooks to direct each stage of a work process.
The tool empowers businesses to turn their business procedures into training programs. Companies can even use built-in templates to create their personalized company policies.
5. Online Meeting Tool
Meeting with virtual assistants or allowing them to plan concurrent sessions with clients can be difficult. Video conferencing is a great way to collaborate with virtual assistants to have business conversations.
Use these tools to make working with virtual assistants easy:
a. ezTalks Cloud Meeting
ezTalks Cloud Meeting is a versatile business video and web conferencing tool that lets businesses host virtual meetings with virtual assistants.
An interactive whiteboard, screen sharing, cross-platform discussion, and online meeting scheduling all contribute to the efficiency of business meetings.
b. Zoom
Zoom is a video conferencing tool widely used to collaborate, hold meetings, and host virtual events.
The tool features group chat, video webinars, virtual conference rooms, and a business phone system, making them ideal virtual assistant software.
Zoom has advanced privacy and security features ensuring business data protection while working with virtual assistants.
Other Virtual Assistant Software
Virtual assistants relieve enterprises of the administrative strain that clogs entrepreneurs’ workdays. Companies may utilize virtual assistants’ full potential, save time, and maximize their investment with the help of the appropriate software solutions.
An effective virtual assistant tool can:
- Aid organizations in completing tasks more effectively
- Automate boring and repetitive jobs
- Track the virtual assistants’ work time, activity, and progress
- Maintain open lines of communication with a virtual assistant.
Here are some more tools to help businesses make the most of virtual assistants.
Project Management
A good project management tool can help businesses to:
- Allocate work to virtual assistants
- Analyze data to oversee projects
- Identify how virtual assistants can become more productive
Consider your current and future needs while choosing the best tool for your team. To avoid wasting time transferring data during growth, pick a technology that can scale with you.
a. Asana
Image Source: Asana
Asana helps companies manage their projects effectively. It offers a team management feature that enables enterprises to set up teams in the tool with their virtual assistants.
Businesses using Asana can safeguard their sensitive data by only providing virtual assistants access to the data they need.
Organizations can easily delegate tasks to their virtual assistants, follow them, share projects with them, or make notes of them in task comments.
Additionally, its extensive workspace features let businesses organize teams, projects, and tasks and get informed of progress, eliminating the need for time-consuming back-and-forth email threads.
b. Basecamp
Basecamp is a simple project management tool designed to help organizations work remotely. It enables businesses to organize projects in a single place eliminating the need to go back and forth over small details or look for important files.
With Basecamp, it’s simple to stay connected with virtual assistants. Businesses can access this virtual assistant software on the web and even on their iOS or Android smartphones and tablets.
Essential CRM Virtual Assistant Software
CRM plays a critical role in any business as it consists of crucial information about customer data. It provides a complete understanding of any business.
These CRM tools are vital for a virtual assistant to maintain client data and increase sales.
Salesforce has this feature to set up to do and record anything a sales team wants, which is its greatest attribute.
It helps virtual assistants in sales with:
- Contact record management
- Deal tracking for sales planning
- Sales pipeline management
- Integrate email marketing
- Tasks allocation
- Campaigns and outreach analytics
b. Hubspot
With the help of Hubspot, businesses can combine meetings, automated templates, and sales processes.
Even better, companies may combine Hubspot’s CRM with their marketing automation software.
Using Hubspot, businesses can build email campaigns and qualify and score leads.
Hubspot CRM features:
- Contact Management
- Call and email logs
- Pipeline management
- Integration with Gmail and Slack
- Customer chat
Conclusion
Organizations need to hire virtual assistants to handle their administrative needs. Although hiring a virtual assistant is easy, managing them can be difficult. The specialized virtual assistant software discussed here can help you get the most out of your virtual resource.