How to communicate with you virtual assistant.
When I first started using virtual assistants (VAs), I tested assistants from India and the Philippines . But I spent most of my time frustrated with the amount of questions I received. How many times have you really needed to get something done by your VA, but you end up doing it yourself, because you just can trust your VA to do it independently.
Too many times right?
Sometimes you email your assistant, saying, “Please book me a roundtrip flight from PDX to LAX from 5/15 – 5/22″ and you have to endure a dozen back-and-forth emails before it’s done. You start to wonder why you didn’t just do it yourself.
No one wants more e-mail. The idea is to send one e-mail and have it done the first time.
I have given you an example of an e-mail template that you can use as a diagram.
After reading the example below, you’ll be able to write email that gets you results the first time
Let’s start with a typical email that frustrates us all.
Example e-mail script: Planning air travel
Hi,
I’d like you to plan a trip from Portland, Oregon Los Angeles and provide me the 3 best options.
DATES
Depart: PDX to LAX on May 15 (arrive in time for 5pm meeting)
Return: NYC to SFO on May 22th (early morning)
TIMES
From Portland to Los Angeles: I need to be in Studio City by 5pm. Please research travel time by cab from the airport and factor into arrival time.
PREFERENCES
I prefer window seats. All flights must be direct.
I would like the lowest price with the following conditions (in order):
1. Arrive in time to reach my 5pm meeting on the 15th (again, please factor in travel time from airport, baggage, etc)
2. Non-stop flight (required)
3. Window seat (preferred)
4. Delta or Alaska preferred
Please send me the best three flights in a plaintext email.
Thanks,
-(your name)
WHY THIS WORKS
You need to send precise instructions to your VA to ensure that no details get misconstrued, resulting in unbearable back-and-forth emails.
- In this email, be specific about OUTCOMES when significant , for instance arrival in time for a specific event at a specific time. Once you’ve provided basic direction the VA can figure out the flight schedule on their own. For other situations where you don’t particularly care, you can simply say “late afternoon” and let them figure it out.
- You should never have to repeat your preferences. Make sure to tell you VA to keep a record of all your preferences so they can refer to them later. Also, you want to have them handy in case you need to hire someone else in their place.
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Key learnings:
- Create policies. Your preferences should always be recorded. That way, if something happens to your VA, you have a written record of your preferences. Examples: What time do you prefer to schedule meetings? Do you prefer aisle or window seats when you fly? What restaurants do you prefer going to for business meetings?
- Analyze your e-mails to make sure they are easy to understand. Keep in mind that the reason your VA may not be producing good results could be because your e-mails are not clear. Take an e-mail that you wrote recently, one that got a lot of questions, and show it to one of your friends, (preferably a smart one), and see if they can understand the directive. If they can’t tell what the heck you were asking them to do, chances are your VA doesn’t know either.
- Be specific about the outcome. If you are wanting dinner reservations in a specific part of your city, say which area. In cities like Los Angeles, if you tell your VA to find a Korean restaurant in LA, your going to get an email with 100 results. Take the extra time to be specific.
- Requirements or Preferences. Specify what is required and what is preferred, and make sure your VA creates an easy to ready document that has all of those details.
- Over time you can be less specific. Once your VA has been with you for awhile, they will have a better understanding of what you like, so you don’t need to be as specific with your emails. So, you could just email your VA and say, book me a flight from LA to Chicago on 10/20-10/23 arriving in time for a 5pm meeting, and departing early morning. They will already know what to do next.
