Emily Kane
In a virtual assistant article by r3r.com, the author raises an excellent point: the low barrier to entry means that the market is becoming flooded with people that have little training or experience – and the client is ultimately the one who suffers. This is unfortunate because virtual assistance as an “industry” is new, and the public’s overall opinion of its usefulness and practicality is still being decided.
He also states the opinion (which I agree with) that eventually, the cream will rise to the top. The barrier to entry will be raised as firms increase the strength of their “brands” and earn a reputation for quality. Why deal with someone unsupervised, working from home, when there are established, reputable companies to work with?
I’d like to add to the authors comments from the perspective of an “insider.” First, I started LongerDays because of the less than stellar experiences I had with foreign outsourcing. I liked the idea of virtual assistance too much to give up on it, so I created this company which is somewhat unique in the field. My gamble was that people would be willing to pay more – much more in fact – to have a U.S.-based virtual assistant that was part of a supervised team. The increase in quality – as language barriers, cultural differences, and time zone issues were removed – would justify the cost difference.
So far, this has proven to be correct. Although our prices are higher, our company continues to grow.
I am of the opinion that virtual assistance is not a trend. It offers too many advantages, and is too useful a service, to be a trend. The term may change (isn’t “remote staff” a more accurate title than “virtual assistant?”), but the service is here to stay.
Virtual assistance is uniquely:
Flexible – Most virtual assistant work on a retainer. You aren’t required to give them a certain amount of work each day. Rather, you can use it as needed.
Affordable – Essentially, you are buying a share of a worker’s time. The worker’s “virtual” or offsite working arrangement means that they can switch back and forth between different clients. This unique setup allows for the purchase of small quantities of the worker’s time (5 or 10 hours of work a week, for instance).
Broad – Virtual assistance can be incredibly comprehensive, and that’s one of the industry’s greatest strengths. Basically, if it can be done in an office, a virtual assistant is able to do it – from HTML to filing. A virtual assistant should be your one stop shop for pretty much any type of business task.
These three strengths alone are enough to warrant the existence and continued growth of virtual assistance!
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