Are you a startup company or a fully established one?
Working from home or has your own office?
It doesn’t matter!
You will anyhow require a virtual assistant for the business. The need for Virtual assistants has been beefed up since a few years. The entrepreneurs require virtual assistants for mundane tasks or might be a specialized task. A Virtual Assistant is a professional person who provides technical, administrative, management assistance to clients from a remote location. The most crucial benefit of hiring a virtual assistant is that they are potent of doing a wide range of tasks such as graphic designing, accounting and bookkeeping, social media handling, customer support services and more. Therefore, a business needs to hire a cogent and reliable a virtual gent who will be responsible for major or minor operations of the company. So, the interviewer should ensure to ask the right questions so that he/she can hire a person who can fulfill the company’s needs.
Given below are the questions one must ask while interviewing a virtual assistant.
How did you end up as a Virtual Assistant?
This question is a great way to go ahead with the interview. It is very necessary for you to know the reason why does he/she want this job and how did he/she end up working as a VA. This will help you know a little background story of the candidate.
What services do you offer?
Ask this question as soon as it is possible in the interview process. As the services which you searching for must align with the services a prospective VA is providing. This question will help you know that if they are telling you things which you want to hear or they genuinely doing that. You do not want someone who tells you things just to please you but you want someone who is desperate to work with you and who does not lie on what services they offer.
How long are you doing this?
By asking this question, you can ensure that the selected candidate must be an experienced one and not a fresher. Do not hire someone who has just entered the field as they might be frequent in making blunders. An experienced candidate can work at the competence level and can also work on the core projects but a new person can only be hired for small jobs.
How can I commune with you?
It is important to know what communication method does the VA prefers because they may be based anywhere in the world. However, he/she might answer like “by anyway, you want to”, which should not be considered as an intelligent answer. Suppose, he has five or ten clients and everyone is using a distinct medium for communication. That means he/she is active on Facebook, Instagram, email, WhatsApp. That candidate might mix up with your tasks. Find someone who prefers one commune method but is also open to some others. If the candidate is answering with the former answer that person is pleasing you or may not be fit for your business.
How quickly do you reply to the e-mails?
A quick reply via e-mail cannot be expected. But it is necessary to get quick email support from the other side. Apart from other communication methods, VA must be efficient in replying to the clients via emails. So, find out whether your selected candidate is proficient in contacting via emails or not.
Have you ever fired a client?
This is the question that most VA never expects to come but, this is the thing many have had to do before. If they deny this question that means they are new to this business but if they nodes that means they can be beneficial for the company. They can help in managing and handling other projects because someone who has experience in hiring, firing and running their own business as a VA is well adept at project management type of work.
What do you do when you could not complete your task on time?
A good VA will set a system of prioritization or will ask you your prioritized tasks for the business and will keep you abreast if they run behind due to some reason. A loyal VA will answer this realistically rather giving you excuse as an answer.
What tools do you use in your work?
This question is a good way to suss out whether the candidate has adhered to the latest tools of working or he is still working on the outdated one. If they respond with various tools like Basecamp, asana, Trello, and FreshBooks then you might be selecting the right one. But smoothly switch to the next in case they reply with an answer like “google is the only tool I am using”.
What would you do if you are working on something crucial and your system crashes?
A good VA will have a backup plan in case of an emergency. An honest VA will inform you anyhow that the system has been crashed and will get back to you in some time. Any VA that does not have a backup plan may not be the best VA for you. Then most probably, switch to the next one.
Tell me about the parameters?
Parameters of a VA help you understand how they charge for their services. It can be on an hourly basis or weekly. They can also charge according to the workload. Just discuss this so that they fit into your budget.
The Interview is a vital aspect of hiring process. So, go through the most important questions to ask before signing any Virtual Assistant so that you do not miss anything.I hope this blog has solved all your queries on necessary questions to ask when interviewing a virtual assistant but still if any doubt pop-ups in your mind feel free to contact the reputed ecommerce services provider company for getting best solutions.