How to Find & Hire the Right Virtual Assistant to Manage Your Orders?

If you are a small business or dropshipping business owner, you already understand how hard it is to manage your orders after a point. When you are just starting, it is exciting to source products, pack, dispatch, and track orders yourself. However, as your customer base increases, this task becomes hectic, and just like that, you lose more hours of your personal time, time that you could use to work on improving your business, do research and more!

Of course, a lot of people may have told you that this is how entrepreneurship works and you need to work 24/7 to make your business work. But, that’s not entirely true. Although you do need to give more attention to your business, you can still outsource monotonous tasks. That is why you may need to find a virtual assistant and outsource managing your orders.

A virtual assistant will become your right hand, helping you sort and dispatch orders on time.

Let’s understand more.

What Is a Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant is actually a person working for you to sort your orders. The reason for virtual in the name is that they are operating remotely, handling clients from anywhere in the world, and you are getting your job done.

Almost every entrepreneur or dropshipping business owner hires a virtual assistant to manage tasks like marketing, order management, fulfilment, sales, etc.

You may be thinking that this job role sounds a lot like a freelancer. While that is true, there are some logical differences. A freelancer may own a particular function of the business and help you with that. A virtual assistant is a resourceful employee working on several tasks. They may work on marketing, a little on sales, and complete routine tasks.

The reason why businesses find virtual assistants so useful is because they are more cost-effective than a permanent employee.

Overall, think of a virtual assistant as a professional who delegates, manages, and puts out fires on your behalf.

Tasks You Can Outsource to a Virtual Assistant

With the job description that we have discussed above, you may already understand that a virtual assistant performs many admin tasks. However, this job role is not restricted in that manner. You can find a virtual assistant to manage your orders, help sort priorities, and track fulfilment.

Here are some tasks that a VA can perform:

• Order management: A VA may help manage orders as they are placed from customers, sort the number of units left, update the system, track logistics, and stay connected with the customer for delivery.
• Customer service: It involves talking to the customer on chat or phone call and resolving their issues.
• Social media management: This allows the VA to look after your social media activities, such as ORM.
• Data entry: This job involves entering important data into a spreadsheet or a system to eventually create an automated mechanism for the same.

There are several other ways in which a virtual assistant can help your dropshipping or small business. For example, cold calling customers to help them make a purchase, taking feedback from customers after completion of the purchase, checking where a parcel is stuck in the logistics, and sorting details of customer payments.

How to Find the Right Virtual Assistant

The best way to find a virtual assistant is to follow some given steps. Of course, you can tweak the order a bit depending on your requirements, but the process remains similar.

Check how you can find a virtual assistant.

Documentation

When you are working with a virtual assistant, you won’t be able to fully explain all  the details over a call and expect them to get it right. The only method to ensure there are fewer challenges and errors for you to rectify is to create documentation beforehand. This is because if you are hiring a virtual assistant once, chances are you will hire another one again in a few years or months. Therefore, having some guidelines and ground rules in documentation is the right way to proceed.

How can you create this document?

Understand what you would want your virtual assistant to know when you onboard them.

For example, let’s talk about a virtual assistant that helps you manage orders. Here is the list of things you want them to know:

• Understanding every order correctly, approving it, and sending it forward.
• Approving return requests based on the videos and details shared by the customer.
• Tracking the shipment and knowing when the order was delivered.
• Talking to the logistic firm when an order gets lost in the chain.
• Confirming with the customer once the order is delivered.
• Resolving customer queries related to a particular order.

Remember that you are trying to reduce your work here, so include every detail, which will help you enjoy the freedom you are looking for after hiring this employee.

Job Description

Once you have the documentation ready, prepare a job description that can be posted online on social media and job portals.

This description should clearly mention:

• Type of roles that the employee is expected to fulfil.
• Tools and apps knowledge that they should have.
• The necessity of basic communication and language skills.
• Specific tasks that they may need to perform.
• Required degree if that is necessary for your hiring process.

Hiring

Once you have the job description, you should post it online on social media and job portals. As applications flow in, follow these steps:

• Check the qualifications and understand if the candidate matches the requirements.
• Reach out to them and try to understand their willingness to stay in this job role.
• Have an official interview, where you can assess their knowledge on the subject.
• Finalize and complete hiring, including paperwork, agreement, feedback, etc.

Secure Data

Once you find a virtual assistant, you need to secure your data. Understand that this person may have access to important business files. Therefore, visit your Shopify account, PayPal dashboard, and dropshipping tool’s dashboard to offer them limited access. This allows you to secure sensitive details of the company.

However, when you are hiring a VA for order management, that may not be possible. In this case, you need to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the VA. This document should contain details of data that the VA is not allowed to share with any third party. It will save you from fraud and data leaks.

Ensure Accountability

From the first day, ensure that your VA is accountable for the work they have been assigned. Therefore, have a mechanism to track their work hours or assess their work. You can use tools to track the work hours of your VA, but that is not always possible. In that case, you can ask your VA to create a comprehensive report every month explaining his work. This can be a tracker or worksheet containing details of the tasks successfully completed.

Conclusion

When you are running a small business, you already have a lot on your plate. You don’t want to spend time managing orders, posting on social media, and doing other tasks that can be outsourced easily. Find a virtual assistant, explain your business to them, and take out time for yourself.