The labor market is tight. It is more difficult than ever to find workers to support home service companies. But just because it is harder to find the right people doesn’t mean that support is not needed. If you’re self-employed or providing home services is your business, then your time is money. How do you buy yourself more time? How do you find the right home service admin support for the right price to keep your business running? An efficient and cost-effective answer is to hire a virtual assistant.
How can a virtual assistant support the needs of a home service business? To answer that question, let’s take a look at the following:
WHAT A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT IS
WHAT A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT CAN COVER FOR HOME SERVICE PROVIDERS
THE BENEFITS OF HIRING A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
THE BENEFITS OF VIRTUAL ASSISTANT SERVICES
What is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant provides administrative and operational support for businesses much the same as in-office support staff. A virtual assistant however is an independent contractor working remotely. They have access to the necessary systems and documents to complete assigned responsibilities and are trained in the needs of your industry.
The use of the Internet continues to increase across a broad spectrum of businesses. This fact has increased as well the types of support a virtual assistant can offer. The range of support filled by a remote team member continues to grow and become more specialized. Experienced remote assistants can provide home service admin support to meet the specific needs of the home services industry.
What a Virtual Assistant Can Cover for Home Service Providers
The home service industry covers a range of businesses with any number of support needs.
Need help with billing? Need customer service support? Need someone to manage your work schedule? The range and specificity of home service admin support can be tailored to the needs of your business. A virtual assistant can take the pressure off your back office and free you up to do the work you do best.
Finding the right virtual assistant to cure the pain points in your specific business is vital. For example, a cleaning company virtual assistant can take on the role of billing and invoicing customers. An HVAC assistant can be hired for the seasonal uptick in inbound sales. Both residential and commercial contractors can find home service admin support in the areas of project management or customer service. An online assistant can offer plumber support with scheduling and a handyman administrative support to enhance your social media profile.
Home Service Admin Support
A few areas of beneficial support include:
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
CUSTOMER SERVICE
SOCIAL MEDIA
SCHEDULING
BILLING AND INVOICING
SALES
Project Management Support
The reputation of a home service contractor often hinges on the timely delivery of services to clients. The success of your business hinges on this reputation. Delays may be inevitable, but excessive delays are crushing. Using a highly-skilled contractor virtual assistant to support your project management can make all the difference by:
- Efficiently dispatching staff workers
- Minimizing downtime
- Monitoring onsite progress
- Organizing permits and work schedules
Customer Service Support
Filling a gap in the area of customer service with a virtual assistant can cost-effectively up your game. Providing the personal touch to customer support that does not interrupt your busy work schedule onsite. Stopping a job to answer the phone is no way to get a job done, but neither is worrying about missing a customer call. A virtual assistant trained to cover the needs of your customers can be the lynchpin to your success and peace of mind.
Social Media Engagement
Whether you are self-employed or managing your small home service company, social media is a part of a smart marketing plan. It is an area of your business that can be affordably outsourced to a virtual assistant. It is an investment that takes this off your to-do list while helping you reap the rewards of a consistent and engaging social media profile.
Scheduling Appointments
Scheduling can be a headache. A handyman or home inspector juggling client appointments or a contractor scheduling a job can mean more time organizing schedules than delivering services.
A handyman virtual assistant or a contractor virtual assistant can juggle the appointments reliably and consistently without it dipping into your bottom line.
Billing and Invoicing
Billing and invoicing is the cog in the wheel of getting paid for completing a job. It’s vital. It’s also time-consuming and requires a consistent and efficient process. A virtual assistant can provide the grease that keeps the wheel turning and generate higher revenue. It can create:
- A more reliable cash flow
- A higher percentage of invoices paid on time
- A quicker invoice and billing cycle
Inbound Sales
Outsourcing your inbound sales to a virtual assistant can reap cost savings in a variety of ways. Missing those inbound sales calls costs money upfront by losing jobs to competitors. You do not want to lose someone looking for your services because you couldn’t be reached. Dedicated remote support trained in your industry to cover those calls takes care of that problem. A virtual assistant able to usher an inbound call into a booked job can be crucial to generating revenue.
Depending on your industry, virtual assistants for home service providers can check off a range of time-consuming tasks. Knowing it’s covered frees you up to bring your best to the money-generating parts of your business. Focusing your efforts where they are most effective.
The Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Assistant
When thinking about hiring remote admin support, the first thing that comes to mind is a call center. The second thing is how many call centers do not seem like the answer to your needs. But, what if you had the control of hiring the affordable virtual talent you need without the impersonal experience of a call center? What if you could hire a virtual assistant that could remedy the pain points in your business both efficiently and cost-effectively? What if you had home service admin support, and it was just that–support?
The good news is that none of these situations need to be what-ifs. Now, more than ever, remote team members for home service admin support are available, affordable, and highly trained to meet your needs. The benefits of hiring a virtual assistant are tangible solutions to support shortfalls.
The Benefits of Virtual Assistant Services
One advantage of virtual assistants is the ability to hire to support a specific operation. It is important to determine the best operation to outsource. A virtual assistant service can help identify your home service admin support needs and provide a vital step in this determination. Building a custom strategy that works for your business is key to reaping the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant.
Hiring virtual assistant services can streamline your back-office operations by:
DOCUMENTING THE STEPS INVOLVED IN GETTING YOUR BUSINESS DONE
IDENTIFYING YOUR SUPPORT GAPS
FINDING A DEDICATED VIRTUAL TEAM MEMBER TO FULFILL SPECIFIC NEEDS
SUPPORTING THE ONBOARDING AND SET UP PROCESS TO ENSURE SUCCESS
The Best Way to Invest in Your Business
Getting home service admin support from highly skilled and well-trained virtual assistant professionals can make a big difference in not only how well your business is run. It can be the difference between you running your business and your business running you.
Investing in a virtual assistant does not have to be difficult. Rocket Station is your “easy button” to finding, training, and managing virtual assistants that understand the service industry and help you do your business better.
