It is obvious to think that a graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Modern Languages must work as a teacher. Well, I actually am a teacher and currently teach virtually, but today I am sharing part of the journey of my last four years which does not have anything to do with teaching. I will talk about how much I could learn being part of teams, learning new working methods, facing challenges, adapting to difficult times, and creating after falls.
The company USA Supply Source, where I collaborated for around 4 years, sells Safety products, tools, Home Improvement, and Electronics. There, I started as an operational agent giving support and customer service. I was part of a virtual agents group that helped with the basic tasks such as checking orders status and sometimes placing requested orders. We were saving time to the client with those requirements, which did not need a lot of comprehension of business. I was involved in this, I mean, I liked what we were doing. It was a process I had not done before, all related to technology and English, which allowed me to keep growing professionally.
We started to create teams to support the client services and tasks 24 hours a day; at this point, we were a team of 4 people per shift. It meant 12 virtual assistants during the day. We were doing normal processes to save the client some time, so he could go for more deals. We were aware that during the year, 3 important seasons needed to be covered: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and special deals that stores offered.
The first time we faced season time, we experienced a big problem with our system that did not allow us to purchase on platforms automatically. It meant that we were not producing due to our own issue. So, how could we do something to keep going? It was something we needed to solve in one day. No developers, no project manager, no facilitator had the answer, but we had the last card to play: bilingual virtual assistant services. We required around 20 or 30 of them that could help us achieve what our tool was not able to.
We created a fast process where we found well-prepared people with different skills that perfectly suited the things we wanted to do. At first, they were helping our tool to finish the flow with manual intervention. We could get a bunch of orders processed, so hiring them for the season was the perfect choice for the company and the business model. Well, bilingual virtual assistants are a full package. They know how to write, how to make a call and talk to foreign people, how to organize stock and how to find information, all related to back-office and support. So, here we found another important thing; they would be able to do some office tasks that demand a lot of time from people at the company who would be able to focus more on pursuing more growth.
Hiring those virtual assistants in the American timezone was perfect since all of them were located in Colombia. That meant that we could have a team working at the same hour as the company in the USA. Over time, basic tasks became more complex or even demanded more attention. This was not a big deal for helpers because they were constantly being prepared with lessons or courses given by the team leader. The good thing? They were always open to learning new skills.
Now, the team was involved in checking emails, chatting for warranties, calling the shopping center, purchasing, managing a CRM and, all of this made the client trust in the hard work virtual assistants in Colombia could do. So, He decided to hire more people to help with other responsibilities when the season was done. Our team grew until having 3 teams with a total of 30 people hired with all legal contracts. It was a clear vision of how much value remote assistants offer to a business.
Taking into account the first experience, we learned to be prepared with at least 50 people for the next year, but we found out that the client needed to hire as many people as possible; since this first approach, the business could make profits that were not expected to have.
For the coming year, we opened vacancies for bilingual VAs to attend the season. That year, the requirement of 50 increased up to 100 VAs which was a win-win relationship for all people involved in the process. This has been one of the most successful experiences I have had. We learned that hiring virtual assistants could be the secret to freeing your time up, increasing your profit, your productivity, and making work easier and more efficient.
Whenever you feel like it is time to take the next step on making your work schedule more productive, taking a break from those simple tasks that are demanding a lot of your time, do not hesitate to hire virtual assistants! They are the best choice for you to keep running your business, while you find more strategies to maintain constant growth.
