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You want apps and programs to help you be the greatest Virtual Assistant. You want to give your clients your best efforts and demonstrate just how beneficial it is to have you around. Yes, you will likely be working in a remote position so the last thing you want to do is cause clients strife and avoid them having to manage you—otherwise, what did they hire you for?
Allow your clients to focus on their priorities, help to protect their time, and get the most out of their investment in you. To help you accomplish this, you will want to find apps and programs that help you accomplish your tasks efficiently, can automate repetitive work, and organize communications. Continue reading for the top 20 apps and programs for Virtual Assistants (at the time of publication).
You want to be able to communicate with your clients when you need them and emails can get lost in the digital space. Microsoft Teams (Teams), formerly known as Skype for Business, is a communication solution for Virtual Assistants. It enables remote teams to chat, have audio and video calls, schedule meetings, share files with your clients, and it features real-time collaboration on files. The video calling features will also be helpful if you are invited to larger meetings.
Video calls are a great way for Virtual Assistants to handle more complex conversations. GoToMeeting is a popular video conferencing platform that includes all the features you’ve come to expect like conference calling, video conferencing, and screen sharing. Suggest a weekly call with your clients to touch base and align priorities. Ask your clients if they have a preference and consider how a particular program will fit in your current tech ecosystem. GoToMeeting is preferred because it supports larger meeting sizes at a lower price point and can be used on most devices and operating systems.
You may not offer accounting or bookkeeping services to your clients, but it is something you will have to do for your own business. QuickBooks is the most popular accounting software and the platform is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. Use it to track your expenses, create invoices and quotes, generate detailed reports, and sync them with your bank account to automatically track your income and expenses. All the information is stored in the cloud and encrypted to ensure only you (and the people you authorize) can access the financial information.
If you are paid an hourly rate, you will need a reliable time tracking tool to calculate your hours. Even if you are not paid by the hour, time tracking gives you valuable information that you can use to work more efficiently. It can show you how your time was used and help you to seamline your processes.
Time Doctor is a time tracking and productivity management tool that is used by large and small businesses to boost productivity. It allows you to see the exact time spent working, on breaks, and the time spent with clients or on specific projects. It can analyze your productivity with accurate reports and there is even an Android app to monitor time and productivity while on the move. Time Doctor also integrates with many of the project management tools used like Asana, Basecamp, Trello, and Zendesk.
It’s common for virtual assistants to handle scheduling and need to do scheduling of their own. Modern calendar software helps balance your personal and professional time. Aside from the iCal, Google, and Outlook Calendars, Calendly is one of the most popular online scheduling tools. It eliminates the need to send dozens of back and forth emails to find open times for a meeting. Simply send the recipient your Calendly link! The recipient can book a meeting at a time that works for them. It even detects the recipient’s time zone and displays your availability in their time. Calendly supports advanced features such as time buffers, daily meeting limits, minimum scheduling notice, and the collection of credit card and PayPal payments.
Basecamp is a project management solution designed for remote teams. You can use this with clients to create a to-do list or schedule and communicate with them on the message board or built-in group chat. This tool works on internet browsers and has both Android and iPhone apps.
If you want to keep track of all your passwords in a safe and secure place, LastPass saves all your passwords across the devices you use. Install it as a browser extension to automatically fill in usernames and passwords when you visit a website commonly used. If you change devices, you still have access to your password vault.
Dropbox is one of the most popular file storage platforms in the world. Dropbox was originally branded as a cloud storage platform but has expanded to include a set of tools that optimize your workflow. You can use it to store all your content in a central location, share files, and find any content you need quickly and without effort.
This tool is part of Google Suite and is easy to manage and access. Google Drive allows you to work within the same document or spreadsheet without worrying about version control. This tool works on all major platforms and can be accessed using desktop and mobile devices.
Virtual assistants often help manage social media accounts. MeetEdgar is a social media scheduling tool that automatically builds a library of every update you upload to help you share them over time. The app pulls updates from the library to automatically fill your queue. What does this mean? You never run out of things to post and your updates get seen by new people in your audience. This breaks the constant cycle of manually refilling an empty queue and gives every update multiple chances to find an audience.
Hootsuite is one of the most popular social media management platforms in the world. As a Virtual Assistant, you can use it to schedule and manage content on all your social media pages. You can also use it to manage your clients’ social media pages if this is a service you offer. The calendar view allows you to manage your social media ads and see how your social media presence fits together across multiple platforms.
A simple, all-in-one platform, Sprout Social is a popular tool that helps with social media strategy for you or your clients. You can plan and analyze results, monitor and manage reviews, and schedule posts using the content calendar.
If social media is a service you offer, Oktopost is worth taking a look at. This tool shows which posts are generating leads so you can calculate the return on your social media marketing investment. Going beyond basic social media management, you can use it to create content, generate engagement, and use features like smart scheduling and content curation to help maximize the social media plan for you or your client.
Visuals are necessary to get attention online, and you need them across all internet facets like websites, blogs, and social media. Canva makes creating professional-looking images easy. It is not a replacement for a professional graphic designer, but it’s an affordable alternative. The platform has tutorials for each way you can think of using this tool. The tutorials are simple and easy to follow, so take a look! The free version offers a fair amount but you can upgrade to their Pro version to access more features, like a Brand Kit.
Process Street is a workflow management program that allows you to create checklists and procedures to help guide you and your client through projects. You can build workflows like a to-do list, or you can use conditional logic to respond to different possibilities. You can use this tool to keep your work consistent and accurate. It simplifies the onboarding of new and existing clients while giving everyone a quick way to answer their questions about how things should be done.
Process documentation is important because when you have clear instructions to describe exactly how to handle a job, work can be delegated quickly and easily. This documentation should be easy to access and understand for both you and your clients. Make sure the information is easy to find so people can use these documents to get up to speed at a quicker rate while helping to keep the documentation up-to-date as procedures evolve.
Trainual is a popular tool that guides onboarding for new clients, stores your policies, and allows you to create playbooks. Playbooks are guides that explain each step of a work process so the procedures are clear. This tool turns standard procedures into useful training programs, which is helpful for both you and your clients because it allows people to train themselves. The built-in templates can be used to create your personalized company policies and distribute the information to your clients. This tool is available on desktop and mobile devices.
No virtual assistant program can serve as a replacement for a human virtual assistant. What they can do is help you handle basic tasks like ordering office supplies, giving directions, and adding appointments to your calendar. Microsoft’s virtual assistant solution is Cortana. It can read emails to you, book meetings, and help you find information quickly. The use is limited to PCs and is designed for a desktop.
Google Assistant is Google’s voice-activated virtual assistant. Quick Answers is one aspect of the tool you can use to ask questions like “What is on my schedule today?” The program will check your calendar and respond. You can also create your commands by making custom shortcuts. Google Assistant supports both text and voice commands.
Siri is Apple’s voice-controlled virtual assistant. You can use voice commands to get directions, add events to your calendar, send messages, and post to your Twitter or Facebook profile. Another feature is the ability to give yourself location-based reminders. For example, say you have a social engagement and want to remember to pick up a gift for the host on your way. When you leave your home, Siri detects your location and serves you a reminder. Siri connects with OpenTable so you can also use it to make restaurant reservations if the establishment uses OpenTable to help with their bookings.
Alexa, or Echo, is the virtual assistant program from Amazon. Alexa connects to your Amazon account and you can use it to perform various tasks. Amazon also created a business-focused version of Alexa, called Alexa for Business, which has skills specifically designed for productivity. This means you can use the tool to reserve meeting rooms, start conference calls, and you can use it to control other devices with voice commands.
This means you can create a routine to maximize productivity during your workday. For example, you can begin with a morning wake-up alarm, a quick reading of the day’s news, and the weather report. If you own other smart devices, you can use Alexa to turn on the lights or start the coffee pot. Once your workday begins, you can set up Alexa to go through your daily to-dos and schedule.
Did you use any of these apps or programs, or have others you find helpful? Follow CanScribe on Instagram to share your thoughts and ideas with us!