Common Questions For Virtalent (FAQs)

All Virtalent clients are assigned a dedicated Client Success Manager.

Your Client Success Manager is not only there to answer your questions and resolve any queries you might have whilst working with us, but also to proactively help you get the most out of the service we offer.

Software recommendations? Delegation tips? A sounding board for your latest project? Alongside your VA, our team want to make sure you’re leveraging your time efficiently and effectively.

We don’t set any rules here. Most clients prefer to use a combination of email and phone calls to work with their VA, whereas others like to use Slack (a real-time messaging platform) or a to-do list app like TickTick.

It’s really completely up to you and your VA. If you prefer to work a certain way, just let us know on your consultation call and we’ll make sure your VA is happy to meet those requirements.

When working, your VA will also setup your tasks within our Task Portal (e.g. “Travel booking”) and then log time to these tasks in real time. They log in, click “start” to begin any work and then hit “stop” when they’ve finished. These time logs are then debited from your balance of hours throughout the month. Easy peasy.

All Virtalent clients have their own login credentials to our very own Task Portal. Here you’ll be able to view a complete breakdown of all time logged, by anyone working on your account, to the exact minute.

And if you have a query about your account, just contact your Client Success Manager.

As soon as your VA lets us know, we’ll make sure you are aware when they plan to be away (though they’re likely to have told you anyway).

We’ll then recommend someone with a similar background and skillset to support you.

If you’re happy with our choice, your usual VA will provide a full handover to the second VA. This doesn’t cost you a penny and is always a smooth, simple process.

The cover VA may then provide a handover back to your usual VA when they return.

Well, where do we start? We don’t like to blow our own trumpet but this seems a good place to stop being so modest.

First, with an average 15 years’ experience, our VAs are likely to be the most experienced and talented VAs available to you. And all for an ultra-competitive monthly fee. Our competitors will either price you out or water down the quality of their talent pool. But at Virtalent we’ve got the best of both worlds ready for you - awesome people at a price you can realistically afford.

Next is our unique matching process which puts your needs (not ours!) first.

At Virtalent, our team will work to understand not just what tasks you need to delegate, but also who you are as a person and what makes you tick. We then discuss this as a team and see who we feel would be the “best” Virtual Assistant for you based on our knowledge - from Myers Briggs personality results, to software skills. We won’t stop until we have the perfect match.

We’ll then send you that VA’s detailed profile and if you’re happy, you’ll chat to your new VA directly to make sure you “click”. All before you’ve paid a penny to us.

This doesn’t happen elsewhere. Many of our competitors will charge your card before you even know who you’ll be working with.

And then there’s your charming Client Success Manager.

Each Virtalent client is given a dedicated Client Success Manager. Our competitors may give you an “Account Manager” (with several hundred clients to somehow juggle), but what happens if you have a concern you really feel unsure about? Ours won’t just answer your “ticket” in a busy team inbox - email 291 that day.

Instead, your very own Virtalent guardian angel will give you a call and talk it through, then follow up afterwards with some useful tips and tricks. They may even crack a joke or two.

We put people before profits and we promise you’ll notice the difference.

Want more? Click on the link below to see how else we’re disrupting the Virtual Assistant industry in the UK.

At Virtalent we have a deliberate “remote first” culture that we’re incredibly proud of. This means that everyone, from our Sales Manager (rural Hertfordshire) through to our accountants (Durham) works together online.

Our Virtual Assistants also love working remotely. They ditched the long City commute long ago and don’t have any plans to return to “the daily grind”.

That means location isn’t something we pay much attention to in our hiring process. We want to hire great people, whether they’re in London or Leicester. That means you’ll certainly get to meet your VA but as they might not be around the corner, you’ll need to swap that Starbucks chat for a Skype call (saving you an extra journey in your already busy schedule!).

As we embrace a “remote first” culture across Virtalent, your Virtual Assistant is really there to assist you virtually! Handing out flyers at a trade show or re-organising your filing cabinets each week isn’t how they are geared up to work.

Perhaps your VA could dial in to your conference room to take meeting notes? Maybe a Marketing VA could help you switch your in-person workshops to a webinar format to help you save a little time too?

In today’s technology-driven world, you might be surprised at just how seamlessly your VA can work with you on anything that you might first think would require their physical presence.

Remember, your Client Success Manager will be on hand at all times to help you figure this out!

A Virtual Assistant (VA) provides support to businesses, assisting them remotely or “virtually” with a variety of day-to-day tasks.

The advent of super fast broadband and cloud-based software (like G Suite and Office 365), combined with an ever growing number of people working for themselves and looking for a better work-life balance with a more flexible schedule, means the VA industry is rapidly growing.

As you can imagine, a “Virtual Assistant” is a very broad term and covers a range of different skills!

At Virtalent, we specialise in PA support tasks such as diary management and admin, helping with marketing activities such as social media scheduling and sending email newsletters, and other similar tasks which could fall into a “support” category such as assisting with recruitment, offering customer service or dealing with sales enquiries.

Our VAs come from a wide range of professional backgrounds - from PAs and Office Managers, to Marketing Managers and Project Planners. They have an average of 15 years’ professional experience before they join our team and the ambition, passion and discipline to work remotely.

All are native English speakers and work across the UK.

There are a whole host of reasons to hire a Virtual Assistant.

First, it is a flexible way to grow your team. Employees come with long contracts, a long list of legal obligations and a commitment that is difficult to get out of if your business changes. At Virtalent, we’ll work together on a monthly subscription.

Next is the efficiency and expertise that a skilled, dedicated professional can bring to your company. No one can be excellent at everything and that includes you! Our Virtual Assistants have spent their entire careers supporting business owners and senior professionals, meaning they have developed a skill set which you would be hard pushed to compete with. It would be much more efficient for you to focus on what you are great at (and enjoy!) - anything from doing billable work for clients through to sales meetings - and leave a dedicated VA to take care of the administrative tasks that you perhaps don’t excel in doing.

It also makes a lot of financial sense! Remember, unlike an employee you pay regardless of the output they really generate, we’ll only ever bill you for time spent working on tasks (to the exact minute!). That means no money spent paying for someone to stand chatting at the office watercooler, having endless cigarette breaks or always running late.

Oh, and you also don’t need to worry about National Insurance payments, pensions, holiday cover, sickness payments, training, performance reviews, desk space, laptops, payroll… and the long list of other tasks and costs generated by hiring internally.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant is efficient, effective and enjoyable!

Though we don’t set specific hours or schedules, as we operate a service supporting small businesses, our VAs generally work standard UK office hours, Monday to Friday. They will always work to ensure you are supported.

If you need a VA available outside of standard office hours (i.e. evenings and weekends) please let us know and we’ll see if we can accommodate this.

All of our VAs are native English speakers, living and working here in the UK.

We all live and breathe virtual working (including our Head Office team), so they work from their own cosy home office or a thriving co-working space.

80% of our team live within an hour’s journey of central London (as many used to work there before they grew tired of the commute!).

Some of our competitors base all of their team in one central office, but we always wonder how we could truly understand the way our VAs and clients work together if we as a team all sit in one room. Instead, we all proactively embrace the same benefits of remote working that our clients know and love!

Our VAs must first apply to us and complete a very extensive application form, which includes uploading their glowing CV, submitting a professional LinkedIn profile and providing strong references.

Any VAs who particularly stand out from the crowd then pass through several other stages, including a round of assessments, a tough interview with our Recruitment Manager and a final meeting with our Co-Founder to ensure that they’ll fit in well with our entrepreneurial ethos and growth-focused culture here at Virtalent.

Fewer than 2% of those who apply get to work with our clients. We’re very picky indeed!

All of our Virtual Assistants must pass a tough selection process (less than 2% of applicants are successful) which checks their suitability using a number of in-depth checks and measures. Each VA truly is handpicked to join our team. We don’t take any shortcuts.

This includes assessing their ability to work remotely: they must have worked remotely before, must have a suitable working space, must have a fast broadband Internet connection and more.

We also carry out a background and identity check (through an independent partner, Onfido) and we secure at least 2 glowing references from previous employers or clients.

With an average 15 years’ relevant experience, they are also some of the most experienced Virtual Assistants available to hire in the UK. They have worked with clients just like you before.

In short, we put a lot of work into ensuring we hire professional Virtual Assistants you can trust and, if you ever have any concerns, your Client Success Manager is always there to assist you.

In short - it’s an emphatic yes! Our Virtual Assistants get what growing your small business entails. They know you’re spinning too many plates and get a genuine kick out of helping you succeed. Planning and organisation is a genuine passion of theirs.

Not only are our team flexible and accommodating, but they will always be sent a detailed set of notes from your consultation call - this brief outlines who you are and what you would need them to support you with. We already know them well, but they will always tell us if the help you need isn’t quite up their street.

That means the VA we match you with won’t need to “put up” with what seems like a long list of drudgery to you - they sincerely cannot wait to get started and help make a difference in your life!

Fortunately, because of the time we put into our unique matching process at Virtalent, it’s very rare for a client not to gel with their VA.

But humans are well, human. We might not always see eye to eye on how best to tackle your busy day or launch your latest marketing campaign.

But we want you to be happy.

So if you are ever feeling frustrated or fed up, at any point whatsoever, you simply get in touch with your dedicated Client Success Manager and let them know how you feel. They’ll work with you to resolve the situation.

Working with a VA with a different background, skill set or working style is always a possibility - you would never be forced to work with someone you don’t get excited about working with.

Don’t worry, we’re not running a virtual sweatshop here.

Your VA will work anything from 40 to 160 hours per month with Virtalent, depending on their schedule and existing commitments. That means one VA may fill their entire month with one larger client, but another VA may work with a mix of smaller clients. So unfortunately, there’s no straight answer on this one.

The important point is that there is no software involved - unlike many of our competitors, our manual matching process ensures there are checks and balances in place because each new account is reviewed by a real human at Virtalent (and not an algorithm).

Our “people before profits” approach means we’ll know if Jane is away on holiday this week, or Lucy’s busy legal client is looking for more support from her next month and therefore needs to leave some room in her schedule.

We’ll never recommend one of our Virtual Assistants to you without first ensuring they have plenty of availability to support you and have the flexible schedule you’re looking for.

When you create an account, you’ll simply pick a Support Plan (10, 20, 40 or 60 hours per month) which you feel is most suitable. The date you sign up to our service is known as your monthly “billing date” and you’ll continue with your plan unless you tell us otherwise.

To make sure our support continually adapts to your changing schedule, any unused hours will roll over to your next billing period. If you need a little support one month, we’ll simply bill you for the extra time logged to your account at the end of the billing period.

Plus, you’ll always find a real-time overview of the hours you still have available to use in our handy Task Portal.

95% of our clients prefer to pay us by direct debit. It's the safest, most convenient way to pay in the UK and means you don’t need to lift a finger, as payment is taken automatically on your billing date, meaning one less task on your to-do list.

This is handled by an independent third party - GoCardless. We’ll never see your bank details and you’ll always be notified by us and GoCardless before any payments are processed each month.

If direct debit doesn't work for you, you can pay by credit/debit card.These details will be stored securely with Stripe, a reputable third party payment provider. Virtalent will never see your details.

Just let us know how you’d like to pay when creating your account.

Direct Debit is the safest, most convenient way to pay in the UK.

All Direct Debit payments at Virtalent are handled by third party, GoCardless. When we need to process payment for one of your invoices on your monthly billing date, we pass on a payment processing request to GoCardless who then process the payment on our behalf.

That means you are always in complete control of your paperless Direct Debit mandate. You can login to your GoCardless account at any time or cancel it directly with your bank, should you need to do so.

You’ll also be notified 3 working days in advance of your account being debited of any payment.

Plus, you’ll legally be protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee. You can read more about this here. This means that if an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit you are entitled to an immediate full refund of the amount paid from your bank account.

Yes. Our service is designed for small businesses. We know that without a crystal ball to hand, it’s impossible to forecast exactly how much support you’ll need from your VA every single month.

That means that your Virtalent Virtual Assistant will simply continue working for you throughout the month and if they exceed the prepaid hours you have on account with us, we’ll bill you for the extra time on your next billing date.

It’s really that simple.

In the EU? If you hold a valid EU VAT number, we can use the reverse charge scheme to deduct UK VAT from your invoices. Just let us know your VAT number when you create your account.

Not in the EU? If your company is based outside of the EU, we do not need to charge you VAT. Please discuss this with the team during your consultation call.

Virtalent is a prepaid service.

We’ll process payments for any invoices due automatically - with your prior consent - on your regular monthly billing date. This is either handled by Direct Debit (via GoCardless) or by charging the card you have already placed on file securely with Stripe.

Likewise, if you use any extra time above the prepaid allowance in your Support Plan, we will bill you at the end of that period for this additional time (at the equivalent hourly rate for your plan). Payments for these invoices are also processed automatically.

If you’re an Enterprise client and have a corporate finance department to contend with, we’ll discuss bespoke payment terms with you directly.

No, like any good holiday on the Costa Del Sol, our plans really are all-inclusive. There are absolutely no hidden fees.

Your Support Plan includes the use of your Virtual Assistant, as well as a dedicated Client Success Manager, access to our Task Portal and all the other tools and software that you might expect your Virtual Assistant to use as standard.

The only extras you might need to budget for are if your VA will incur expenses as a result of the work you need them to do. Postage costs, travel expenses or high volumes of phone calls would be examples of any costs you would need to reimburse us for (at cost).

No, our Support Plans are set up to include the hours available for use by any of our team working on your account. If you have more than one Virtual Assistant (e.g. a Marketing VA and a PA), they each debit the time they use from that single total balance.

You don’t need to take out a second plan if you need to work with two or more VAs.

No. If you don’t want to stay, we’re not going to make you. We’d prefer to impress you with an outstanding service you can’t live without - not try to pull the wool over your eyes or lock you into a seemingly endless contract.

But if your needs change, just let us know.

Please just note that a minimum of 7 days notice (before your next billing date) is needed, should you want to switch plans or even part ways completely.

We know what it’s like to run a growing business. Things change.

If you need to swap plans, just let your Client Success Manager know at least 7 days before your next billing date and they’ll switch you over. That’s it!

We get it. Part of the fun - and the same reason why you may be crying into your porridge this morning - is that you don’t know what is around the next corner when you’re scaling up your small business.

You can cancel your account with Virtalent at any time. We also won’t make you call our “Customer Liaison Manager” to pressure you into staying either (no half price Sky packages here unfortunately).

Simply drop an email to your Client Success Manager at least 7 days before your next billing date and they’ll make sure you don’t lay your eyes on another invoice. That’s it!

Yes, all Virtalent VAs individually hold Professional Indemnity insurance, however you would hold a legal contract with Virtalent and not with any individual VA that works on your account.

We hold comprehensive Professional Indemnity insurance with Hiscox which covers all work on your account, with a claim limit of £20k for any one task, as well as extensive Cyber Security insurance. Please do ask us for more details about this if you need more information.

You can read our Terms and Conditions of Sale here.

We recommend you discuss anything that you are unsure about with our team by getting in touch, because legalese can be tricky to digest.

You can read our Privacy Policy here. Please ask us to clarify anything that you are not sure about. We are 100% fully GDPR compliant and take your privacy seriously.

If you have a question or feel your rights have been affected, please contact us.

You can read more about the tasks Virtalent can support you with here.

Our VAs generally fall into 3 “categories”.

1. Some of our VAs come from a PA or Executive Assistant background. They will have supported senior business leaders (CEOs, VPs etc) or have worked with the Director of a small business before.
   
   As such, they can comfortably handle a variety of administrative support tasks, however complex!
   Executive PA support at Virtalent >
2. Others come from a marketing background and work as Virtual Marketing Assistants at Virtalent. They will have usually worked in senior Marketing roles (e.g. Marketing Manager) or as an independent Marketing Consultant before. Marketing VAs support clients with a range of (usually digital) marketing tasks and projects.
   
   They could help you by managing your social media, email marketing, content writing, relationship building and much more.
   Marketing support at Virtalent >
3. Others then fit into the “all-rounder” category. They have solid experience in both EA and marketing roles, and may also have additional skills in customer service (replying to customer enquiries, taking payments, etc.), financial admin, website maintenance and more.
   
   These VAs are usually from a small business background so are used to completing a wide range of tasks.
   Other support at Virtalent >

Not very much! As you work with a VA on a 1:1 basis, the one main responsibility we can’t take on for you is answering live chat messages or call answering throughout the day, though we can recommend some great providers that many of our clients use in tandem with their Virtalent VA.

Everything we do is task or project focused, as opposed to operating a contact centre or pooling our availability, where tasks or calls are split between whoever is available at that second.

We also can’t help with tasks that would need a license or professional accreditation to carry out or are highly specialised:

• We generally can’t help with highly complex marketing campaigns involving SEO/SEM, PPC or affiliate marketing campaigns. Your Marketing VA may be able to implement aspects of these projects, but we are not a digital marketing agency or consultancy.
• We can certainly help with financial admin tasks (sending out invoices, managing bill payments, etc.) but it is important to point out that we don’t offer bookkeeping, payroll or accountancy services. We can’t act as your agent with HMRC or submit a VAT return, for example.

We also generally don’t help with:

• Sending bulk cold email campaigns (i.e. to a list that hasn’t explicitly agreed to hear from you) - we don’t do spam.
• Cold calling campaigns. Our team don’t come from this type of sales-driven environment - we prefer digital or online campaigns.
• Anything both very small and short-term in nature. We aren’t a temp agency and we don’t help with small one-off projects or tasks. We support our clients on a long-term, ongoing basis, building trusting and long-lived business relationships.
• Anything that would reasonably make a member of our team feel uncomfortable (or break the law). We reserve the right to reject any task assigned to us.

Still not sure? The best way to see if we can support you is to speak to us!

Yes, we do have bilingual VAs available and they support a number of international clients.

However, Virtalent have no resources to quality check or verify any VA’s language skills, as we only offer VA support in English as a “standard” part of our service.

In practice, that means you’ll need to check you’re happy with their level of fluency when you speak to them as part of our matching process. Remember, this is before you pay us a penny.

We generally recommend that your Virtalent VA “logs in” to work on your account 1 to 3 times a day (depending on your Support Plan and quantity of emails to be answered). This is when they will be actioning any tasks, responding to any emails you have received which they need to respond to, as well as returning any calls (if you have a call answering service in place) at that point.

This works very well and is fast enough in the vast majority of cases.

You’ll work with one Virtual Assistant on a 1:1 basis. We don’t operate a contact centre environment where we pool our team, picking up tasks or emails as they come in and assigning them to anyone available.

If you’re concerned about how quickly your emails or tasks will be dealt with, please discuss this with a senior member of our team on a consultation call.

Unfortunately not. As you work with a VA on a 1:1 basis, the one main task we can’t help with is all-day call answering, though we can recommend some great providers who our clients work with in tandem with their Virtalent VA!

Everything we do is centred around completing tasks and managing ongoing projects, as opposed to operating a contact centre environment where tasks or calls are split between whoever is available at that exact moment.

If you work with a Virtalent VA, we can recommend a number of companies to take care of your calls for you. Your VA can then return those calls and carry out any other related tasks you need support with (e.g. logging the call to your CRM or taking a payment).

This partnership works very well for our clients!

Our VAs have not generally worked in a sales-oriented environment before.

They are happy to make calls on your behalf, but we would not be the best partner for you if you are looking to hire someone to call hundreds of people per day, especially if they have not heard of your business before.

If you have a large database and a sales target in mind, you would be better hiring a telesales or telemarketing supplier.

Still not sure? The best way to find out if we can help is to chat to us.

Yes, if the subscribers have opted in. No, if they have not.

If you have a mailing list full of people that want to hear from you (or you need help building that list), we can certainly help you.

If you've bought a database of email addresses from somewhere shady on the internet and now want to send them all your latest sales brochure, unfortunately we’re not the provider for you.

Still not sure? The easiest way to find out if we can help is to talk with our team.

This is a tricky one. "SEO" is a term covering many different tasks and skills. We know - Virtalent is ranked at the top of Google for a number of competitive search terms.

If you're looking for a VA to devise and then implement an entire SEO strategy, we're not going to be able to help you. You should put your faith in an SEO agency.

If you have an existing strategy in place or have an SEO strategist to work on the “bigger picture”, we can likely help with content writing or with time-consuming, repetitive tasks you don't have time to do.

So, "get my site to no. 1 on Google"? No.

But, "write an engaging weekly blog post, manage my social media channels to drive social signals to my site and keep an eye on my current search rankings”? Most definitely!

Still not sure? Let’s discuss the projects you need support with in more detail on a call.

We're not qualified or licensed to offer bookkeeping or accountancy services.

We can certainly help you out with financial admin tasks such as paying invoices, filing your expenses in Receiptbank or sending your accountant the information they need to file your next VAT return.

It does not mean, however, that we can act as your authorised agent to HMRC or file any company administration on your behalf - anything usually completed by a Company Director, Company Secretary or your clever accountant.

Still not sure? Let’s get a call scheduled to discuss the specific finance tasks you need help with.

None of our Virtual Assistants are qualified web designers or developers however, because they have often worked in marketing roles in the past, simple changes to your website are usually fine.

So if you're looking for your VA to code a website from scratch or carry out highly technical work on your server, we're not likely to be the service for you.

If you just need someone to change a little text or replace a few images (or even to use a "drag and drop" page builder - think Wix or Squarespace), we can help you.

Still not sure? It might be easier to discuss this directly.