1 Scheduling manually is inefficient
Most senior executives don’t stop to think about the time they spend on scheduling. However, when we analyze their processes, most new Quickskill members spend a great deal of time on meeting “ping-pong”, the back-and-forth email exchange to agree on a time and place to meet. Your Quickskill virtual assistant can help you offload this burden and provide a better experience for your clients and prospects.
2Offloading scheduling isn’t a big a step as you think
Quickskill guides many executives as they begin to work with their new assistant for the first time. While some executives are intimidated by the concept of giving up their calendar, there is nothing to be afraid of. Below are a few simple tips to get you on your way to successfully offloading scheduling:
- Provide context: Before beginning, it is important to help your assistant understand your business, preferences, and preferred style of communication. Spend the time upfront to discuss with your assistant and develop a regular dialog
- Start slow: You do not have to give up your entire calendar at once but can ease into things by copying your assistant only on those meetings you want them to set
- Surface key information: You can save your assistant a lot of time and improve the quality of your service by using the following techniques when you copy your assistant to schedule a meeting:
- Summarize important information (i.e. time, participants, location) at the top of emails so your intent is clear
- Change e-mail titles to let your PA and contact know who will be meeting
- Get out of the way: It is very important that you don’t also try to manage a meeting schedule that you have asked your assistant to schedule. We frequently see communication mishaps in these scenarios. Once you have asked your assistant to schedule a meeting, we teach them to work directly with your connection
- Review and provide feedback: If you use a CRM, your assistant will log all communication in the CRM. You should review communication and provide continual feedback to your assistant
- Develop a vernacular: To allow you and your PA to easily communicate without separate emails to explain your intent, we recommend establishing a code. For example, if you said “I would like to meet them soon”, this could mean in the next week or so. See our guide on Scheduling Vernacular for more details
- Leverage templates: You and your PA should maintain a set of standard templates to encourage consistency. We have placed our standard guides in the Quickskill Library
3One more thing
A CRM and a good CRM process can be amazing tools with which to collaborate with your assistant and track key interactions. Configure your CRM to work with your assistant and schedule with more power. See: The Secret to Growing Your Business: Power Scheduling or contact us at 866.910.8440 to learn more about Quickskill.
