Around the time of the job\u2019s creation, the standard virtual assistant responsibilities were pretty basic. Often, the tasks listed in the job description involve administrative duties; the virtual assistant will be, in some ways, the remote secretary. The assistant performs data entry, paperwork, and does the repetitive tasks that supervisors often do, saving the them time and energy. More and more businesses benefit from virtual assistants and the organizational skills they offer. In recent years, many fields of profession, from photographers, influencers, and even people in the agricultural industry have begun hiring virtual executive assistants<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The question then becomes: with the rise of the virtual assistant\u2019s popularity, are their responsibilities still the same? Have virtual assistant tasks we have initially considered grown to expand as well? We asked three individuals whose virtual assistant responsibilities have come as a surprise to others.<\/p>\n

The Virtual Assistant as Customer Service Support<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Joel is a virtual assistant based in Asia, working for a startup entrepreneur based in Australia. While his official designation is that of a \u201cdigital assistant<\/a>,\u201d he says his tasks are similar to that of customer service support. To be more specific, Joel works to answer customer queries in a \u201cchatbot\u201d format. Typically, chatbots are AI that automatically answers customer queries. It\u2019s an excellent way to cut down on customer service costs. However, as Joel\u2019s employer has come to find, some customer queries are too complex to handle, even for AI. That\u2019s where Joel steps in to answer.<\/p>\n

Adding chat support duties to virtual assistant responsibilities continues the benefit of cutting customer service expenses. It won\u2019t require a business to hire a full fleet of in-house customer support representatives. In addition, a virtual assistant would not even have to stay overly vigilant to that particular task during the day. The live chat assistant will only need to step in if the chatbot fails to respond to a customer’s query. There will usually be an \u201cI need to talk to someone\u201d option in which a customer service assistant with their more human understanding, steps in. This enables a company to better assist the customer.<\/p>\n

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