The Reputation Risks of Hiring a Virtual Assistant
(And Why You Should Anyway)

As your business grows, it’s time to think about hiring a team. Inarguably, one of the best options for entrepreneurs is to hire a virtual assistant. They can do tasks like replying to customer service emails, editing blog posts, managing your database, writing copy, and more. Sounds perfect, right?

But there’s a risk to hiring a virtual assistant—a dark side. One evil virtual assistant can, in some cases, completely ruin your online reputation in irreparable ways.

So, with that in mind…allow me to argue for hiring a virtual assistant anyway! You can manage the risk and even improve your reputation online with some thoughtfulness.

Reputation Risk #1: Your virtual assistant acts unprofessionally.

The biggest worry most people have about hiring a virtual assistant is that they’ll do something unprofessional, which will reflect poorly on the entire company. While you may hire the wrong person, this is a risk when you hire any employee, virtual or not. Most people are more worried about a virtual assistant because it can be difficult to hire someone you have never met in person.

When you hire an employee, they are representing your company. Someone who has a bad interaction with an employee doesn’t care if the person wasn’t following company policy—they care that they had a bad interaction. This is especially problematic for your reputation on social media sites, where unprofessional comments can go viral in milliseconds.

• How to overcome the problem:

Easy: don’t hire someone who might act unprofessionally! While this sounds hard, it’s not. Think about it this way: if you wouldn’t be comfortable letting a potential employee send out messages on Twitter or Facebook, you shouldn’t have that person working for your company. Today, everyone on your team is a social and customer service representative, not just the people you hire for those tasks.

In the case of a virtual assistant, work with a firm that cares about finding you the perfect fit, not a firm that sends you someone based on who they have available. If you’re hiring someone full-time, you should be able to interview candidates via Skype to get a feel for whether or not they’ll be a good fit for your company. Remember, just because someone can do specific tasks doesn’t mean they suit your company.

• If it happens anyway:

Sometimes, there is no warning that a virtual assistant will do something crazy. Have a plan in place for dealing with these instances. Respond to complaints as quickly as possible. Provide other employees with pre-written scripts so they can respond quickly to show that the company is listening until you’re available for an actual response. Do not make excuses; take action so the rogue employee can’t continue damaging your reputation.

Reputation Risk #2: Your virtual assistant provides low-quality work.

Virtual assistants have a bad reputation for turning in low-quality work. This isn’t always the case; in fact, it’s usually not the case. However, many entrepreneurs think it is better to work with someone in person to keep a closer eye on their work.

Eventually, you just have to let things out of your control. Part of being a good boss is knowing how to trust your employees instead of micromanaging them.

• How to overcome the problem:

You shouldn’t micromanage, but you should put your virtual assistant through a trial period where you are closely checking their work before it goes live. Every job has a learning curve, but if someone’s not getting it after a short trial period, move on to someone else. It’s not personal; it’s business.

• If it happens anyway:

People have bad days. If a virtual assistant turns in low-quality work, have a meeting via Skype to discuss the problem. Always talk it out rather than send an email since the tone can be unclear. Have a plan to correct mistakes as quickly as possible and apologize to customers if they are affected by errors.

Reputation Risk #3: Your virtual assistant disappears.

Lastly, because you communicate with virtual assistants online, they can quickly disappear. “Houdini assistants,” as I like to call them, commit to doing a certain amount of work but never meet deadlines.

If you pre-paid for the work, you’ll lose money if someone disappears. However, even if you haven’t paid yet, this could be a problem. Sometimes, you simply won’t have the time to redo the work, or others are waiting for the virtual assistant’s tasks to be completed before they can start their leg of the project. This might also mean that customers’ questions and complaints go unanswered.

• How to overcome the problem:

Set communication expectations in place and have regular check-ins. For example, you might ask your virtual assistant to respond to your emails within 3 hours during business hours and attend a weekly planning meeting every Monday. Also, make sure to define the hours your virtual assistant will be working since they might be in different time zones, and have a system for your virtual assistant to alert you of any upcoming vacation time. With larger projects, set milestones so you aren’t blind-sided with a tremendous amount of work that hasn’t been done.

• If it happens anyway:

Have clear consequences for virtual assistants who miss deadlines simply because they aren’t doing the work and don’t communicate with you when there is a problem. You don’t have to continue working with an unreliable virtual assistant.

My Conclusion: Hire Today!

I’m a strong advocate for hiring virtual assistants. In my experience, they aren’t any more or less problematic than employees who work in your office. Still, the advantage is that you have a pool of potential employees worldwide rather than limited to those in your neighborhood. Deciding not to hire a virtual assistant is not the best option for protecting your online reputation; you need to know what you’re getting into and prepare for potential problems.

Do you have virtual assistant success stories or horror stories? Leave a comment below!