Virtual assistants are a phenomenon of outsourcing

The current trend in outsourcing a firm's certain functions or processes is often viewed as a means to retain its competitiveness, cut costs or maintain their profit margins. A call handling service provider, commonly known as a call center, refers to a fully-functional entity within a firm or organization that exists primarily to answer to inbound customer queries or initiate outbound phone calls. Call centers are mainly characterized by a having a high-tech, fast-paced, organized and efficient, 24/7 voice operations and data management facility, which provides different levels of inbound or outbound call handling requirements. These essential tasks and functions usually include customer support functions, operator or directory assistance, utility billing, credit and collection, lead generation, social research surveys, telemarketing, and many more.

For large firms and corporate organizations, the need for new telemarketing campaigns or extra customer service support and lead generation methods, may either require looking for additional funding to build a new facility. However, to cut on costs, these firms may also outsource these functions to an outbound call center. An outbound call center is a highly-fluid and fully-functioning entity where many outbound agents do one major task, which is to call prospective customers, promote the company's products or services, and do relevant political or public opinion surveys. Other vital functions such as lead generation, sales generation, product promotion, credit and account collection, fund raising, and research or survey campaigns for political or social purposes, can be efficiently handled by an outbound call center.

Virtual assistants are a phenomenon of outsourcing. Many people have hired virtual personal assistants, including writers, actresses, and motivational speakers, and they have enjoyed the benefits of having someone do tasks for them such as pay the bills, arrange schedules, even shop for gifts. There are also a number of tasks that you can ask your virtual personal assistant to do, including:

Data Entry - what sounds like a simple task will actually make a world of a difference when you outsource it. Data entry is one of those things that eat up a lot of our time without us even realizing it, but something that we have to do because these tasks are important. The task may sound mundane, but most virtual personal assistants know how essential these tasks are, and in fact they make a good job out of it. When you get a personal assistant, you wouldn't have to worry about your collection of business cards (they can input it in Outlook for easy reference).

General Administrative Tasks - these tasks can range from managing voicemail and email accounts, wake-up calls (so you don't miss that important meeting), paying bills, and even sending thank you notes. They can even tutor your children and help them with your homework.