American, Filipino, or Latin American VA: How to Choose the Right Talent for Your Business
If you need to hire a virtual assistant, one of the first questions you may have is:
Where do I recruit from? Should you get someone in the US, Filipino Virtual Assistant, or Latin American?”
This question has no right or wrong answer. The company you hire your virtual assistant from will determine the cost, working hours, cultural fit, ease of communication and language. But the answer that is most relevant to the question would be: “It will depend on what you or your company may need.”
If you are looking to hire a virtual assistant, it is very important that they meet your needs and requirements for the position
American VAs: A Strong Fit for U.S.-Focused Roles
But for businesses that rely on phone calls, sales and customer service, an American virtual assistant offers a critical advantage: knowledge of the U.S. market.
Say you have a cleaning company for instance. You’re in a customer’s home when a potential customer calls. You can’t get an answer and when you call back they’ve already called another company.
It can make a difference to have someone there to answer that call.
An American VA based in the US might already be familiar with American phrases, customer expectations and communication styles. This can be especially useful for
- Sales calls
- Customer service
- Appointment setting
- Lead follow-up
- Phone support
That’s not to say that American VAs are any better in these roles. It simply means that local knowledge can be helpful when a role involves a lot of customer interaction.
Filipino VAs: Flexible Support for Global Businesses
The Philippines is home to many professionals who work with international and U.S.-based businesses.
This is also what I see as one of the advantages of working in a global environment as a Filipino VA. When a FilipinoVA supports clients from other countries, it requires learning about those clients’ systems, culture of communication, processes, and their expected standards.
So basically you don’t just get the tasks done; you learn about business processes and how you can help the client ease the burden with your support.
The Filipino VA can be well-suited in supporting roles like:
- Administrative support
- Email management
- Customer service
- Scheduling
- Data entry
- Research
- Project coordination
- Back-office operations
Cost may also be a consideration. International staffing can also provide businesses access to skilled professionals at a different labour cost than hiring locally.
Less cost doesn’t mean less quality. Hourly rate does not define a VA. Skills, experience, reliability & value does.
Latin American VAs: Time-Zone and Language Advantages
One of the biggest benefits to hiring a Latin American virtual assistant for many U.S. businesses is the time zone overlap. Many professionals in Latin America work the same hours as the U.S. which makes communication and collaboration much easier in real time.
Especially handy for meetings, customer support, team communication and anything else where a quick response is needed:
- Sales
- Customer support
- Lead follow-up
- Appointment setting
- Dispatch
- Daily operations
This would also be a case when it would make sense to have a virtual assistant for you, speaking in Spanish and also in English if your clients master the language.
As it all seems to fall into one final question: Does your VA really have the experience required to carry out tasks as it should?
What About Cost?
Location can affect rates Cost also depends on your VA’s skills and experience.
The specialty they operate in their schedule How busy they’ll be for you Their assigned tasks If tempted to save money. Avoid finding a VA who has the cheapest hourly rates.
If that VA needs supervision, that’s potentially going to take more of your time! Perhaps it would be better to pay higher, but get more value in time.
The question then becomes, instead of “who is cheapest?
“who can be of the greatest value for this role”
Culture and Communication Matter
Although culture, communication may be important, not just within a client service setting. Some customers in the U.S. May wish to speak with someone whose delivery sounds familiar and is for that reason a rationale behind companies picking United States-based VA’s for telephone call.
What should not be evaluated by an accent.
An accent can definitely coexist with great communications capabilities. What really matters is whether that VA can hear, understand the customer and be clear in their own delivery, as well as maintaining your own business standards.
So, Which VA Is Right for You?
Country or the job. Hire the first one. If you need someone making sales calls to customers in the States, then someone who’s comfortable on the phone and knows your customer base is your most important qualification.
You may not need someone well versed in American culture, nor someone with 25+ years of U.S.
Corporate work experience under his or her belt. If you need admin and/or back office type of support, then organizational skills and an eye for detail are probably key, and the “U.S. Only” may be the real killer. Do your U.S.-based business partners need to have overlapping work hours to your offshore resource, or is asynchronous work sufficient?
Is it critical your employee or contract worker is able to serve and interact fluently in Spanish as well as English?
The top candidate will be determined by your unique business requirement.
Hire for the Role, Not the Location
You can find great virtual assistants in the United States, the Philippines, and even Latin America. The person for the position often relates to what you are actually looking for as far as the position, how the person fits the position, and the needs of your business. You’re not hiring a country.
You’re hiring an individual whom you will need to have part of your business you can trust.
Service businesses that need to answer the telephone, follow up on potential leads, communicate with current customers and schedule customers such as cleaning companies will have a greater benefit when they hire the appropriate VA to handle the day-to-day tasks and will be extremely beneficial. A VA can offer you what often becomes their greatest attribute:
You, yourself will get your time back!
Ready to Find the Right VA?
You don’t have to manage all the calls, email, leads, administrative tasks.
Hire someone to be in touch with the right candidate to your business and start focus on doing some expansion for your company.