We live in an era when salesmen and teachers are gradually being replaced by artificial intelligence, and secretaries and assistants are being replaced by “smart” planners and virtual assistants. In order to keep up, you need to follow the latest trends and try their opportunity! Let’s talk about the pros and cons of a virtual assistant.
What is VA? A virtual assistant is a program, application or service that has some part of human functionality. This is a fairly broad definition. In other words, the virtual assistant does the range of tasks that you delegate for you. Such assistants exist in different countries and cultures. Obviously, the approach to working with VA in India and VA in America will differ, but not much – user comfort first of all! What are the advantages?
Functions. Maintaining communication
Of course, communication is the main task of virtual assistants. The level of development of this function for digital assistants varies. In this regard, everything depends on your preferences and individual tasks. For example, a virtual assistant in a clinic, beauty salon or other organization from the service sector will make an appointment with a client, if necessary, reschedule the visit time, resulting in an increase in the “profitability” indicator. While banks, insurance companies, telecom operators and Internet service providers use virtual assistants to talk about new services and tariffs, remind customers of the need to repay debts and help make payments.
Scenarios
Of course, maintaining communication in the moment is good, but there is also such a great function as creating scripts for an assistant. In accordance with the specified scenarios, the VA can route calls, send SMS, record the results of calls in the form of reports, operate with data from the company’s information resources and record changes in them — provided that the robot is integrated with the appropriate systems. There are a lot of options for tasks!
Saving resources
The above advantages obviously lead us to the fact that the use of virtual assistants reduces the costs of organizations and offloads employees. Sometimes this can even lead to a reduction in staff. For example, with an automatic recording system, call centers are no longer needed.
Improved performance
A virtual assistant, unlike a human, can serve several lines at the same time, and works around the clock. The virtual assistant does not need days off, vacations and sick days. The only thing the owner of the company needs to do is invest in the purchase once.
What are the disadvantages?
Cost
Often, high-quality virtual assistants require good investments. However, it certainly pays off in the long run. It is irrational for a company to maintain an entire department when you can simply purchase a virtual assistant.
Complexity of explanation
Some employees will need a lot of time to learn how to work with it. Many people refuse to accept innovative methods of work or have a hard time coping with the learning process. Hence there are many issues that slow down the work, and sometimes it can become a whole problem.
It would hardly be possible to find many disadvantages of a virtual assistant, because the way it facilitates work and reduces losses is key for modern companies. Do you have your own business? Try it!
