If you run a mental health clinic, then you know just how overwhelming the business side of things can become. Maybe you’re just starting out on your journey to opening your own practice and your skills don’t exactly lie in paperwork and scheduling.
Or perhaps you don’t have the budget to hire in office staff 5 days a week. No matter which scenario rings a bell, you can benefit from hiring a virtual assistant.
But what is a virtual assistant? How is a virtual assistant different from a receptionist?
A reception may just answer your phone calls.
If you’re on the fence about hiring a virtual assistant for your mental health practice, it’s important to understand the scope of a virtual assistant so you can confidently decide if it’s the right choice for you and your business.
What Is a Virtual Assistant (VA)?
A career that emerged in the late 90s right when technology began to explode, a virtual assistant is an independent contractor working remotely to help bridge the gap between what your business needs, and what you can afford.
They can share documents and take business calls from the comfort of their own home. Virtual assistants come with different skills and specializations so you can find one that adequately meets your business demands.
Virtual assistants are real people that offer administrative services to companies that either don’t want or don’t have the means to hire office personnel.
What Does a Virtual Assistant Do?
Virtual assistants offer a variety of tasks for your mental health practice. Essentially, they take the business load off your back so you can focus more of your time and energy on the thing you’re truly passionate about, your business.
The role of a virtual assistant may vary from company to company, and some businesses may hire a virtual assistant to perform many different roles within a practice.
Administrative Tasks:
Here are a few ways a virtual assistant can help with administrative work within your mental health practice:
- Manage and organize daily tasks
- Schedule appointments for clients
- Answer phone calls
- Consulting
- Manage voicemail and emails
- Offer customer service
- Provide chat support
- Invoice management
- Bookkeeping tasks
- Quality assurance
Technical Work:
In addition, you can hire a virtual assistant to help you with the technological side of things, such as:
- Setting up and creating your website
- Website design
- Establishing your Google page
- Set up system processes
- Set up scheduling app
- Take care of website maintenance
- Transcribe audio files into text
- Set up or write a weekly / monthly email newsletter
- Create email auto-responses
- Send out text or call reminders for appointments
Creative Projects:
Not only can virtual assistance help you with business and technical work, but they can also help you with creating and establishing a personable presence both in-person and online. These can include projects such as:
- Creating content for your website
- Creating articles for your website blog
- Research content
- Graphic design work
- Marketing and advertisements
- Set up direct mail marketing
- Manage social media tasks (posting, content schedule, replying to messages, commenting…)
You can even hire a virtual assistant to help manage your life outside of work. This can include tasks such as purchasing birthday gifts for friends and family or managing your personal calendar.
What Kind of Virtual Assistant (VA) Should I Hire?
There are a few types of virtual assistants out there. As I stated previously, some virtual assistants are only specialized in one area, while others may market themselves as a “catch-all” for various tasks.
- Bookkeeper: Bookkeeping virtual assistants provide a more business-heavy support system. They’re often skilled in accounting and great with numbers. They can keep track of budgets for various projects, and employee salaries, and are knowledgeable in preparing invoices and general ledgers. These virtual assistants can handle the financial aspect of your business from importing data, managing bank, and credit card statements, and organizing financial transactions.
- Administrative Assistant: An administrative virtual assistant will likely have experience in an office setting, performing tasks such as scheduling appointments, basic tasks, data entry, scheduling meetings, routine reporting, and communication between your business and the outside world. Anything that relates to office work that can be done remotely is in their scope of practice.
- Scribe: Rather than joining in with you in your sessions on-site, a virtual scribe will listen in and transcribe audio into text notes. Scribes handle the clerical side of patient appointments using HIPAA-compliant software. This type of virtual assistant can help chart the patient’s visit and record any relevant information that pertains to their appointment.
- Social Media Manager: With social media becoming one of the fastest and most efficient ways to grow your business, making sure your online presence is up to date, responsive, and engaging is key. When you’re off running a business, your social media can fall on the back burner. This is where social media virtual assistants come in. They take over your accounts, so you don’t have to worry about them. They will post content, respond to comments and messages, share relevant information, and stay active in order to gain new followers.
- Designer: A virtual assistant with a specialization in graphic design can perform any design needs, at a fraction of what it would cost to hire a graphic designer. Your graphic designer will cultivate your practice’s identity through engaging, eye-catching marketing. They will create appealing visuals to help with your website, your interior design, your social media visuals, and more.
- Research Analyst: A research virtual assistant provides research duties on the growth of your business, and the mental health industry, and provides projections on where your practice is headed. These kinds of virtual assistants will compile all relevant information into one easy place so you can see a bird’s eye view of your practice without having to do any of the work.
How Do I Interview a Potential Virtual Assistant (VA) ?
To prevent being scammed, or simply hiring the wrong fit, you’ll want to know what to look for and what questions to ask. Both Skype, Zoom and Google Hangouts are adequate video services to use when conducting an interview. Never hire someone who refuses to turn their visuals on, this is a red flag straight away.
When you’re able to see someone on video you’ll be able to gauge their body language, facial expressions, personality, and internet connection. These are all vital to ensure you will work well together.
Your virtual assistant is essentially your second pair of hands, so you’ll want to make sure they’re both qualified and give off good energy.
Here are a few questions to ask in an interview:
- What is your experience being a virtual assistant?
- How long have you been a virtual assistant?
- What services are you specialized in?
- What services are you not willing to provide?
- Are there any areas you’d be willing to learn and provide for my practice?
- What is your typical daily process like?
- Do you work alone or are you part of a team?
- Will you be my main point of contact?
- What hours are you available?
- How many hours a week are you able to work?
- Do you work for any other clients now?
- Are you working as a virtual assistant part time or full time?
- Do you have any references I can contact?
- How much do you charge?
- Would you prefer to be paid by the hour, or by project?
- What is your email turnaround time?
You can ask all or only a few of these questions. Read through this list to pick and choose which questions are the most important to you.
Should I Hire a Virtual Assistant for My Mental Health Practice?
When it comes to mental health, taking adequate time with your patients is crucial. Many of your clients may be on the brink of a mental breakdown or need you at various times of the day. You are their lifeline in their journey of emotional healing. To be there for your clients in the way you should, it’s likely you’ll need help managing the side of business you may not have fully thought about before.
No matter how you spin it, every private practice has clerical tasks that need to be done. If done late, incorrectly, or simply not at all – you can suffer fines, or even be shut down. To follow the IRS and your local and state government laws for running a mental health practice safely and effectively, you’ll want to have all your administrative work in order.
So, why not pass off that work to someone who is not only specialized and knowledgeable – but who has the time, energy, and skills to perform those duties?
When you hire a virtual assistant, you free up the stress and worry of scheduling intakes and follow up appointments, phone calls, email responses, client billing, completed paperwork, social media management, marketing, graphic design, and more. In turn, you’ll be able to focus on your passion: helping and healing others.