Outsourcing Email Management

In my previous post I mentioned how my virtual assistant is doing a great job with the diversity of projects I’ve given her.  In fact here is what she wrote me:

“I am happy to work for you for the fact i really enjoy the work rather than the pay. When we had chatted once i have stated this clearly i hope…. But to be true, i long for your projects because they are so interesting (i am not flattering sir) and give me enjoyment and satisfaction…”

What a great email to receive… I gave her a 17% raise!

One frustration is I’ve given her all the projects I had been storing up just for a Virtual Assistant.  I’m running our of things for her to do.

It’s time to step things up!

One of the things that is a HUGE time suck is managing emails from my community forums.  I decided I needed to have her monitor all the support requests from 2 of my forums.  I have taught her how to reset passwords (80% of the emails) and to reply to a plethora of other request.   I also have her delete the auto responders, spam, etc. from the account.  She will also take care of the spam blocking emails from places like Excite that require a person to visit a link and verify the email came from a person.  If there are requests she can’t answer I have her move them into an escalated folder for my attention.

I’m hoping this will keep her busy and will free me up.

Oh, one important footnote / suggestion:  I’ve been compiling all my instructions I send to her in one Word document.  Heaven forbid that if I ever loose her I’ll hopefully be able to shorten the learning curve substantially for the next person.