What Distinguishes Virtual Assistance from Secretarial Services

I was reviewing a few of the latest Virtual Assistant Industry Survey results recently. What was interesting is how many people still don't understand the difference between secretarial services and Virtual Assistance.

Secretarial services have existed long before the Internet arrived. There are many people under the mistaken idea that just because they operate "virtually," they are a "virtual" assistant.

The Internet is merely a tool that gives businesses yet another avenue for doing business and connecting and working with clients. So, it doesn't matter whether you have a brick and mortar office you rent, an office out of your home or a "virtual" office on the World Wide Web (e.g., your website)--they are all still businesses.

Being "virtual" is not the thing that defines the concept of Virtual Assistance. It's merely a characteristic that denotes how we work with clients.

Likewise, there are many businesses who categorize themselves under Virtual Assistance when, in fact, they are actually secretarial services.

In asking the members of my Virtual Assistant association what they thought the differences were, we got lots of overly complicated, abstract answers.

There is only one simple thing that differentiates Virtual Assistance from secretarial services.

It's not about the mindset of the Virtual Assistant or secretarial service business owner because you can find employee mindset in Virtual Assistants as well as secretarial service providers. You can also find proactiveness and caring about their work and wanting to go beyond a job well done in both. Both kinds of businesses focus on administrative services. Either can be highly skilled or poorly skilled.

It doesn't have anything to do with the person or business providing the service. The difference all hinges upon whether the relationship is project by project or if it is an intentionally ongoing, monthly relationship.

If someone is focused on selling line-item administrative services ala carte, they are providing secretarial services. It's like the relationship you have with, say, Kinkos. You go there for one-off types of services. You might be a repeat customer and come back periodically because they have done good work on past projects and you've become familiar with or come to like the people you work with there. But they aren't any more involved in your business than your mailman. It's not the same kind of relationship that is referred to in Virtual Assistance.

Virtual Assistance is about working in ongoing relationship with clients on a month-to-month basis, not occasional projects or tasks. On top of this, administrative work isn't an event; it's not something you do once and you never have to do again. Administration is ongoing throughout the life of every business.

So as a Virtual Assistant, the focus isn't on selling one-off, individual services. If that is what you are doing, that is not Virtual Assistance. As a Virtual Assistant, what you are selling is the relationship itself; the opportunity for a business owner to have an administrative right-hand which could include any number of administrative roles or service areas depending on the client and their needs (which you would determine and negotiate through your consultation process).

The relationship is the key that defines Virtual Assistance and makes it what it is.

Without the continuity and consistency of the relationship, you don't get to know the client, their business or their work to the degree that allows you to provide that right-hand value. Without the relationship, administrative work can only be done in fits and starts and bits and pieces. You can't begin to develop an idea of the big picture of the business because you aren't part of the business.

Without the big picture, there is no view for helping clients discover where improvements in systems and processes can be made. Without working together on an ongoing basis, the client never gets to actualize the kind of efficiencies and forward growth that occur only when there is a body of intimate knowledge and familiarity that is built and expanded upon on a continuous basis. It is an entirely unique dynamic that cannot be had without working together, continuously, in collaborative partnership.

If administrative work is performed on a start and stop, occasional basis (services ala carte), the impact it has on the business as a whole organism is very isolated. But if you are a Virtual Assistant, you are selling a package of ongoing support (a relationship) which uniquely offers clients the ability to achieve an entirely different, higher body of knowledge, forward growth and results that will not just get tasks done, but built upon the foundation of the business itself.

This is what defines the concept of Virtual Assistance and distinguishes it from secretarial services.