How To Hire A Virtual Research Assistant To Collect Data, Curate Content And Compile Reports

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Research is crucial to the success of any proposal, campaign or project, yet it can be such an overwhelming task for any one person to do by themselves.

For example, consider this situation…

You’re a small business owner who has created software capable of tracking water consumption in buildings. 

You’re in the process of approaching a major hotel chain with a proposal, and you need the necessary research to put together a pitch that lands you the deal. 

In order to guarantee that all goes well with your proposal, you need to conduct research to uncover all the different ways hotels use water. Then, you need to summarize that data to explain where water is being wasted and how much money it costs. 

The problem?

You need to gather all the data, but you don’t have the time to do all the research by yourself and then present it in a simple, easy to understand way.

The data isn’t difficult to get as you may only have to utilize a few online databases and research reports to collect that information. The problem lies in having the time to do the research, craft the proposal, schedule a meeting, and beyond. 

If you weren’t the one responsible for scouring through documents in order to find the necessary content, you could save so much time. This would allow you to focus on the things that you absolutely have to do. 

This is why you need to hire a virtual research assistant.

Hire A Virtual Research Assistant To Make Your Life Easier

Making the decision to hire a virtual assistant to do research allows you to tap into a professional that will help you rescue stress and conserve your time. Of course, the benefits don’t stop there. 

A virtual assistant that offers research services can go above and beyond just compiling data for proposals.

The right virtual research assistant can also help you post content to social media (and reply to comments), manage your emails, and respond to essential communications from prospective clients, schedule calendars, and more.

Why Every Leader Should Have A Virtual Research Assistant

Try as they might, no business owner can manage both their main projects and administrative work by themselves. There are only so many hours in the day.

You don’t want just any virtual assistant to do research for you. You need someone who knows how to find reliable sources of information like academic journals, industry publications, and trusted journalists.

Why? Attention to detail matters, and you can’t risk making mistakes when you’re relying on data to drive your business forward. 

More importantly, you need to hire a research assistant capable of understanding the context of what it is you’re researching. Whether you’re crafting a sales pitch, conducting research for your marketing plan, or learning how to optimize social media profiles, general virtual assistants are not going to cut it. 

The right virtual assistant will be able to offer more than just research services to your small business. With the support of a virtual assistant, you can delegate tasks like:

Preparing for meetings/presentations (sending out meeting links, preparing your calendar with meeting information so you are ready, etc.)

Completing data entry, updating CRM software, setting up tasks

Managing your inbox and replying to emails, handling HelpDesk tickets

Automating social media posts and replying to your followers

Sending invoices and chasing up late payments

Working seamlessly with the rest of your team to develop new processes and streamline workflows

But where are you supposed to find a virtual research assistant that can manage all these tasks and provide you with the level of quality and care your business deserves? 

If you’re in need of a high-quality virtual research assistant that offers research services and more, you can find everything you need right here at InboxDone. 

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Why Hire InboxDone Virtual Executive Assistants?

When you enlist the help of VAs from agencies overseas, you never know what you’re going to get.

The varying quality and skill level of these professionals can make for a negative experience that leaves you managing your research on your own. 

InboxDone from day one focused on hiring on a certain type of person to our team, with the following criteria:

Our assistants are specially hired for their careful attention to detail. They excel at written communication so they can communicate on your behalf. More importantly, they’re focused on fully integrating with your company and treating your goals as their own to help you grow and improve your processes over time.

English is their first language, and we don’t hire low-cost overseas labor. This is crucial regardless of whether they’re communicating with you, those in your inbox, or scouring resources for accurate research to apply to your business plans. So know that when accuracy is important to your research, we are the best choice.

All of our InboxDone virtual research assistants are trained to adapt to a wide variety of business needs. From inbox management to scheduling to social media communications, they’re here to help you succeed. They’re also capable of learning any software or skills you rely on, and can even help you set up systems that save you time and money!

Cary co-founded Infostack, an online business that curates high quality tools and resources. InboxDone helps the founders of Infostack with email outreach.

What Makes InboxDone Assistants Different

There are a number of factors that distinguish InboxDone virtual research assistants from the competition.

 

1. We Assign Two Assistants To Every Client

Rather than assigning you just one virtual research assistant, we always provide two people from our team for every one client.

Why? The number one reason is redundancy.

Things come up and assistants may find themselves temporarily away from their computers. When this happens, you can rely on your other assistant to cover your needs.

Additionally, if one of your assistants retires or moves on to a new career, your other assistant can step in to train the replacement from our team, so we don't have to go back to you to train them.

 

2. We "Clone You" With Our Handover Process

So many virtual assistant agencies expect you to handle all the training.

At InboxDone, our assistants come already trained and we have a dedicated handover process we complete with every client. We come prepared and ready to help you, rather than expecting you to figure out how to work with an assistant.

Our handover process ensures your virtual assistants are gradually exposed to your systems and processes. This way, they get a better feel for your voice, your tasks, and your systems. 

Over time, they can begin to take over some of your business tasks so you have more time to dedicate to larger projects and activities. We’ll schedule a meeting with you after you’ve become more familiar with your team to see how you feel, what questions you may have, and how we can proceed.

 

3. Our 10-Step Hiring Process Means 99% Of Applicants Are Rejected

We use an extensive hiring process to guarantee our team assigned to help you are top 1% talent. 

Our 10-step hiring process consists of:

01

Written application:

We don’t bother with resumes or CVs. Instead, our written application consists of questions regarding skillsets and a situational prompt to better gauge talent and future success for our clients.

02

Filtering process for applications:

Our Matching Manager reviews applications to sort through the most impressive responses and move those through to the next steps below. 

03

Video response:

Applicants upload a two-minute video responding to one of two video prompts so we can determine professionalism, friendliness, and problem-solving abilities.

04

Bio and background check:

Applicants write a short bio about themselves, and we conduct a background check.

05

Interview with the Hiring Manager:

Applicants who have passed through the steps above will meet with the Hiring Manager. Our Hiring Manager will ask logistical and hypothetical questions and look for the crucial traits that we need in all of our Inbox Managers.

06

Reference check:

We double-check references to ensure that the candidate has received glowing reviews from other individuals they’ve worked with in the past.

07

Entire application review:

Our Matching Manager reviews all the previous interview material to determine whether or not to move forward with the candidate.

08

Security and privacy training:

LastPass is one of the most essential tools in our arsenal. It allows us to protect our clients’ sensitive data. All successful applicants are trained in its use.

09

Training email assignment:

We employ five training emails to test for writing abilities, empathy, professionalism, and problem-solving. Those who pass these training assignments move onto the final stage.

10

Online training course:

The online training course is an intensive 10-12 hour course that guides applicants through our systems and guarantees that they can successfully do the work our clients enlist our help to do. After an interview and review with the Training Manager and Matching Manager, we either move on to more qualified candidates or match them with a client in one to two weeks.

How To Get Started

Book your discovery call so we can learn more about your business needs.

We match you with two virtual research assistants to tackle your research needs and other business activities.

They take over your research needs and help you run your business with ease!

See What Others Have To Say About InboxDone

Here are testimonials from InboxDone clients:

Lynda Artesani, Founder: Artesani Accounting

Lynda Artesani was intimately familiar with the struggle of trying to find the right assistant. Fortunately, with our support, she was able to take control of her time and get back to the things that mattered most in her business.

Lynda Artesani

“I’ve actually started to work on those projects that I just never had time for that are pretty important but I’ve always pushed aside.

I’ve been working on courses. I’m making courses to teach accountants how to work in the legal industry and I just never had the time to do it.”

Cary Richards, Founder: InfoStack.io

Cary’s business consists of a lot of cold outreach and research, but he was having trouble dealing with all of these elements on his own. It was only when he enlisted the help of InboxDone that he was able to free up time to focus on scaling his business. As he summarizes:

Cary-Richards

“Do you want to stay where you’re at or do you want to scale your business? Do you want to work on your business or in your business? In order to do that you need to hire people to get stuff done for you, to help you actually run the business.”

InboxDone Virtual Research Assistant FAQs

Q1. How much does it cost? How many hours do I get? Can I cancel anytime?

We offer various monthly subscription plans to support your business. Our Personal Plan costs $1,395/month and covers 35 hours per month while our top Maximum Plan costs $4,995/month for 160 hours per month. We start all of our clients on the Standard Plan of $1,995/month for 50 hours per month, and you can cancel anytime!

Q2. How do you protect the privacy of my data?

Our InboxDone virtual assistants use LastPass or your password manager of choice to protect your privacy and keep your passwords secure and hidden. All assistants also use Nord VPN to encrypt their access to your computer systems. We also can use tools like DocSend to make sure email attachments are only accessible by certain key people.

Q3. Where do you hire your assistants from?

The majority of our assistants come from the United States, but we also hire Australian assistants and some from Western Europe to cover multiple timezones. However, we always make sure that our virtual research assistants are English native speakers and have superior communication skills. We pay our team members well, we do not hire $5-$10 an hour overseas contractors.

Book Your Discovery Call Today!

Are you ready to get the support you need to conduct research and streamline your business operations? Book your discovery call today so we can discover how our versatile virtual research assistants can help you!

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