Question 1

Is my work kept confidential?

Accepted Answer

Given the nature of our business and the clients we support, confidentiality is paramount to Virtalent. From law firms to IP consultants - it is intrinsic to the work we do.

On a practical level, our legally-binding contract with you contains a number of strict confidentiality clauses that we must adhere to.

We also hold both a contract with all of our VAs, which mirrors these aspects of confidentiality, and also a separate Data Processing Agreement.

The Virtalent DPA contains further confidentiality clauses and also clearly establishes our team of VAs as “Data Processors” and Virtalent as the “Data Controller”. In practice, this means that any data or information to which you give us access, which is used or processed by any member of the Virtalent team, is legally safeguarded at all times. The support we provide your business (and your end customer base) is 100% GDPR compliant.

All legal agreements at Virtalent have been written entirely from scratch, by a reputable, specialist law firm, and are regularly reviewed. Given the complex nature of our business model it is a matter we have gone to great lengths to ensure we have addressed extensively.

For complete peace of mind, Virtalent also hold comprehensive Professional Indemnity cover which covers any work we complete for you, from the very minute you create an account with us.

Still not sure? We have an NDA template you can make use of. Just let us know if this would be useful to you!

Questions? Please let your Client Success Manager know on support@virtalent.com.

Question 2

What data security measures do you have in place?

Accepted Answer

Given the nature of our work, we take data security very seriously - we are also 100% GDPR compliant across all of our processes.

We are registered with the ICO and far exceed all industry best practices.
We maintain a strict Confidentiality Agreement with you, as part of our standard terms.
On a practical level, the vast majority of clients prefer to use their existing cloud-based collaboration tools with their Virtalent Virtual Assistant. You might like to give them an Office 365 or Google G Suite account, for example. Your VA will work under your instructions, so please specify how you would like them to save any documents they are working on for you.
If this is not possible or convenient for you, all VAs are given their own Virtalent email address and you both have access to a shared file storage area within the portal.
Oh and our portal? Not only is this protected by secure login access, but all data is transferred over a 256-bit encrypted SSL connection.

Data security is a complex topic. We have a number of measures in place, so please contact us for more information if this is important to you.

Question 3

What tasks can Virtalent NOT help me with?

Accepted Answer

There generally isn't very much we can't help you with - these areas would generally fall under the following 'categories'.

Being "On Call"

As you work with your Virtual Assistant on a 1:1 basis and they only log time spent working to support you, we feel it is unfair to ask any member of our team to be available 24/7, "on call". Our team prefer to log in and out of your account, completing any work required, as set tasks. Our support is not pooled, as you would find at a Virtual Receptionist service.

This means we will usually avoid asking any Virtalent VA to answer live chat messages on-demand or handle your incoming calls, throughout the day, although we can recommend some great providers that many other clients at Virtalent already use in tandem with their VA. These tasks would require your VA to be online every minute, all day, as it's simply impossible to know when these chats or calls could come in to your business.

Highly-Specialised Work

You should try not to view your Virtual Assistant as a 'replacement' to hiring a trained, qualified professional to carry out tasks that it's reasonable to feel would need a license or professional accreditation to be completed, or are simply very specialised in nature. For example:

We generally can’t help with highly complex marketing campaigns involving technical implementation of SEO/SEM, PPC or affiliate marketing campaigns. We are likely to be able to help implement certain aspects of these projects, under your guidance or that of a marketing agency, however, your Virtalent VA shouldn't be launching highly specialised, large budget campaigns from scratch.
We can certainly help with financial admin tasks (sending out invoices, making bill payments, etc.) but it is important to point out that we don’t offer bookkeeping, payroll or accountancy services. We can’t act as your agent with HMRC, reconcile bank transactions or prepare a VAT return, for example.
We cannot offer strategic business advice. Your VA is likely to make operational recommendations (their favourite CRM platform, for example), however should not be seen as a business coach or consultant - they are there to assist you in the day-to-day tasks involved in running your business, rather than lead it.

Spam

We also generally don’t help with:

'Bulk' cold-calling campaigns, where your VA is asked to call through a long list of cold leads. Our team don’t usually come from this type of sales-driven environment - we prefer digital or online campaigns. It is one thing to follow up with an existing sales lead, and another to call through 1000 people in a database purchased online.
Sending spam emails - it is one thing to send targeted messages on LinkedIn or email (to B2B recipients), but another to send 10,000 people your latest newsletter, without them having asked to receive it. We will say "no" to anything that breaks GDPR legislation.

Something That Doesn't "Feel Right"

Anything that would reasonably make us feel uncomfortable (or break the law). We reserve the right to reject any task assigned to us, as does your VA.

Still not sure? Do contact your Client Success Manager - they will be happy to help you with any queries.