How to Hire the Best Virtual Assistant Service for Your Business

What if you could have more hours in your day? No, we’re not talking about science-defying time travel — this is the superpower granted to you by hiring a virtual assistant service.  

You hand off your most repetitive, rote tasks to a skilled professional, freeing up more time for yourself to focus on what matters most: strategizing, innovating, and leading your business to new heights. 

But just like picking any powerful tool, choosing the best virtual assistant (VA) service for your business requires careful consideration. Not every VA service offers the best fit for your unique needs.

Virtual assistant services are even more popular now as the world has become far more comfortable with remote work and offsite employees—so much so that the B2B review site Clutch lists more than 1000 virtual assistant services. 

Even the top VAs across companies have different skills, training, packages, and working structures.

With so many options, how do you choose the right service for you? Like many “what’s right for me” questions, the answer is, “it depends.” Service providers have developed specialties, primarily around the kind of work they take off your plate and the levels of support and expertise they provide. 

This guide will walk you through the critical factors to consider when selecting the best virtual assistance service for your business. 

Table of Contents

1. What is a Virtual Assistant? 
2. How to choose the best virtual assistant service 
3. The Prialto Difference 

What is a Virtual Assistant? 

A virtual assistant is a professional who provides administrative support to businesses remotely. VAs can handle various tasks, including scheduling, email management, data entry, customer service, and more. They allow companies to focus on core activities while delegating routine tasks to others. 

If you find yourself drowning in emails, struggling to manage your calendar, losing time in your CRM, or spending half your day (every day) in spreadsheets, it may be time for you to hire a virtual assistant. 

How to choose the best virtual assistant service 

Hiring a virtual assistant service is just like hiring any other team member for your business — building trust is a big part of the journey. You have to find the right partner who understands your business goals and can seamlessly integrate into your existing system and workflows.  

Consider the following when choosing the right fit for your business:

Capabilities: What your virtual assistant can manage 

Like any service, even the best virtual assistant companies come in a range of quality and capability levels. It’s up to you to decide if you need an extremely specialized skillset, or a virtual assistant with broad project and administrative management skills.  

Some VAs are individual contractors who you’ll have to manage and direct. Other services include quality assurance and management as part of the package, so you only have to provide directions and access. In the latter case, the company will typically provide training, management, and backup support.  

Here are some examples of capabilities the best virtual assistant services offer: 

• Administrative Support: Basic tasks such as scheduling appointments, managing emails, preparing documents, and handling phone calls. These tasks are a VAs bread and butter. 

• Customer Service: The best virtual assistant services can integrate seamlessly into your team, sounding like they’re sitting in your office as they respond to and route customer inquiries and communications. 

• Social Media Management: Is social media an important channel for your company? Look for a marketing VA who can manage templates, schedule posts, follow-up on communications, create reports, and organize your content calendar. 

• Data Entry and Management: One of the main tasks that VA services should offer is data entry and management, which includes updating databases and inputting information into your tools, like spreadsheets and CRMs. 

• Project Management: For more complex needs, look for VAs who can assist with project management, including task tracking, deadline management, and team coordination. 

• Financial Administration: Some VA services offer support in handling invoices, managing expenses, and assisting with budgeting and financial reporting. 

• Sales Admin: Virtual assistants can also be effective for sales admin tasks like routing leads, sending emails, managing your CMS, follow-up, and more! 
  

If you aren’t sure if what you’re looking for is possible, a good VA service will help you identify your needs, how they can be handled, and if that service can handle them! 

Hiring & HR: Finding and managing the right employees 

Prioritize virtual assistant services that employ in-house staff rather than merely matching companies with independent contractors.  

A managed virtual assistant service saves leaders the time, effort, and cost associated with finding and hiring full-time employees, without sacrificing the working relationship and familiarity of working with long-term partners.  

Here’s how: 

• Talent Acquisition: A managed VA service takes on the responsibility of finding and vetting qualified candidates, making sure they possess the necessary skills and experience. This eliminates your burden of recruiting and interviewing potential hires. 

• Supervision: Managed services provide continuous oversight and quality assurance. They monitor the performance of their VAs and promptly address any issues that arise, ensuring consistent quality, accountability, and reliability, taking performance management off your plate. 

• HR Support: Managed VA services handle all HR administration, such as payroll, benefits, and compliance with local labor laws. This includes managing payments, taxes, and any country-specific requirements, like the 13th-month pay law in the Philippines.  
  

Your three broad choices are (1) hiring someone off a contractor site online, (2) hiring someone through a service that matches you with contractors, or (3) hiring a VA service with internal staff. Options 1 and 2 mean you must do all the management, hiring and firing, and training yourself. Only option 3 gives you the benefits of a VA without the extra workload.

Training: How much you need to train 

Every business has unique processes, so some level of training will always be required. However, the best VA services employ staff who are already experts in basic administrative tasks and the most common software solutions. 

When evaluating VA services, understand how the company handles training and what competencies their VAs possess. This will help you gauge how much additional training your business will need to provide, if any. 

Look specifically for: 

• Experience with common CRMs like Salesforce and Hubspot 

• Communication channels like Zoom and Slack 

• Database management skills 

• Experience with top email and calendar tools like Outlook and Google inbox 

• Etc. 

The best virtual assistant companies offer a universal baseline of skills, and then level-up based on your unique workflows and tools.

Turnover: Whether you need to start over if a VA leaves 

You can certainly work with a freelance virtual assistant, but when hiring independent contractors, you risk turnover, which can disrupt your operations. Top-tier VA services are structured in such a way to minimize impact — for example, having backup VAs and team leads who can step in seamlessly if your primary VA leaves. 

Integration: Whether your VA can work in your workflows and systems 

VAs can integrate into your systems in various ways. Some work within their own ecosystems, while others integrate directly into your team’s workflows.  

The best VA service for your business will depend on your specific needs. Look for a service that offers flexibility and can adapt to your preferred systems and processes. If the company has familiarity with the tools that you use, that’s a definite plus. 

Security: Ensuring data safety 

Data security is a critical concern for any business, and it's essential to choose a virtual assistant service that prioritizes the safety and confidentiality of your information. Here are a few specific things to consider when looking for the best VA service to trust with your data: 

• Reputation and Trust: Select a service trusted by other reputable companies. Look for client testimonials and case studies that highlight their commitment to security. 

• Transparency: Choose a service that is open about their security efforts. They should be willing to discuss their security protocols and measures in detail. 

• Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs): Ensure the service includes comprehensive NDAs as part of their standard processes. This legal agreement protects your confidential information and prevents unauthorized sharing. 

• Compliance with Regulations: Make sure the service complies with relevant data protection regulations like GDPR, CCPA, or HIPAA, depending on your business needs. 

Pricing: Costs and transparency 

Of course, every company cares about the bottom line. But it’s not just about finding the lowest cost — it’s about getting the best value for your investment. 

 Here are some pricing considerations to keep on your radar: 

• Productivity-Based Pricing: The best VA services are priced based on actual productivity rather than broad "working hours." This means you pay for your virtual assistant's actual working time.  

• Price Transparency: Look for services that offer straightforward and transparent pricing structures. There should be no hidden fees or surprise charges. A detailed pricing plan and clear invoice system with a full breakdown of costs helps you understand exactly what you’re paying for and allows for better budget management. 

• Avoids Overages: Overages occur when the VA exceeds the allocated time for tasks, leading to unexpected costs. If possible, avoid services with overage costs. A good VA service will work efficiently within the agreed-upon work scope or inform you well in advance if more time is needed. 
  
  

The best virtual assistant companies are not only within your budget, but also offer excellent value. 

The Prialto Difference 

Prialto’s virtual assistant service is designed to ensure continuity, productivity, and quality. 

Instead of only a single virtual assistant, we offer a completely managed service with an Engagement Manager, trained VA, internal training, enterprise security, and backup support. We vet, train, and manage our VAs so you don’t have to.  

• Capabilities: All Prialto VAs have a college degree or comparable level of customer-facing experience. We provide ongoing internal training to keep our VAs proactive, excited, and efficient. 

• Hiring & HR: When you get a virtual assistant from a contract hiring site like Fiverr, you’re likely paying them an hourly rate. At Prialto all our employees work directly for us. They receive good pay, benefits, access to technology, and all the little things it takes to make employees happy! 

• Training: All Prialto VAs are familiar with top software products like Zoom, Salesforce, Excel, etc. But we also provide them with continuous and ongoing training so our skills never get stagnant. Have a unique tool we need to use? We’ll learn it and teach it to the rest of our team! 

• Turnover: Sometimes employees leave. When you’re working with a contractor it can be an expensive loss. At Prialto, we’ve designed processes that minimize stress and lost productivity! The managed model ensures that backup support can step up until a new VA is found. Our internal team will train them so they’re ready to jump right in! 

• Integration: Our virtual assistants will embed right into your systems with white labeled emails and logins to your tools. You’ll forget (and your customers will never know) that they aren’t full-time staff.  

• Security: Prialto offers enterprise-level security and confidentiality.  

• Pricing: We believe in transparent pricing. VA hours are sold in a “Prialto Unit” which is 55 hours of support a month! Fully transparent pricing with no hidden fees or overages. Get the details >> 
  

Ready to experience the Prialto difference? Let’s talk and find out how our virtual assistant services can help your business thrive. 

Interested in how Prialto's managed virtual assistant service could help your business? Schedule a free intro call to see if we're the right fit for you.