Your smartphone VS a Virtual Assistant

There’s no denying that smartphones have had a positive impact on our lives, especially when it comes to managing our businesses. After all, they are absolutely everywhere nowadays and if this recent news article is anything to go by, they’re about to become a whole lot more affordable; opening them up to an entirely new market.

But whether you’re an Apple fan or prefer a piece of Android technology in your hand, does your smartphone really do everything that you need it to?

Those amongst you who see their smartphones as an extension of themselves will probably have nodded in response to my question, but I’m now going to outline five things that your smartphone can’t do, but us Virtual Assistants can:

Conduct Research

Whether it’s keeping abreast of industry trends; identifying consumer needs; or staying up-to-date with hot issues, your smartphone can’t do it. Of course, you can surf the web and conduct research yourself; making your smartphone a useful tool or enabler.

Furthermore, your smartphone can be configured to display latest industry news and trending articles based on your personal preferences, but it can’t go any deeper than that. For example, it can’t take it upon itself to contact your customers and see if there’s anything they need right now, or scour social media looking for fresh ideas. A Virtual Assistant can!

Totally Manage Your Calendar

You receive a meeting invite and you can accept or decline it right from your smartphone. In fact, you can even have your smartphone display your current schedule to see if you’re free at the nominated time.

However, your smartphone still needs one important element to do this effectively – you! If you’re in an important meeting and a meeting reschedule comes in from a client, you might not see it for an hour or more. Can you afford to keep your customers waiting? What sort of impression does that give?

Virtual Assistants make it their job to keep you on-track and effective calendar management is often one of our highest priorities.

Afford Total Reliability

Okay, so I appreciate that people get sick and sometimes have emergencies that are unavoidable but should this happen, there are usually back-up plans in place.

Short of carrying around two identical phones, what back-up plan can you implement should your smartphone give up the ghost? Another consideration is the constant need to charge modern smartphones. They get used so much throughout the day that they inevitably need a power boost by late afternoon, annoying I know!

Virtual Assistants, despite popular belief, require no batteries – except the odd cup of coffee or two to perk us up.

Generate Content

Voice recognition software is undoubtedly a useful addition to many of us but most of the time it just serves a dictation-esque purpose. After all, you still have to spend time dictating and, more strenuously, actually think up something creative to say.

Virtual Assistants are adept at putting words together for you. Whether it’s emails, blog posts, social media content or a simple thank you note, we can do it all.

Pretty Much Anything Else That’s Not Automated!

Smartphones are absolutely fantastic tools. There’s no denying that. And the level of automation that they boast is growing more and more. But automation still inevitably needs someone to set it up – someone like a Virtual Assistant perhaps?

Moreover, automation is great while it works but still needs regular checks to ensure that everything is functioning as it should. That being the case, why not just get a Virtual Assistant to carry out the tasks that the automation handles? It cuts out a potentially fallible aspect and ultimately improves efficiency after all.

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