Frequently asked questions
About SmartPA
Our SmartPAs are highly skilled virtual assistants, covering a vast range of business support skills to manage your administrative and operational tasks.
Our unique service delivery model is built around our SmartPA way of working together in a deep pod structure. This means that you will have a primary point of contact, but your SmartPA will be supported by at least two other SmartPAs who are mapped to your account as a backup support.
This allows us to tap into our vast talent pool and deliver the most tailored service for your business. With your pod of SmartPAs, you’ll always be supported – with no downtime for holidays or sickness.
We offer a six-step process to ensure understanding your requirements and build your tailored support package.
We introduce you to speak with a member of our team to discuss how we can support you. It is great at this stage to gather an understanding of what tasks are taking up most of your time, but we can support you with recommendations. We will also discuss how you would like to work with us and your preferred communication methods.
- Understanding your needs: We take the time to understand the challenges, your objectives, and the way you work.
- Shaping your solution: We design and propose flexible, scalable solutions to help you achieve your objectives
- Blending with your business: Our SmartPAs get to know you and your organisation, integrating with your systems, software, processes and communication methods.
- Servicing your workplace: We’ll learn, trial, and adapt in collaboration with you to deliver the perfect solution.
- Building your success together: Monitoring success regularly, providing the opportunity to adapt your package, scaling up or down, and adding or removing services as required or business needs change.
Packages are tailored to your requirements matching your business needs.
SmartPA offers a variety of packages to suit your needs, starting from just 30 minutes of usage a day up to full time teams working on behalf of clients. Your package is built by us to meet your needs, based on your consultation.
We pride ourselves on our ability to be agile and flexible when presenting support solutions - we’re here to fit in with you or your organisation’s exact demands. Each package includes a set number of hours per month, but you can scale your package up or down throughout the year, depending on the level of support you require. You can also add and remove further skills as you need to match the projects or tasks your managing.
Systems and security
You will receive a weekly report showing you, to the minute, the tasks and activities your SmartPA has delivered in the past week.
This will identify patterns over time and allow you to adapt your support package to best suit your needs on an ongoing basis. Together we will regularly review your task utilisation to offer our support and guidance, and ensure that your package is working for you.
Confidentiality is at the heart of everything we do. All our services are governed by strict compliance with the relevant security policies.
The majority of our services are delivered on our clients’ systems and therefore we will be compliant with your operating policies by default. Where additional confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements are required, SmartPA will always be happy to comply with customer specific needs.
No, you don’t need to supply equipment.
All our SmartPAs are set up with the equipment and software they need to support you virtually. Occasionally there are situations where specific equipment may be required and, in these cases, we can take delivery of client equipment for the purposes of providing these services.
Our business support professionals are experienced in the most popular standard software packages.
Our SmartPAs are trained and experienced in using the main industry standard software packages whether that be the Microsoft Office Suite, CRM systems, Bookkeeping packages, or HR platforms.
We are also used to integrating with bespoke internal systems and you can be assured that we learn quickly!
Contact with your virtual assistant
Yes, you will have one point of contact.
Our SmartPAs work together in Pods, based on the mix of skills and experience you require.
You will have a primary point of contact, but your SmartPA will be supported by at least 2 other SmartPAs. This is how we ensure you receive the best possible service, utilising our pool of talent to its full potential and are covered for holidays or sickness.
Our SmartPAs support you remotely.
We’ve been pioneering virtual working since 2008. However, we can provide on-site help, when required.
We manage hours proactively to make sure that these are being used.
Our clients often experience busy and quiet periods throughout the year.
While we do not transfer unused hours, SmartPA will be proactive in communicating and suggesting other tasks and activities to use any spare hours.
You have a primary point of contact, but your SmartPA will be supported by at least 2 other SmartPAs.
Our unique service delivery model is built around our SmartPA way of working together in virtual Pods, based on the mix of skills and experience you require. You will have a primary point of contact, but your SmartPA will be supported by at least two other SmartPAs. Using this method means that you will have access to a broad range of business support skills, and you’ll always be supported, with no downtime for holidays and sickness.
On the rare occasions where it is essential for a client to have a dedicated one-to-one relationship with their SmartPA we can offer this at a cost uplift. In these circumstances we offer a bespoke introductory session between you and your SmartPA so they can fully understand your requirements and how you work productively together. If required, we can provide biographies of specific SmartPAs to help better select the right person for your business.
Yes - your SmartPA’s time is your own, to use as suits you best.
You can utilise a SmartPA to support your personal life, such as organising travel arrangements or looking after your household finances.
When your primary point of contact is out of the office, your primary contact will be another SmartPA within your pod.
Our unique service delivery model is built around our SmartPAs working together in virtual Pods, based on the mix of skills and experience you require. You will have a primary point of contact, but your SmartPA will be supported by at least 2 other SmartPAs. Using this method means that you will have access to a broad range of business support skills, and you’ll always be supported, with no downtime for holidays and sickness.
When your primary point of contact is out of the office, your primary contact will be another SmartPA within your pod. We will update you with your main point of contact for the period that your primary SmartPA is out of the office.
Your SmartPA will be selected based on the skills and experience required, as well as best fit for the values and culture of your business.
We have a huge talent pool of SmartPAs, all trained and accredited internally to ensure our clients receive an excellent standard of support.
Following the initial onboarding call, your SmartPA will be selected depending on the skills and experience your business requires. We also work to learn more about you and your business so that we can select a virtual assistant that best fits the values and culture of your business. It is crucial for us that your SmartPA integrates seamlessly.
We can tailor support hours to the needs of your business.
- Our Admin and Business support hours are 9:00am - 5:30pm, Monday to Friday as standard
- Our Call Handling Service is 7:30am - 9:00pm, Monday to Friday as standard
- Both our Admin, Business Support and Call Handling Service is available as a 24/7, 365 service if required
Give us a call and we can create your very own bespoke package.
In the way that works for you.
From phone and email to WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Slack and Zoom, we’ll integrate with your internal communication systems and software securely.