Christmas time presents some amazing opportunities for your small business. Increased customer enquiries off the back of sales and promotions, exciting social media campaigns creating a buzz across your channels – it’s busy and brilliant all at the same time!
But if you’re flying solo or working as part of a small team, this ramped up workload can start to feel a bit overwhelming – especially when you’re desperately trying to enjoy the festive season on a personal level too.
If that’s the case for you, it may be an idea to invest in a Virtual Assistant to help support your small business while the festivities are in full swing. Here’s how a VA could support your small business during the festive season:
Admin Support
Nobody likes it when their admin starts to snowball, least of all when you’ve got a mountain of presents to wrap and Quality Street to consume.
Virtual Assistants can help take some of the admin pressure off during the festive season. Here’s how:
Customer Enquiries
If you’re running holiday promotions or sales, chances are, your customer enquiries will reach new heights in the months leading up to Christmas. That’s great on one hand. Your business will be booming, and you’ll feel like all your hard work is finally paying off. On the other hand, massive increases in enquiries can feel a bit overwhelming, especially at the busiest time of year both personally and professionally.
A Virtual Assistant can step in to help manage those enquiries and keep overwhelm to a minimum. For example, you may decide that tasking your VA with inbox management is the way to go. They’ll be able to flag emails that need your specific attention and deal with those that don’t. This will free up some precious time for you, and also help you prioritise customer interactions that will provide the most value for your business.
It’ll also mean that your customers receive efficient, responsive customer service, no matter how busy things get. A Christmas miracle itself, if you ask us!
Data Entry and Organisation
In the same way that holiday promotions and sales can ramp up the customer enquiries, it may also increase your need for keeping on top of data entry and behind the scenes organisations. As much as we wish they did, CRMs and other customer databases don’t look after themselves! Finding time to keep them up to date at this busy time of year, however, can be incredibly challenging. And, if you’re rushing to get it done, you run the risk of making costly mistakes.
A Virtual Assistant can help input accurate customer information and keep your databases organised, allowing you to use them effectively as personalised marketing tools.
Admin can feel stressful at the best of times – you can eliminate the impending Christmas admin doom with support from a Virtual Assistant.
Manage Workload
Your workload will increase over the festive period. There’s no two ways about it. You’ll be snowed under with enquiries, sales, marketing, promotions, sales – this list is never ending! While this can feel incredibly exciting, it may also be overwhelming if you’re a small business owner running things solo or with a small team.
Here’s how a Virtual Assistant can help you stay one step ahead of the festive rush:
Increased Workload
The beauty of Virtual Assistants is that we’re completely flexible. We come with a range of skills in our back pocket, ready to whip out at a moment’s notice to support you with increased workload. Whether it’s managing your inbox, organising paperwork, updating databases, sending out important documentation, scheduling your content – whatever it is, we’re on hand to help.
Our role within your business can be as large or as small as you need it to be. You may need extra support with workload for just a few hours on the run up to Christmas, or you may need an extra pair of hands daily for a few months. Virtual Assistants can step in when you need us to, and step back when you don’t.
Seasonal Staffing
Seasonal staffing can make the festive season even more challenging for small business owners. When you’re working with a small team, one staff absence can have a massive knock-on effect on productivity and efficiency – definitely not ideal when you’re pushing through the busiest time of year!
However, it’s inevitable that your team members will want to spend time at home during the festive period, and rightly so! Taking on a Virtual Assistant to help manage your Christmas workload means you and your team members can take a much-needed break away from your business to enjoy the festivities.
You won’t have to worry about workload piling up while you or your team are absent, and you’ll be able to rest assured that your customers are still getting the quality customer experience they deserve.
Workload will increase during the festive season, but it doesn’t have to overwhelm your business. Your VA will be on hand to make sure you and your team can enjoy Christmas while ensuring your business still runs smoothly.
Content Creation
Everybody loves a good Christmas campaign. People wait with bated breath for the newest John Lewis Christmas ad or to see what Kevin the Christmas Carrot has been up to since we saw him last year. Christmas campaigns are highly anticipated, no matter how small your business is.
But unlike John Lewis, not all of us have a whole year and an expert team dedicated to creating and editing magical ads. Most of us are just trying to cobble a few bits together as we go.
Here’s how a VA can help you produce a cracking Christmas campaign:
Social Media
Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools there is. Especially when you’re running a small business, social media acts as an opportunity for engaging and forming connections with your customers.
The festive period is the perfect opportunity to create and share some Christmas-themed content to get your customers talking. A Virtual Assistant with social media experience can help you create, schedule and manage your Christmas social media campaigns.
Whether it’s writing engaging captions, researching trending hashtags, creating eye-catching graphics or physically scheduling in posts, a Virtual Assistant can help. You’ll be able to rest assured that your social media channels are up to date, engaging and exciting for your customers without worrying about finding the time to do it yourself.
Blogs, Articles, Newsletters
When it comes to Christmas campaigns, blogs, articles and newsletters are just as important as keeping your social media channels updated. Virtual Assistants with content creation experience can help you pull together a cohesive Christmas marketing campaign across all your channels – something you may not have time for if you’re busy managing increased workload during the festive season.
Festive Season Support with The Edwards Company
The festive season should be fun-filled, but running a small business can get in the way of the festive frivolities. To help your small business have a successful festive season and to ensure you get to enjoy some much needed R&R, consider the support of a Virtual Assistant.
We can step in to support you with admin and data, workload management and content creation – give us a (jingle) bell to find out more or to book your support service.