Picture a workday in the office when someone is handling the mundane and often undesired data entry task other than you or your staff.  Imagine how much your team can accomplish in that scenario! Well, this imaginary scene is not peculiar at all in today’s digital world, where non-essential business processes are outsourced to online data entry services or virtual assistants (VA’s).

Indeed, data entry is not an irrelevant process – it is actually very crucial since almost every business decision and transaction depends on data. Industries requiring data entry include services, sales, health, real estate, legal, and the hospitality industry, among others. Data provides us with information necessary to run our businesses in the most profitable way possible. Yet, there is no denying the fact that data entry is tedious, boring, and time-consuming.

This is why businesses that want to be at their productive best opt to hire virtual assistants for their data entry needs. If you are not yet outsourcing, then you might be missing out on the numerous advantages that a data entry virtual assistant can offer to your business.

Establishing a robust online presence does not only entail the creation of great content. It also requires the maintenance of customer relationship management (CRM) functions that entail a lot of taking information down, managing data, and creating lists. All this data is indispensable to the smooth functioning of your business.

Instead of having your employees fill in CRM data, for instance, you can outsource data entry, a very time-intensive task, to an efficient virtual assistant. In this way, your business can cut costs and attain a level of efficiency otherwise impossible by letting your existing staff do it. It’s emotionally draining and demotivating for employees to spend most of their workday on the mundane task of data entry when they were hired to do core functions in the first place.

What exactly are you outsourcing?

So, exactly what are you outsourcing in data entry? You must identify which tasks are delegable and which are not. For instance, touching base with customers is paramount if you want to grow our business. Modern CRM technologies provide several functionalities that integrate sales, marketing, appointment setting, contact management, social media management, scheduling, and customer support. These are tasks that should be performed in any business, but can they be outsourced?

Well, first decide on the cost – in money and time. Can the task be performed in-house or is it less costly to outsource? List all the tasks that are time-consuming, mundane, and expensive to perform in-house, and those will be probably be best handled when outsourced. For instance, if your sales team are spending too much time typing customer details to the CRM or too wrapped up managing appointments, or scheduling purchases and delivery, it would be ideal to consider hiring a data entry virtual assistant for that.

Delegating your data entry tasks to a VA increases your workforce’s efficiency.

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Data entry virtual assistants at Squarefish Inc. can update records, enter information on new sales leads, log billing information, create user profiles, populate spreadsheets with data, keep your CRM updated, scheduling, and entering payment or delivery information.

What’s in it for me?

Online, you can find a number of success stories of businesses that hired a data entry virtual assistant or online data entry service. Here is a compilation of what they said are the benefits of outsourcing your data entry needs.

1. Liberate your staff from the dull tasks

Having your employees dedicate a huge chunk of their time to secondary rather than primary roles is demotivating. Say you have an employee you hired as a marketer and instead of executing your market strategies, she is putting in more time entering data on the spreadsheet than she is generating leads online, then it is highly likely that employees is not at her optimal productivity or worse, unhappy. Employees are hired because of a specific skills set that would be underutilized if their work hours were devoted to boring tasks. If you outsource data entry, you free your employees and let them unleash their skills to accomplish their primary roles.

2. Hire without the hurt

Running a small business requires a great deal of flexibility in terms of staffing. It is less complex for a small business to outsource data entry to a virtual assistant than contend with the numerous requirements and regulations attached to hiring a full-time employee. You can hire with ease and not be restricted by contracts or relational anxiety that comes with terminating services. Also, when you hire a data entry virtual assistant, you have access to a global pool of talent to match your specific needs. Your staffing choices are not constrained by local geography. too. You can find skilled data entry specialists outside of your state.

3. Secure a strategic advantage

You can think of hiring a data entry virtual assistant as a strategic advantage. The efficient allocation of human resources does wonders for productivity. When your in-house staff is freed from the burden of the mundane, your office and your business gets a productivity and creativity boost. There will be more time to generate ideas and plan ahead for the interest of the business.

4. Zero errors on data entry

Specialists are called so because they adhere to the highest level of professionalism and quality from their training and experience. Virtual assistants are experts in their field and will provide error-free and accurate data that inexperienced in-house staff or AI virtual assistants cannot.  Having zero errors in data will enhance the accuracy of your business decisions and overall management.

5. See sky-high and cost-effective productivity

Giving your staff a break from the hectic task of data entry will give them ample time to work at their best. When you have too little time and too much to do, chances are, you will not get everything done or none at all at the optimal level. Some tasks will be accomplished well than others. If you delegate those tasks to a VA and shave off the responsibilities of your in-house staff, you will be helping your staff concentrate at the things they are actually good at and enjoy doing. In this way, you are boosting their productivity sky-high.

What’s better is that hiring a data entry virtual assistant will save you on cost. It is actually much cheaper to outsource data entry than hire a full-time data entry operator. VA companies also have a range of payment plans you can choose from depending on which suits your needs and budget.

6. Peace of mind

Perhaps the most important and intangible advantage of hiring a data entry virtual assistant is getting some peace of mind. As entrepreneurs, our brain cells are always working around the clock to come up with the best idea yet. Having the time to unleash our creative juice will be beneficial to the company in the long run.

Also, having a highly qualified data entry virtual assistant allows you to rest easy and have the confidence you need to manage and grow your business. It will also free your time to pursue a balance in your work and personal life.

The reality is that while viewed as mindless and numbing, data entry is a necessary evil in virtually all industries now. If you and your team have too much on your plate, then outsource the data entry function! Online data entry services may be the missing link to ensuring the growth and productivity of your business.