Agents of Value is an outsourcing company in the Philippines. Established in 2005, the company is focused on providing technical help, online marketing expertise, and virtual assistance to entrepreneurial clients worldwide.
Agents of Value calls their business an “offshore staff leasing” operation. From what I can tell, it’s not much different from other virtual assistant companies despite the fancier-sounding name. You pick what specialty you’re looking for (web development, link building, graphic design, article writing, or jack-of-all-trades VA), and they assign someone in their office to your account who meets your needs.
Their rates start at $675 per month for a full-time helper, which makes them very affordable even compared with other firms in the Philippines. Rates can go as high as $1500 a month for more technical skilled work. Agents of Value has three separate facilities and also runs a couple shifts, so you can have a VA work during your business hours if needed as well.
One alternative to consider: Virtual Staff Finder.
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To ease fears that the Agents aren’t working, the company developed their own proprietary tracking software called AgentGuardian. The software tracks screenshots and keystrokes so you can monitor your virtual employee even if you’re half a world away.
There were a couple downsides I found. Agents of Value charges a $275 setup fee, and also a monthly charge for software licenses used on your agent’s computer. For example if you want your VA to run Microsoft Office instead of Open Office or Google Docs, it will cost $42 a month. This is the only time I’ve seen these costs broken out from any VA company.
Did you watch the video on their homepage? I think it does a nice job of showing some personality, even if the “ninja” theme is a bit overdone these days. And I know I’m being immature about this but every time it says “Agents”, it sounds a lot like “Asians”: “Clients know what their agents are doing while working.” Funny, because their agents are also Asian? OK maybe not that funny. Sorry.
One thing that was frustrating was the lack of response I got from using the contact forms on the Agents of Value website. I submitted a couple requests with some simple questions and never heard anything back. It’s weird because they’re active on Twitter on responded quickly on live chat.
Have you worked with Agents of Value? If so, please feel free share your experience – positive or negative – below.
We have used some folks from Agents of Value and have found them to be extremely helpful, approachable and courteous. They are also very motivated and work really well under instructions/deadlines/pressure. The websites they now maintain are doing really well, it’s a nice feeling knowing that our business is in capable hands.