My VA Keeps Making Mistakes: Root Cause Diagnosis
Virtual assistant quality issues? It’s not who you hired - it’s how you trained them.
Hired a VA, Still Drowning in Fixes
You hired a VA to free up your time. Instead, you’re spending 5+ hours every week fixing their mistakes, rewriting emails, redoing tasks, and wondering if it’d be faster to just do everything yourself.
You’re frustrated. You’re second-guessing the hire. Maybe you got a bad VA. Maybe you need someone more experienced, more expensive, more... something.
This happens to over 70% of operators who make their first delegation hire - and the ones who fix it don’t do it by firing and rehiring. They fix what happens BEFORE the VA ever touches a task.
What You Think Is Wrong vs What’s Actually Wrong
What you think: You hired a bad VA. They’re not competent enough, not detail-oriented enough, or not motivated enough.
What’s actually wrong: You have a training problem, not a people problem.
Here’s what’s happening: You’re giving verbal instructions for complex tasks. “Handle customer emails.” “Schedule my content.” “Update the spreadsheet.” The VA nods, seems to understand, then delivers work that’s 60% right.
You didn’t document the process. You didn’t create a checklist. You didn’t show them what “perfect” looks like. You expected them to read your mind - or worse, to figure out your standards through trial and error.
When a VA makes the SAME mistake repeatedly, that’s not incompetence. That’s a missing system. They’re doing their best - but “best” without clear standards produces inconsistent results.
You’re not managing a people problem. You’re experiencing the cost of undocumented processes.
The Reframe That Changes Everything
When a VA makes the same mistake repeatedly, that’s not a people problem - it’s a process problem. Your documentation is the bottleneck, not their competence.
If you can’t explain it step-by-step, they can’t execute it consistently. If you don’t have a checklist, they’ll miss steps. If you haven’t shown them what “done right” looks like, they’ll invent their own standard.
This means the VA isn’t your problem. The lack of SOPs, video walkthroughs, and review processes is your problem. You’re asking them to replicate expertise you’ve never documented.
Once you internalize this, you’ll stop blaming the hire and start building the system that makes any decent VA successful.
Do This Today (The Immediate Fix)
Before you send another task to your VA, you need a documented process.
Step 1: Identify the Highest-Error Task (3 minutes)
Look at the last two weeks. What task does your VA mess up most frequently? Customer service replies? Content scheduling? Invoice processing? Pick the ONE task where errors cost you the most time.
Write it down: “The task with the most errors is: _”
Step 2: Record Yourself Doing It Perfectly (15 minutes)
Open Loom (or any screen recorder). Do the task yourself while narrating each step. Don’t skip the “obvious” parts - those are where errors happen.
“First, I open the customer email. I check if they’re a current client in our CRM. If yes, I use Template A. If no, I use Template B. Here’s how I customize it - I change the name, I reference their specific issue, I include this link...”
Record the entire process. Show every click, every decision point, every quality check.
Step 3: Send With Clear Instructions (2 minutes)
Send the video with this message:
“I’ve recorded how I do [task]. Please watch this and follow it exactly for the next 5 times you do this task. After each one, let me know:
Did you follow every step?
What was unclear?
What would make this easier?”
This creates accountability AND surfaces confusion points you need to fix in your documentation.
Quality Check:
Before you send ANY task instruction, verify:
I’ve shown them the exact process (video or checklist)
I’ve defined what “done correctly” looks like
I’ve included a way to check their work before submitting
If ANY of these is missing, don’t assign the task. Document it first.
The 7-Day Protocol (Complete Solution)
The immediate fix stops one error stream. This protocol builds a system that prevents all errors.
Days 1-2: Identify and Prioritize
List every task your VA handles. Next to each, rate error frequency (1-10). Focus on the top 5 highest-error tasks. These are your documentation priorities.
For each of the top 5, ask: “What’s the most common mistake?” Write it down. This tells you what your SOP needs to address.
Day 3: Create Your First Complete SOP
Take your highest-error task. Create a step-by-step checklist with screenshots. Format:
Task name: [Specific action]
When to do it: [Trigger/timing]
Steps: [Numbered list with decision points]
Quality check: [How to verify it’s correct]
Common mistakes: [What NOT to do]
Example for customer email responses:
Open ticket in Zendesk
Check customer status: Current client? (If yes -> Template A. If no -> Template B)
Personalize: Add name, reference their issue, include relevant link
Quality check: Read out loud. Does it sound like a human wrote it?
Common mistake: Using Template A for non-clients (sends wrong pricing info)
Day 4: Record the Video Walkthrough
With your checklist done, record yourself doing the task while following the checklist. Narrate your decisions. Show what “good” looks like.
This doubles your training material: written SOP + video demonstration. People learn differently - give them both.
Day 5: Implement “Watch and Learn” Session
Schedule 30 minutes. Have your VA screen-share while doing the task. You watch silently. When they finish, ask:
“Which step felt unclear?”
“Where did you hesitate?”
“What would make this easier?”
Take notes. These become improvements to your SOP.
Day 6: Create the Mistake Log
Every time an error happens moving forward, add it to your SOP under “Common Mistakes.” This turns every failure into training material.
Format: “Mistake: [What happened]. Cause: [Why it happened]. Fix: [Updated step in SOP].”
Your documentation gets better with every error. Mistakes become system improvements, not VA failures.
Day 7: Build the Review Process
For each high-risk task, add a mandatory review step. The VA completes the task, then follows a 3-question review:
Did I follow every step in the SOP? (Yes/No)
Does this match the quality standard shown in the video? (Yes/No)
What’s one thing I’d double-check before submitting?
This creates self-correction before work reaches you. Catches 80% of errors before they become your problem.
Go Deeper: The Complete Framework
This solves the immediate problem - VA mistakes caused by missing documentation.
But if you want the complete delegation system that maintains your standards while freeing up 15+ hours weekly:
The Quality Transfer shows you how to delegate while keeping excellence, build processes that scale, and create a team that executes at your level without your constant oversight.
Want the full Clear Edge OS? 26 frameworks for $5K-$150K operators who want precision, not guesswork. Start here
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