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A service professional’s main goal should be to anticipate a client’s needs and to provide the very best service possible. Below are several examples of how you can go the extra mile and provide excellent service.

Scenario 1
If you have an important message to relay to a client, give them a call. Don’t send an e-mail. The client may not have their e-mail account open and therefore, may not see your message until it’s too late. Messages of urgency should be delivered via phone if possible.

Scenario 2
If a client asks you to do something for them, take every measure to complete the request. For example, if he or she asks you to change an airline seat and you go online and see that there are no seats available or that you can’t make changes to a seat until check in, don’t stop there. You should also try and call the airline to try and make the change.

Scenario 3
A client asks you to make a reservation at a particular restaurant for a certain number of people for a specific time. You contact the restaurant only to find out that they can’t accommodate that many people and don’t have the time available that the client wants. The simple thing to do is to let the client know this, but you can also do some research for similar restaurants and check with them to see if they can handle the client’s request. You may just find a restaurant that can handle the client’s requests and the client will love you for taking the initiative to find another restaurant. Continue Reading »

When you first started your business you probably felt a sense of accomplishment and excitement. You had finally realized your dream of owning your own business! Everything probably ran smoothly for a while. You were the CEO, bookkeeper, administrative assistant, etc. Even though you wore many hats, you didn’t mind because you enjoyed running your business. Fast forward a couple of years, your business has grown by leaps and bounds, you’ve hired a bookkeeper to alleviate some of your administrative tasks; however, you’re still feeling as if you’re bogged down. You’d like to grow your business and maybe add some informational products to create passive income and really boost your profits, but you just don’t have the time. You’re in a place of overwhelm and uncertainty. You finally realize that you can’t do it all on your own and you need someone to handle your marketing and someone who can help you begin producing your informational products. You decide to hire a Virtual Assistant. However, you’re not sure just how to use your new VA to make sure that you reach your goals. Below are some ways that a VA can help you achieve success and most importantly more money. 

Working with a VA allows you to become a true entrepreneur 

Choosing to work with a VA will most definitely free up your time to focus on the revenue generating aspect of your business, but you will also find that you have more free time to dream big and be more creative. Some examples: 

• Produce that product that you’ve had on the back burner
• Write the book that you know will sell like hotcakes
• Write more articles that will present you as the expert that you are and drive more business your way
• Conduct more paid teleclasses and increase your earnings
• And more, let your creative juices flow and watch the money roll in 

A Virtual Assistant can handle your marketing to ensure that your profits soar 

Marketing is a big part of all businesses. In order to keep your pipeline full, you need to continue to market your business even when you have a full client base. However, it can be challenging to find the time to continue with your marketing efforts when you’re busy working with clients. This is yet another task that you can delegate to your VA. Some examples of marketing items that you can delegate are your newsletter, blog, article marketing, teleseminar set-up/marketing, and assist with your social media marketing, just to name a few. 

Here’s how she can assist you with your newsletter: 

• Proof your articles
• Find articles for you if you don’t write your own
• Set-up the newsletter in Constant Contact, 1ShoppingCart or another newsletter program
• Distribute the newsletter
• Add a share bar to each so that subscribers can share the content through their social networks 

Your VA can also assist you with your blog: 

• Proof your articles
• Upload all relevant content
• Add your blog to blog directories, such as Technorati and Alltop
• Add relevant plugins that will allow you and others to share your posts through the social networking sites, etc. 

If you write your own articles, your VA can help you gain more exposure by submitting them to the article websites for you. 

Teleclasses are a great way to showcase your expertise. If you conduct teleclasses your VA can help you with these as well by doing the following: 

• She can set-up the bridgeline and distribute the call details to your participants.
• If you have handouts that need to be designed and distributed she can do this for you as well.
• She can set-up the class as a product in your shopping cart if there is a fee associated with it.
• She can also assist with the marketing by listing it on Seminar Announcer, adding it as an event on LinkedIn, add it as an event on Facebook, and send a tweet on Twitter 

You’ll find that all you need to do is show up and teach your class, and how awesome is that! 

Products are a great passive income. If you also sell products from your website your VA can help you with this as well. 

• She can manage the products on your shopping cart.
• Create autorespondors
• Respond to customer inquires about the products
• You can also send her your products and have her ship them once orders are placed or have her work with research fulfillment companies for you. 

She can also assist with your social media marketing. Your VA can: 

• Schedule your posts using Hootsuite
• Search for relevant groups for you to join
• Post your events
• Manage your friend requests, connections and followers
• Make updates to your fan page
• And more 

These are just a few of the things that a VA can help you with. You’ll find that she can become your right hand and the two of you can build a very productive and fun relationship. Not only will you have more free time, but you’ll also have someone with whom you can share ideas and get valuable feedback, and your VA can offer ideas that she feels will benefit your business and bottom line. Having a VA can also help you maintain a more balanced life. So, what are you waiting for? Begin working with a VA and take your business to the next level.

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As virtual assistants, we have to continuously keep abreast of the latest tools and technology. Back when I started in 2001, you could do well just providing general administrative services, and to be honest there just weren’t that many cool tools to utilize like there are today. Don’t get me wrong, you still need to have great administrative skills and there are clients out there who only need this type of support. My largest clients are what I call, “general admin clients.” However, I encounter aspiring virtual assistants who want to become a VA, but don’t have any experience with Internet technologies. In my opinion, I strongly believe that in order to compete in today’s virtual assistant industry you need to obtain training and become skilled in the various Internet technologies. 

The technology tools that I’m speaking of are widely used in many online businesses today. Clients utilize these tools to market their businesses on a daily basis. Most of these tools require some sort of daily maintenance and clients are more than willing to delegate these day-to-day tasks to a savvy VA. 

I listened to a recorded call that had a panel of several business owners who had all worked with a Virtual Assistant. The one thing that they all shared in common when asked what they were seeking in a good VA was that he/she have a strong technical background. 

If you’re thinking of become a Virtual Assistant, below are some online tools that you should have some experience with or obtain knowledge in: 

1ShoppingCart, Constant Contact, Aweber set up/maintenance. Clients use this tool to send ezines. It’s also used to sell products, keep in contact with customers and potential customers via autoresponder. 1ShoppingCart even has an affiliate feature. You would be responsible for getting their shopping cart set up and maintaining all of these features for them. 

Article Submission. Clients can have you submit the articles that they write to various article submission websites. This helps them market themselves by showcasing their expertise through their writing. 

Teleseminar set up. Clients utilize teleseminars to hold courses. You would be responsible for obtaining the bridgeline, getting the word out about the teleseminar, and all of the various details for getting the call set up. 

Blog set up/maintenance. You could set up the client’s blog, if it isn’t set up. You would also be responsible for posting the posts, creating categories and tags as well as marketing the blog. 

Social Media account maintenance. You could schedule the client’s tweets in advance; create their fan page or group, etc. There are many things that you could do to assist them with their social media marketing. 

Having the above mentioned skill set will get your business off to a great start. Stay tuned as I will cover these skills individually in the coming weeks.

I began my virtual assistant business in the summer of 2001. My have things changed since then. I remember telling people what I did and receiving a confused expression on their faces. I spent a lot of time explaining what a virtual assistant was. 

Fast forward to today and I believe that just about everyone knows what a virtual assistant is and what we do. The industry has also grown tremendously with new virtual assistants. You probably don’t have to explain what you do, but you now more than likely encounter many people who already have a virtual assistant. 

Some of the things that have changed are service offerings. Back then, you could pretty much offer general administrative services. Nowadays, you have to be pretty tech savvy in order to stay competitive. Clients are seeking virtual assistants who can help them manage their businesses and assist them with the latest online marketing tools. 

I believe that the virtual assistant industry is definitely here to stay and will continue to evolve in the coming years.