Entries Tagged 'Client Satisfaction' ↓

As we discussed, marketing activities to promote your business can be time-consuming. However, I recommend  taking the time to create a newsletter for your business.

This form of contact allows you to stay in touch with your previous clients, your current clients and it’s a tool for educating future clients about your business and if you design it this way, should offer some useful business tips which are helpful to the reader and illustrates your expertise.

On the subject of time-consuming, you want to take into consideration your readers’ time and your own time spent creating a regular newsletter. A short, concise newsletter with great information would be most welcome. Consider how often you wish to go to press, taking into account how much time you’re able to spend designing, gathering information and creating a newsletter, i.e. weekly, monthly. You may wish to hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) to create a newsletter for you on a regular basis, by simply emailing to your Virtual Assistant content throughout the month with a regular issue date. 

For my own business, I’ve decided to email a two-page newsletter every four months (September, January and April) which will keep me in touch with my network and offer some great business tips, while not overwhelming my subscribers. 

Subscribe now by clicking on the newsletter icon at www.virtualofficeservices.ca or email tana@virtualofficeservices.ca

Expanding a bit on the topic of my last blog regarding the role of a Virtual Assistant, and what  the difference is between a Virtual Assistant and someone who provides ”virtual assistance”.  There seems to be very strong opinions around this question.  A Virtual Assistant is generally defined as an “online administrative/executive assistant” who is an entrepreneur and who “partners” with their clients to ensure the client’s business is successful. As an entrepreneur, a Virtual Assistant is able to offer helpful suggestions from their own experience to help ensure the client’s success. And, with years of administrative background, a VA can handle a variety of tasks as would an on-site executive assistant, but with cost-saving benefits to the client. 

“Virtual assistance” can be interpreted as being provided either by a Virtual Assistant….or by someone who has chosen to provide a more specialized service such as internet marketing, web design, or bookkeeping, but delivers their services online. It should be noted as well that although Virtual Assistants are usually generalists, there are some more experienced at specific tasks such as shopping carts or writing press releases and it’s this situation where a client may choose to work with several different VA’s for their expertise.

Those providing administrative assistance “virtually” can choose to be personal assistants available all day (or the hours they choose). Or, they can choose to work specifically with projects, i.e. newsletters, large Word projects, PowerPoint presentations, etc. so their working hours can be scheduled at irregular hours that fit deadlines and lifestyle. Or, the business model that we here at Tana Woodward & Associates - Virtual Office Services have adopted, which is to enjoy the best of both worlds.

In closing, I would re-iterate that whether calling oneself a Virtual Assistant, or someone who provides “virtual assistance”, the key is to provide services that meet the clients’ needs and ensures the happiness and success  of the service provider as well.

Great Virtual Tip for today: www.sendthisfile.com - Send large files free via the Internet

*To receive this blog in your inbox, please email tana@virtualofficeservices.ca

Had an interesting in-person discussion with a fellow Virtual Assistant today whose latest client uses 3 other VA’s, each with specific capabilities and specialities.

Coincidentally on another blog saw an entry about using multiple VA’s and commented on it, which prompted a comment from another VA on the definition of a true VA, i.e. she felt a Virtual Assistant is a generalist and anyone providing only one service is not a Virtual Assistant.

I’ve seen this discussion on list groups before and to be honest I can’t remember the outcome or the general consensus but to my way of thinking, no one person can be good at everything. Therefore, a client truly gets their money’s worth by working with several different VA’s as they can rest easy with the knowledge that their tasks are being completed by a knowledgeable person who isn’t wasting the client’s or their own time trying to figure out how to do something.

It really doesn’t matter what one’s title is, efficient services that make the client happy and more productive in their own businesses is what’s important.

Great Virtual Tip for today: When you receive those forwarded emails with all the funny little marks - Go to Edit/Replace, type ^p (=return) and type ^t (=tab) in “replace”. This will convert every return to a tab.

*To receive this blog in your inbox, please email tana@virtualofficeservices.ca

Well, here I am again! After writing my last blog about the art of procrastination, I proceeded to do a brilliant job of doing just that…..procrastinating. So now that  I know I have a talent for procrastinating, I shall try to be equally as capable of producing a blog on a regular basis. After all, the virtual world is counting on me to share my wisdom.  In retrospect, I think my hesitancy came from feeling I had to write the “perfect” blog each time and at the end of a busy work week, when the old Outlook reminder popped up to let me know it was time to write my blog, the inspired words just weren’t there.

Now, this is not to say this is how I handle client work. Completely the opposite, I become consumed with completing a project on time and prefer to actually finish well ahead of schedule to suitably impress the client.

I’ve recently re-directed my business to focus on projects, as well as personal assistance. I’m loving this new direction as I’m able to schedule my time so much better and I’m so not tied to my desk all day. I can work in the evenings, the mornings, weekends, whatever works best for that week.

On this note, I’d like to recommend flexibility as key to providing Virtual Assistant services.  No matter how well thought out one’s business plan is, often fate sends you a client with a request for a service you hadn’t even contemplated offering, but it sounds so interesting, you can’t resist. More on that next time!

Great Virtual Tip for today:  A free PDF creation tool -  www.pdf995.com

*To receive this blog in your inbox, please email tana@virtualofficeservices.ca