I live in Australia and manage a team of Virtual Assistants (VAs) that are in 16 countries altogether, so quite a widespread team.
I’ve recently been doing a survey of my team with respect to the job requests that come
into our team via my office, or via one of the team members. One thing that is noticed with many of the job requests that are placed – so many of our prospective clients still perceive the need for a VA to be located close by so they can physically meet them – and often the type of work they need done doesn’t really warrant that. Perhaps it’s a sense of being made to feel comfortable – seeing us proves we don’t have two heads or something 😀
Virtual Assistants are the virtual version of Personal Assistants and we do almost everything a PA does in the corporate world, except we’re in a different office – our own, and usually home based.
I left the corporate world 14 years ago this month and set up business at home a few months later after doing some research and preparations. Then the internet entered the scene approx 15 months after that and it totally changed how I run my business and how I connect with my clients. There is only one client I see face to face – because she frequently needs me to help set up things on her computer – and I live 5 mins away so it’s purely a matter of convenience – otherwise she would have had to get a computer support person in. All my other clients are serviced via email 98% of the time and occasionally by fax or phone, irrespective of where they are located.
Some clients I’ve never met face to face and yet they live in the same state I do. I manage their databases, data entry, broadcast emails, email responses to client needs and purchases of products and services, word processing and formatting of documents and website design and maintenance and occasionally handle their phone calls if they’re out of the state or the country.
Many of the A Clayton’s Secretary team do analogue and digital transcriptions for the legal, medical and conference industries but we also do some court reporting, police reports, memoirs, work with authors, public speakers and business coaches, etc. Also desktop publishing, Powerpoint presentations and the list goes on.
So, now that gives you a fairly good idea of what we can do – what does working virtually mean to you and has it occurred to you that you can outsource your admin and secretarial needs to a VA?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Frances Lowe says
Hi Kathie!
Great acticle!
Whenever I send my bio to a new client I always include a photo – psychologically I think this negates the ‘two-heads’ problem. I hardly ever meet new clients nowadays but for the bigger clients in the big smoke I make a point of going in and introducing myself at least once… I do a great deal of telesales, transcriptions and video clipping – love my work!
Deanne Verrall, Principal says
Good topic Kathie. Yes it is sometimes a problem and I actually think clients appreciate a phone call rather than just email contact. One can really sell themselves over the phone and this promotes the personal contact missing in the sometimes impersonal nature of the web. I also have a photo on my website and in my email newsletters as people like to put a face to a name. I always put tips in my newsletter on how to use a VA virtually – some things that clients have never thought of before and my existing clients will often come back to me and say “I would really like you to do that for me” – because I have opened up their eyes.
Kathie Thomas says
I agree Deanne, and most clients do give phone contact but some prefer to receive via email and others never provide anything other than an email address in the first instance. We’re constantly having to find ways to help the process in the meantime.
Beverly Freeman says
Kathie,
I have been a member for a year and have not received any clients through the forum. I responded to a few of the posts, but for various reasons I was not a match (unavailable at that time, didn’t work in the requested niche, not in the client’s local area, etc.). I’ve been a VA for a year and my clients have been local. Even locally, they want to meet with you regularly (or at least once). It seems that client’s are only willing to contract with people they’ve met face to face. I would like to have more national (and international) clients, but I suppose that will come in time. I’m considering posting my photo on my website and offering an initial web conference/meeting with prospective clients. As far as international clients, I would prefer to subcontract for an established international VA that is a part of this forum.
Debbie Corlet says
I have clients all over the world now – I don’t do work for them regularly (the overseas ones anyway) but for the most part they are happy with emails.
I have a few new clients coming on board and one lady in particular very rarely answers her emails and I’ve learnt to call her and just leave messages and she’ll get back to me when she’s ready.
With my main client who is a business coach – we email each other 10 or sometimes even 20 times per day and then every few weeks we’ll organise a phone chat and spend up to an hour going through current tasks to be done, new tasks she’s thought of plus her thoughts and plans for moving her business forward as well as general chit-chat. This gives me a really good overview of what she wants and needs as each day, week and month move forward.
Not sitting in the same office as them – means we rely on communication if they want a business partner who they can share thoughts and ideas with – so that works really well for us.
Regards Debbie Corlet
Terence Kierans (aka TK) says
When I analysed my business income at the end of the financial year I found that the largest proportion of my income comes from clients in the USA. I live on the west coast of Western Australia.
I have only met two of my clients physically; on one occasion one of those was passing and hand delivered his financial documents. The other, I needed to research his system documentation prior to preparing ISO 9000 documentation for him.
Pam Hunter says
Great article, Kathie~
I’ve been working virtually (home office) since 1989 providing legal assistant services. I have only met two of my clients face-to-face, and that was when I first opened in 1989. I work with many law firms now and was just joking yesterday with one client that if I ran into him on the street, I wouldn’t know him!
I have found that new clients appreciate telephone contact at first and become very comfortable with email contact thereafter.
I must say that all of my clients prefer that I am located in the State where they practice law. I am not sure why that is … perhaps familiarity with the court systems?