The most ridiculous thing I read today in a post to Virtual Assistants is that in managing clients expectations and helping clients establish trust in you, you shouldn’t “disappear, even for a day or two.”
So let me ask you this: Do you want a job or a business?
There are lots of way to manage expectations and instil an ever-growing trust in clients. None of it requires you to operate like an employee.
Attorneys don’t operate like that. Accountants don’t operate like that. Other solo professionals don’t operate like that. And Virtual Assistants don’t need to operate like that either.
When you read books like Gerber’s “The E-Myth Revisited,” you learn that the idea is to create a business that operates by system and doesn’t necessarily require you to be the one doing the work.
However, there’s nothing wrong with you being the one doing the work. Many (perhap even most) people go into self-employed business to practice their craft for reasons beyond money. It has just as much to do with soul. They get a kind of deeper personal satisfaction they just can’t experience in any other situation. Doing work they love and enjoy brings them a richness of meaning and purpose and spirit in their lives.
Even the rich will tell you, you can make all the money in the world and not have to work another day in your life, but it’s an empty, joyless existence without the purpose and fullfillment of actual, meaningful work. God bless those who love to pull up their sleeves and make their living in a more direct, one-on-one, hands-on way.
But that doesn’t mean they have to sacrifice the desire to have the same kind of freedom and earning potential that other businesses strive for. There is a way to be a solopreneur where you can do the work, but do it in a way that doesn’t require you to be at the daily beck and call of clients. You just have to make some mental shifts in your thinking and understanding about what you are and how you work with clients.
The first of these shifts is getting out of the thinking that the only way you are valuable to a client is if you are there to deal with their every need, every whim, day in and day out. You have to get out of the stuckness that says your value lies in being in daily, constant contact with clients. There’s a word for someone like that: it’s called an employee. And you DON’T have to operate like that.
If you are operating no differently than the secretary who sits outside the boss’ door, only virtually, you are going to be in for one rude awakening.
Because not only will you drastically inhibit your earning potential, you will learn just what a predicament you set up for yourself and your clients. Eventually, when you start to want to enjoy the fruits of your labor, and not be tied to your desk and phone because some untidy little client need might arise, you realize you have created a dynamic, no matter how loudly you shout about standards, that just doesn’t leave you much room to get away.
And funny thing about standards… they actually have to work well in actual, practical application. They can’t be some lofty theory dreamt up by someone who isn’t doing the same work you do every day of the week. Stop killing yourself trying to live up to that crap.
Your value is not dependent on whether you don’t disappear for a day or two. That’s crazy! Who wants to live a life as a business owner and independent professional being held hostage to their phone, desk and clients? There isn’t a single other solo profession out there that tells its denizens they have to operate like that in order to be of value or service. You only put yourself in that prison if you believe there is no other way to operate or be of service and value.
Your value is in your administrative skill and expertise. It’s in the results you achieve for clients and how your work helps them achieve objectives and move forward in their business. None of that requires you to necessarily be in daily contact (if it’s not your wish to be), and you don’t have to take on the whole kit and kaboodle to do that. You can be of tremendous value and service taking on just a very specific cross-section of the administrative load that clients carry.
I’m also not sure what makes people think that you can’t have a close, personal, connected relationship with clients without being at their on-demand beck and call day in and day out. Attorneys do it. Accountants do it. Millions of other solo practitioners have real, meaningful, very connected relationships with their clients without being joined at the hip on the daily basis. And so can Virtual Assistants.
The trick is to 1) establish policies, systems and processes that give you lots of room to move around and not be at the beck and call of clients, and 2) only take on clients and work that are the best fit for those policies, systems and processes. This is what will allow you to control what expectations clients have while at the same time under-promising and overdelivering.
Part of putting order to chaos and managing client expectations is setting up a system and a promise for how things work consistently and reliably so that clients know what to expect ahead of time, each and every time. You don’t set expectations that will fence you in or that you can’t sustain and you do set expectations that you can realistically, consistently and reliably live up to. It’s really as simple as that. And setting those expectations does NOT have anything to do with nor require you to be under any client’s thumb on a daily basis.
This is what allows you to build freedom, flexibility and space in your practice which in turns truly does serve clients much better.
By taking even just a few specific tasks or areas of work off their plate, you are allowing them to grow their business, move forward and get things done. That isn’t dependent on whether they hear from you each day or not. It’s all in how YOU decide what expectations to set and how YOU want things to work in your business. You can do all of that without being forced to be at your desk, in your office, each and every cotton-picking minute of every day under the thumb of clients. For God’s sakes, what other profession in the world sets that kind of ridiculous expectation of its business owners?
Let me tell you how I do that in my practice (and let me point out that while I do advise Virtual Assistants in business, I have continuously operated my business since 1997 and never stopped evolving as a business owner and expert at the Virtual Assistant business).
First, when I consult with clients, one of the things I discuss with them is making sure they are 100% clear that they are not hiring an employee. If they want or need an employee, that’s exactly what they need to hire. I tell them that a Virtual Assistant is an alternative for folks who for whatever reason can’t have an employee, and we simply aren’t going to work with them or be available to them in the same way as an employee.
That’s setting expectation #1–making sure the client understands the nature of the relationship, how it’s going to work and how it’s not going to work (I’m not going to be their “secretary sitting outside their door only virtually”).
Next, for setting expectations #2, I talk about how our communications will work. They can email any time of day or night, but I let them know upfront what my formal business hours and days are (so that they don’t expect that I’m going to be dealing with anything outside those times or on days that I am closed) and when it is my usual practice to answer their messages (midday and again at evening time).
(By the way, one of the things I do in my business is set aside one day a week for MY business and my business only. For me, that day of the week is Monday.)
I promise that they’ll get a response to every communication they send me within 24 business hours, even if it’s just a “received” or “gotcha” or “will do.” And then I follow-through on that promise. That way they aren’t left scratching their heads wondering if I got the message and it keeps the line of communication flowing. That’s the kind of thing that grows trust.
I explain that all work requests must be in sent via email because that is the sytem which best allows me to track and prioritize and schedule things. They can use whatever tools they need to in order to submit their requests as long as they result in an email in my IN box.
I don’t care if a client doesn’t like that or can’t operate within my framework or doesn’t want to use the tools I need them to use to make our work together easiest and most efficient. I don’t work with them if that’s the case. Stop investing so much in clients who can’t go with your flow. Work with and focus only on those who can.
For setting expectations #3, I explain my 3/7 guide. My 3/7 guide is how I set their expectations with regard to turnaround time. Within that framework, simple tasks that can be accomplished easily are done within a 3 day turnaround.
Most often, things are done far more quickly than that, but I don’t want clients to start expecting that I’m going to instantly respond to each and every thing immediately. That’s not an expectatation that anyone can promise and deliver consistently, and I don’t want to live or work that way. It’s a recipe for unhappiness and unsustainable promises.
The “7″ part of my guide is for larger, more complex or ongoing projects and work. This is where the client and I regroup every 7 days at our regularly scheduled weekly one-hour meeting. During this meeting, I give them status updates, we talk about progress, new goals, brainstorm, you name it. Sometimes we just shoot the breeze.
I think it’s important to note that I only do client meetings on the same day each week. I don’t hold them willy-nilly throughout the week. Like any other professional, this is how I decide it works in my business. My business, my schedule. It gives me the time I need to focus on client work the rest of the week without interruption to my concentration, and it gives me the space I need to move around as I need to in order to stay energized.
This system gives clients a tangible, reliable idea of how things will work consistently. It manages their expectations in a way that leaves me great freedom and space to enjoy my work, enjoy them, and get things done far better than I ever could working lucy-goosey at the whim of clients. And I end up serving them far better in the process. That constancy, that reliability and predictability is what gains their great trust–all without being joined at the hip.
Throughout this process, clients and I are having all kinds of fun, productive and effective email communications. There isn’t any lack of connectedness, but they don’t get all up in arms if they don’t hear from me for a day or two because they have been informed about how things work in my business. In other words, they know what to expect. This is what the business concept of “managing expectations” is about.
If you need help understanding what setting expectations is really about and how to do that in your own practice, post your questions here or email me privately. I’m absolutely happy to help in this area because I think it’s a great disservice to Virtual Assistants to let them think they have to operate like employees in order to have value and be of service, which deprives them of the freedom they could enjoy that every other business owner is told to seek.
Thanks for commenting. Yeah, the virtual assistant term is really completely idiotic to...
20 Comments
Thank you for being so clear and detailed about this so we can follow suit.
Hi Danielle. I agree with your forthright perception on this topic. Do you think that perhaps its a combination of not being able to shift away from the deep rooted employee mindset and new Va’s learning from experienced VAs about VA client relationships and the cycle continues, clients expect employee behaviour even though we profess to be our own bosses. We certainly owe it to ourselves to educate our clients if we want to have freedom.
Danielle – GREAT information on this topic. Thanks for setting it out clear and concise!
GREAT post Danielle. I don’t think that I have this problem, but there are definitely things that I can work on. I love your weekly meetings, and I’m going to incorporate that into my business as well. I’m assuming you do, but do you bill for these meetings?
Hi, April
Well, the answer to that question is yes and no. I don’t bill for meetings in the way that I think you mean, which is by the hour. I don’t trade hours for dollars any longer. When clients work with me, they purchase a package of support which is priced by value, not by hours. One of the things I include in my package of support is the one-hour weekly meeting each month. Let me know if you have any trouble understanding that and I’d be happy to elaborate (not that you aren’t, but value billing is a subject lots of people–and most VAs–have trouble wrapping their brains around at first).
I fully understand that, and I love it. I’m beginning to move in that direction as I continue to develop my niche in real estate, and work soley on a retainer.
Thanks so much for your insight, on this and many other questions I’ve had. Each time I want to slam my head against my keyboard in frustration, I usually come across an “in your face” but incredibly inspiring message of yours!
Hi, Beverley
I absolutely agree with you on both counts–it’s deep-rooted employee mindset and then VAs who don’t know how to not be employees in turn training other VAs and perpetuating the cycle. Most just don’t know how to be business owners (and that includes the people training them), much less how to be a successful solo professional and so they operate the only way they know how–as employees. And in the process, they then educate our market to expect us to operate like employees.
I’m super passionate about changing that, as well as enlightening folks about the win/win for both VA and client when it comes to value billing and getting away from billing by the hour.
Danielle, you have no idea how much your post has enlightened me! Thanks for you thoughts! It’s life changing…Eydie
I know the post you’re referring to, Danielle, because I subscribe to that blog too. I’ve got to admit that I was more than a bit puzzled by that advice. In a nutshell, and as the blog’s author would put it:
“That’s crap!”
Maybe she was having a senior moment? I doubt it because she’s not that old. By the way, this is completely opposite to what she used to teach newbies about standing for yourself and standards. I wonder why the departure.
In managing client expectations, my mantra is to do it right off the bat and to do it so that the client’s expectations are in line with how I run my business. I even put it in writing in my operating policies document, which every new client gets a copy of.
I left the brick and mortar world because I was tired of being treated like a slave and because I was tired of being at the beck and call of 40+ people 24-7. At this point in my life, I don’t want to be at anyone’s beck and call except my elderly mother’.
I agree with everything you said in this posting, Danielle. Keep the good advice coming.
=>Donna
I hear that, Donna!
I had two years of indepth customer expectation management training so I understand this area better than most. As some might not know, it’s an actual school of business theory and learning.
An excellent post! I’m of the same mindset as you and although I occasionally have a moment where I wonder if I have set up my own communication model appropriately, in the end both me and my clients are happy with how it’s all working out and I’m not at anyone’s beck and call.
I’d recommend anyone who’s just starting out as a VA to read this post and soak it in.
Hi Danielle!
I’m an avid follower of your blog, and I love this post!
I’ve been in business for more than a year, and I admit it took some effort to make that transition from “employee” to “business owner” mindset. It’s coming much more naturally now, although every once in awhile I still catch myself and need to STOP and re-focus!
Anyway, you’ve given some great ideas that I’m definitely going to use to improve my own “expectation system.”
I also appreciate your comment about how people may be “educating our market to expect us to operate like employees.”
I agree that it’s certainly a challenge. In fact, I’m slated to speak at an upcoming meeting for a a local administrative professionals group, and one of the questions that was sent to me ahead of time is “How do I get a job as a VA?”
I thought that question was fitting given this post!
Hopefully, though, this particular perception will be overcome with time, good education, and as successful business owners offering VA services go to market!
Thanks again for touching on a great topic!
Hi, Rachel
Glad you’ve found some value here. I firmly believe that without taking a stand and reminding people to think about these things, they might not ever have their conciousness raised. The topic HAS to be brought up and addressed in order to help folks.
Yes, that question is a perfect example. I hope you will be setting them straight on that–Virtual Assistants don’t get “jobs.” They operate and market just like any other business to connect with clients. You’ve got your work cut out for you.
Hi Danielle,
Just a quick note to say that I love your newsletters, they are very inspiring and I look forward to receiving them from month to month. This months newsletter was very moving as it set me on the road to becoming more of who I want to be in my business. My Own Boss. One of the points you made about being your own boss is managing client expectations and setting up a system and promise of how things will work consistently. I am proud to say, that I set this plan in motion this week……..and “It worked” and I am talking about a client that I am his appointment Secretary (telemarketing). I let him know that I am a VA and that I have an establish schedule in place that I adhere to. This makes me more flexible, in that I can take on other clients without feeling just obligated to him.
My business is still in its infancy stage… and I do need more clients, but I did not want him to think he was the only one. Now I feel more confident to go after more clients. I also adopted another one of your rules and that is taking Monday to build on my Business. I did put this in place this week and I like this idea, as now I can work on building a website and getting more clients.
Thank you Danielle.
That is fabulous, Mandesa! So many people have to go through a lot of hard lessons before they figure out a better way. Sounds like you are on a great path to setting up a very happy and productive business for both you and your clients.
I absolute love this post Danielle!
I find this post very timely, I had such a restless night last night because I hadn’t responded to an email I received yesterday afternoon. I considered apologizing for not responding sooner in my reply this morning but decided against doing so.
I realize now that I’ve set very negative expectations and piled unnecessary pressure on myself because of the systems and processes I had in place when I had a couple of clients and now, almost two years later.
I have to now educate myself on how to move forward or I’ll crash and burn.
I subscribe to the blog you’re referring to as well, and when I read this particular post, I apparently understood it completely differently than you and some of your readers did. The author was not suggesting that we act as employees or be available 24/7 to our clients. She was simply stating that, if you’re going to be away from your business for a day or two (or a month or two) you let your clients know about it (not ask permission—just inform.) In other words, don’t disappear for two days and leave your client’s emails and phone calls unanswered with no explanation or advance notice.
If your attorney, accountant, grocery store, etc. closed their doors randomly and “disappeared” for a few days with no note on the door or no outgoing phone message informing you of when they’d be back, you might think they closed their doors for good. At worst, you’d lose a little bit of faith in them. If it happened often enough, you’d take your business elsewhere; to an establishment that you could count on to be there when they said they’d be there. The post was about trust; not about being available at the beck and call of clients.
Let your clients know when you’ll be unavailable. I think that’s all she was sayin’.
Sounds like a lot of backpedaling to me. But the point I’m making is this… you don’t have to report to clients whenever you want to take a day or more off–as long as you are working with them like an administrative consultant and not their virtual secretary. When you do, you have already set in place in the ways things work and the expectations that allow you to do that without having to report it to clients. I wouldn’t expect my attorney or my doctor or my interior designer or whoever to call me whenever they are going to be gone. The only time you have to do that is when it is going to be outside of the parameters you have given clients to expect.
I agree with Deb. When I read the post, I had the same understanding. I would be pissed if a client just up and disappeared for a couple of days or weeks. This does not build a good business relationship for either party.
I view this as a good, common courtesy business standard and let my clients know that I am out of the office, even if just delivering Meals on Wheels. They respect this and appreciate it – and have stated that to me. My clients are well aware of my Meals schedule and that I take Fridays to myself and they handle things themselves, if need be.
Why this would be deemed an employee mindset – not sure. I am not ‘asking’ them if I can take the time off. I am telling them I am out of the office. Period. Besides, I don’t interact with my attorney or doctor on a daily or weekly basis, so they don’t need to tell me they will be out of the office.
Just another business owner’s opinion.
Why do think you have to work with clients on a daily basis?
My advice is always geared toward Virtual Assistants who want to have more freedom and flexibility in their business, make more money, and operate more like experts and not independently contracted workers. Doesn’t matter whether you’re asking or telling, the fact that you have to let them know of merely a day or two absence is something that you don’t have to do–if you structure things properly at the front-end.
Clients don’t get pissed about those things if they are apprised of how it works right up front. They only get pissed if you’ve allowed them to think they need to know of your comings and goings on a daily basis.
Of course, those who wish to continue operating like the secretary outside the boss’ door only virtually are perfectly entitled to do so.