The Gritty Virtual Assistant

Recently, I had the opportunity to chat online with Kathy Watkins of TurnKey Virtual Assistance. We had such a great conversation and at the end of it, I realized a lot of the information we talked about would be helpful to other Virtual Assistants as well. So, with Kathy’s permission, here is a transcript of our mini Q & A session:

Danielle: So you had a great call with a client this week?

Kathy: This morning. I’ve really found my rhythm with all of my clients. It feels great.

Danielle: What was it about the call that made it especially energizing?

Kathy: I discovered that I need to know my clients in order to do a good job with them. We got to know each other a little better on a personal and professional level. I feel more confident in myself as a Virtual Assistant and as a business owner. I think that is coming across to the clients.

Danielle: So what was not happening before that you weren’t getting to know your clients?

Kathy: I think I was busy getting to know me, the business owner. I am great with people. I just had no idea how much of my successful interaction with them was dependent on visual cues. Initially, virtual relationships were a bit disconcerting for me. Truth be told, they still are in some ways. However, I do think I’ve found my sea legs and I’m becoming more comfortable.

Danielle: Excellent! And how often were you meeting with clients? How often are you meeting now?

Kathy: Before, it was very irregular. With one client, we have a scheduled monthly update meeting, but we call each other in between if necessary. Another client is bi-weekly. The third client is as needed.

Danielle: May I suggest something that I think will help?

Kathy: Absolutely.

Danielle: Cool! Well, I really recommend that Virtual Assistants have a weekly telephone meeting with clients, especially, and most importantly, with new clients. Make it part of the process and part of your standards. Because it absolutely will work like nothing else in a) establishing and maintaining that personal connection that is vital to the partnership, and b) creating a platform in order to better serve clients and thereby growing and increasing your role and understanding in the work.

Kathy: I have found it immensely helpful to have that regular personal contact, so making it a regular part of the week sounds good to me. I really like the opportunity to find out how the client’s priorities may have shifted, and what new information may impact projects we’re working on.

Danielle: Absolutely! Eventually, when you’ve worked with a client for a number of years, you may both find that the connection is so solid you just don’t need that frequency of meetings; that your communication and relationship with each other is so sympatico that your email exchanges pretty much take care of everything. At that point, you may find that twice or once monthly meetings is all that is needed. But do continue to meet on a regular basis of some kind. It helps “water” the relationship and keep it thriving.

Kathy. I think this is a fabulous idea!

Danielle: The important factor, I’ve also found, is making it systematic. Don’t let it be willy nilly. Make it a planned and regularly scheduled event in the relationship. Not only will it make it that much easier to manage all your weekly telephone meetings with clients, but it will also be less disruptive to actual work. Set it and forget it is the idea (not forget it, of course, but just get it scheduled for the same time/same day every week so it becomes a routine for everyone).

Kathy: Ideally, I would like to do them on Monday morning. I can’t think of a more productive way to start the week.

Danielle: Whatever day makes sense for you. I don’t know how you feel about this, but one thing that’s helped my business run smoothly is that I don’t let clients decide what day these calls are held. I tell them right in the consultation process that we’ll have a weekly one-hour meeting and I do those on Tuesdays and we’ll come up with a regularly scheduled time. They don’t get options so they have to be able to work with that or we can’t work together.

Kathy: How do you get around a client saying that they aren’t available at the time you want to schedule the call?

Danielle: What I tell them is that if they aren’t available for a particular week’s call, I would expect them to give me advance (not last minute) notice so that I can schedule other things and that we’ll just resume calls the following week. I don’t do reschedules for that same week. I have a very systematic, scheduled system and I serve clients exceptionally well because of it. I don’t worry too much about the time unless it feels like there’s a real abuse or disrespect going on. Then we’ll have a talk and if it ever comes down to it, the time will come out of their hours. Of course, when that is the case, it’s usually time to recognize whether a client is a fit or not. But that’s worst case scenario stuff. Personally, I haven’t had much problem with that in many, many years and you usually don’t when you make sure you’re working with ideal clients who value you in the first place.

Kathy: Is there any advantage regarding who places the call, you or the client?

Danielle: I don’t know… I think there can be power plays with that whole thing, which just isn’t of any interest to me personally. I tend to see that stuff as game-playing and that’s definitely not relational. I call clients because I feel it’s an opportunity to demonstrate customer service. But either way, you might both decide that it will be the client who calls you. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way as long as it’s not decided out of game-playing or power-tripping.

Kathy: Are your clients fairly long-term?

Danielle: All of my Virtual Assistant clients since about 2002 have been long-term.

Kathy: When a client wants to work with you, what criteria do you use to determine whether you want to work with the client?

Danielle: That’s a good question… of course, there are my hard criteria–the qualifiers and list of prerequisites that helps ensure you’re not wasting your time with anyone who is absolutely not going to be a fit. A narrow target market, a certain income level, not in start-up phase (generally too disorganized and no reliable cashflow at that stage), etc. But then when you get into the consultation, and you determine that their goals are things you can help them with, you start looking at the person themselves and their relationship/communication/work styles. That’s when it comes down to intuition and chemistry. And it’s not a marriage… it’s business. If you have a reasonable sense that you’d enjoy working with someone, go for it. You do what you can to make as educated a decision as possible (because it’s definitely not profitable to work with poor-fitting clients), but if it doesn’t work out, no big deal. Either of you can walk away at any time. There really doesn’t need to be all this existential agonizing. Too much naval-gazing.

Kathy: Regarding certain income, how do you verify that the client isn’t just telling you what you want to hear?

Danielle: Well, you don’t ever know absolutely for sure. Trust goes both ways. You just have to go with your gut. If they appear to be truthful (looking the part) and you feel they are being truthful, and you feel a good chemistry and authenticity, go for it. And again, if it doesn’t work out, walk away–meaning, exercise your option to terminate the contract with whatever notice is stipulated. Simple as that.

Kathy: How did you handle it when your gut was telling you to walk away, but your wallet was telling you that you desperately need the income? (I ended up walking away, but not nearly soon enough.)

Danielle: There’s no miracle solution for that. Reality is reality. I think the best you can do if you absolutely can’t walk away, but recognize that the situation isn’t good for you or your business, is you work as hard as you can to replace that client ASAP so that you can let them go. But I will tell you that being invested in the money or outcomes is exactly what enslaves you to poor-fitting clients. It’s a tricky business, but if you can somehow mentally train yourself not to care about the money or what happens, however you want to explain how that works in the world (LOA, power of intention, whatever), it really does work out for the best. In fact, I would tell you just out of my own experience, things always work out far better when you can do that. You make better decisions and more ideal things come in to replace the unideal much more quickly.

Kathy: Danielle, you are such a sweetheart to share your wisdom with me. I really do appreciate it! I’m gonna try and log some billable time in this afternoon, but even though it wasn’t billable, this has been the most productive part of my day.

Danielle: It’s my pleasure and I really enjoy it, obviously, LOL. You ask really smart questions and I LOVE that about you.