Loading ...This isn’t actually a question that was submitted to my Dear Gritty VA column, but it was an email conversation with one of my members on a topic I thought would be helpful to everyone here…
Dear Gritty VA:
My main issue around retainers is that toward the end of some months, I’m less than half way through some of my retainers (meaning, clients still have about half their hours unused). Then I get worried that the last week of the month is going to be a flurry of activity trying to get all the hours in. My clients know where they stand with my hours, and they also know that unused hours don’t roll over. However, I let this issue bother me and take up space in my head. How can I handle last minute requests on the very last days of the months from clients who haven’t utilized their retainers? –DB
Here’s what I do in my practice… In my client guide and in my orientation with new clients, I explain how work requests are to be submitted. One of my policies is that all work needs to submitted with at least three days notice, and particularly when it comes to work toward the end of the month. The idea is to make sure they understand that they can’t submit something on the last day, for instance, and expect that it is going to be covered under that month’s retainer, much less get done that same day. I have to have three days heads-up so as to fit things into already scheduled work and not be forced into last-minute, rush requests. If they do not provide the proper notice, then it gets counted under the next month.
You have to be able to manage the work that comes in and have time to do it well and on your terms. When we’re rushed, we are sloppy and make mistakes. It cheats other clients. It can also very easily lead to resentment, which isn’t good for any relationship. It creates poor operating conditions and that in turn affects the quality of your work and service all the way around.
You’re not a slave. You have a right as a business owner and as human being to care about doing good work and about how the work affects your morale, business image and operations. Make sure you are instituting the protocols and procedures that allow you to create those conditions that lead to great service–for all your clients–and which take care of you as well.
The other part of this question speaks to the issue of clients not utilizing you. Here are a few of my thoughts on that…
First, we can’t take responsibility for clients in that regard. It is up to them to make use of what they have purchased. They are grown-ups and we are not their babysitters.
That said, we need to ask ourselves what we are doing to help clients utilize the support. If a Virtual Assistant is just passively waiting to be told what to do, they are not truly being administrative experts and they are not leading their own business. Clients are expecting you to be the expert; they expect you to know how to guide them. It is incumbent upon you to be proactive, take charge of the delegation process and figure out how to help clients make use of your service. One way to do that is by taking what you gleaned from your consultation talks and regular meetings and coming up with a plan of support for them. This gives them clear direction and helps them more easily give things over to you.
Beyond that, it’s up to clients, which leads to another side of the coin to consider… if you end up with a client who has a pattern of not being able to follow your protocols, who consistently is not utilizing the service they have paid for, you may need to evaluate the fit of the relationship. Someone not in business or solo practice might think, so what, it’s business, it’s money. But they just don’t realize how awful it is to work with someone who just isn’t using your service. I don’t know of a single Virtual Assistant who enjoys taking money from someone who just isn’t using their support. It’s completely de-energizing and unsatisfying. We want to make money, yes, but we truly want to be of help and service at the same time. We want our gifts and talents needed and used.
So if you find yourself with a client who isn’t using your support and you feel you’ve done everything you can to help them give stuff over to you and they still can’t get with the program, you simply aren’t going to be able to help them and it’s time to let them go.
