VA Secrets Revealed! The Blog

You Gotta Appreciate Your Clients

As you build your business and begin to form relationships with your clients, make sure you are treating your clients well. And I don't mean doing the work well and calling it a day. If you are serious about cultivating relationships that will last a long time, you need to do more.  Here are some things you can do to keep the relationship going in the right direction:

• Exceed expectations - Go above and beyond what is expected…every single time.
• Be ultra responsive - Don’t make your clients wait to hear from you. Even if you aren’t able to respond in detail or do the work immediately, shoot them an e-mail so they aren’t left hanging.
• Listen - Truly listen to what your clients are saying. You may realize there is a better way to do something for them, or you may discover new areas where they could use your support.
• Be willing to make suggestions - Every client relationship should be a partnership. If you think a new process or system might make them more efficient and productive, speak up!
• Make them look good - Do your work well consistently.
• Be honest - If you’re not comfortable with a certain project or feel like it might be out of your area of expertise, talk about it.
• Communicate well - However you communicate -- e-mail, phone, face-to-face -- be clear, coherent and professional.

At the end of the day, make sure your clients know you appreciate them. A note or informal e-mail, a holiday gift, or an unexpected phone call to let them know they are valuable to you can go a long way in developing a long-term relationship. Once you get a hold of a good client, do not to let them go!

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This is expanded from Chapter 4: Finding and Keeping Clients | Make 'Em Stick in the book, "VA Secrets Revealed! An Insider's Guide to Being a Successful Virtual Assistant." Grab a copy and follow along as I blog chapter-by-chapter!

It's OK to be Picky and Choosy

A tough lesson to learn for all new business owners, including virtual assistants, is that not every client is a good client for your business. When you're just starting out, it can be very hard to turn work away. But truthfully, if you want to build a business that has longevity and staying power (and be happy while doing it), you have to be picky and try to build a client base filled primarily with clients that fit your "ideal client" criteria.

So how to you determine your ideal client? A tool that I discuss in the book and have all of my coaching clients complete is the Identifying Your Ideal Client worksheet.  It basically involves answering a series of questions that help you develop a list of qualities and characteristics you would like your ideal client to have –- kind of a wish list.

Here are some of the questions you may want to consider:

• What are some things a client could do that would make you consider them a valuable client?
• What type of people do you work best with?
• Are you interested in only doing a specific type of work for clients?
• How many hours per month do you want to work for each client? Is there a minimum or maximum number of hours?
• What availability are you willing to provide (i.e., standard business hours only)?
• What are your communication preferences (e.g. phone, e-mail, instant messaging)?
• How much notice do you want for incoming projects?
• How much time do you want to turn work around?
• Is there a certain geographic area in which you prefer your clients to be located?
• How do you want your clients to treat you—on a business level only or do you want them to know you on a personal level? 

The purpose of this exercise is not to limit yourself, but to have a good feel for the type of clients you want to collaborate with on a long-term basis. You will have non-ideal clients...all businesses do. But if you can identify your ideal client and recognize when one comes along, you can take the necessary steps to cultivate that relationship into one that is sustainable and mutually beneficial for both sides.

Oh and if a potential client is not an ideal client for you, they are probably an ideal client for someone else. If you decide not to take on a client, you should refer them to another virtual assistant. Not only does this help you network with other VAs (which can have a multitude of benefits by itself), it also helps the client, and it becomes a win for the VA industry.