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VA Directory

VA Directory - Connecting clients with Virtual Assistants

AU: +61 437 889 400

Points of Contact

Pull out your business card and have a look and see how many points of contact do you have on your card? One? Two? Three or more?

It seems that many feel that because they have an email address or a website, they no longer need to add any further contact information on their business cards. I believe this is the wrong way to think and you need to make it easy on your prospective clients.

As an avid networker I go out regularly to meet with other business people and what they put on their business cards always interests me. Sometimes it’s just a phone number. Sometimes just an email address. Sometimes just a website. Very rarely an address or a location.  One person I met today I queried about it and he’d forgotten to add his phone number and location when he got them printed in a hurry. oops! And in his field location is an important piece of information.

There are many different personalities out there and clients with different needs. Some want to visit your website and learn about you and your services before they make contact. BUT, that doesn’t mean they want to fill out a form, or even send an email. What if they have problems with typing, or with their ability to write and put sentences together? What if people prefer to speak with you on the phone? What if they want to find out if you’re local to them first (important if the line of work they want done requires face-to-face contact or passing on of work).

Don’t shut out some of your target market by making it harder for them to contact you. Make sure you provide the information they need to make it easy to contact you:  Phone number, suburb/location (or address), email address and website should be on your cards. Give them options and appeal to everyone, instead of just a proportion of your target market. Just because you favour one point of contact, doesn’t mean your clients do. And let’s face it. If clients are not computer or internet literate it’s all the more reason why they need your support services – give them a phone number! This is my current business card and on the back I have some information on the types of services I provide and my postal address.

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Beware of being ‘faceless’

I got an approach recently, from a company wanting me to outsource my VA work to them. They told me they wanted to partner with me. Naturally I went and visited their site and in particular, checked out their ‘about page’. Pretty much a stock standard paragraph or two on the services they provide but nothing about who ‘they’ are, no names, nothing about their knowledge, experience, background, no photos (other than stock photos). facelessIn other words they were faceless and there was no way I could look them up to learn more about these people who wanted me to do business with them.

I see quite a few VA sites, particularly those who approach me to outsource work to them, and find this same thing. The sites are almost a copy of each other, as though they’d bought a cookie cutter template, complete with the wording. Why would I want to do business with people who can’t even identify themselves and back up their promises with years of experience and knowledge?

As a VA you are providing a personal service to other business owners. They want to get to know you as a person – not someone who is faceless and nameless. Don’t hide who you are but make yourself available and let others get to know and trust you. Show your photo, share your experience and background – your website is really your CV and if you want to gain clients, you need to give them some confidence in your abilities and to even know whom they’re addressing if they call or email.

Can your prospective clients contact you?

Have you viewed your business card and website with your prospective clients’ eyes lately?

Over the past year I’ve noticed a trend in business cards having minimal details.  Websites are often the same. A name, perhaps a business name, an email address (or, on their website a contact form) and a mobile phone number. That’s it. Often the email address is not a domain address, i.e. they’re using their ISP email, gmail, hotmail or similar.

When considering whether I want to do business with someone I like to check them out. I’ll visit their web page (if I can find one), I’ll Google their name to see if they’re on Linkedin, Facebook or elsewhere and check to see what other information I can find out about them. Frequently I’m looking for services or resources that are local to me. The only thing that will make me know they’re local is that I met them at a local business event, but if I met them online, say via Facebook, LinkedIn, or elsewhere often I won’t know where they are located.

Recently I met a lady who told me she was interested in finding out more about Virtual Assistants. She did tell me her suburb and gave me her card.  But when I looked at her business card, and her website, neither one gave a postal address or even her suburb. Although there was a phone number listed it was a mobile and that doesn’t give any clues to location either. And yet she comes to your home or office to provide her service. If I hadn’t met her personally but came across her website I’d have no idea if she was near enough to me for me to want to engage her.

Someone who contacted me recently via Facebook asked me to like her Facebook page. I was interested in finding out more about what she does as a portrait photographer. Lovely work. But nothing to indicate where she is located or how to contact her other than through a PM.  If you’re running a business and have a presence on Facebook you should be giving people access to contact information, particularly if your service or product is something that’s ‘local’. And that includes the URL for your website.

A contact form on a website is not sufficient. Sure, you can collect people’s contact details but if you don’t provide yours on the website then people are often going to move on. Not everyone wants to fill in a form on a website. Sometimes they like to give you a call and ask questions, or if you have a business where your location is important, i.e. photography, people will move on if they think you might not be near them.

The above is not only important for Virtual Assistants but also their clients. And their VAs can do them a great service monitoring their contactability and ensuring that all forms of contact are available on their business cards and their online presence.

So, while the new year is still young, why not start reviewing the contact information you make available for prospective clients and update it quickly?  Oh, and don’t forget to include your signature block for email too. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to email people asking for their phone number or address if we’re organising a meeting because they just sign off with a name and the email address they’re using doesn’t reflect their web address.

 

Is this job a scam?

This is something I see posted on the VA forums from time to time and it amazes me that some cannot see common sense with the jobs that are offered.  If it makes you feel uncomfortable, unsure, uneasy, then there is a good reason for it.

If the job requires you to handle the client’s money to pay their bills and buy things – DON’T do it!

Never, ever take on jobs that require you to pay bills on behalf of clients or do shopping for them. Nor accept their mail for them or buy gifts on their behalf. They can do their own shopping online.  NEVER offer to handle bill payments for a client you’ve only just met. I wouldn’t expect anyone to ask that of me if we haven’t known each other for a long time. It will, most likely, be a money laundering scam or something.

VAs should be doing true secretarial/admin type work, or social media support, etc. Web based and computer based work. Not personal services where it involves the handling of money. How on earth can the client be comfortable with you handling their money when they don’t even know you and haven’t even built up a relationship?  I have twice managed things of this nature for clients – on both occasions I’d been working with these clients for many years and it was a natural transition in our working relationship. I had become their personal assistant in many ways. But I certainly wouldn’t do this for someone I’ve never met and do not know, nor have built a trusting working relationship with.

You need to use common sense in things like this and think if it was in the reverse, would you trust someone you don’t know with your money?

If it doesn’t ring true, or makes you uncomfortable, then there is usually a good reason for it. Don’t do it and steer well away. If a client wants you to bank a cheque, make payments for them and keep the balance, then go to the police or your bank and hand the cheque over – do not bank it, whatever you do.  Give the bank or police all the details you have of that client so they can take it from there.

The last thing you want is being either out of pocket a couple of thousand dollars, or being dragged through the courts because you were part of a money laundering scam.

When the client search is on

When we are new in business, or business is slow, the client search takes place. Sometimes it’s hard to know where to look, what to do, who to contact, in order to secure clients quickly.  After all we’re in business to make money and to do that we need clients. Where do they come from?

They should come via our own efforts of networking, connecting with people, both offline and online, and helping people to learn about our services. They should come from our own personal databases and personal connections. They shouldn’t come from attempts to lure clients away from other VAs and service providers, nor should it be through spamming or making a nuisance of ourselves.  There is a right way to build your database and a wrong way.

I wrote an article for the Australian Virtual Assistants Association today, because of recent events that I became aware of.  One I’ve experienced personally several times, where new VAs have contacted me begging for work. And I know that many VAs via discussion forums have had the same thing take place. The other relates to a VA business contacting the clients of other VAs and attempting to lure the clients through the offer of very cheap rates for the services provided. This is called poaching and is unethical.

The article begins below.

When VAs (or anyone in business for that matter) are starting out, it is very tempting to go to where you know existing clients are. By that I mean, a client you know who is already using a VA.  Or perhaps you might choose to contact an existing VA to see if they have any ‘extra’ work you can pass on to them.

Both of these practices are frowned upon in the industry.  You can read more about this article here.

About

A Clayton’s Secretary T/as VA Directory was established in March 1994 by
Kathie M. Thomas.

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