Tag Archives: communication

I love to remind the business owners that I work with to take communication with their virtual assistants (VA) very seriously and to hold themselves accountable for providing their VA with on-going feedback throughout the year.

While this may seem obvious, be sure to always tell your VA what is expected of them.  It is a simple conversation that should always happen when asking them to do work for you.  It is also important to let them know it is ok to ask you questions when they may be confused, or unsure of any expectation or work task.   Just be sure to let your VA know if you prefer to have him or her email, text or call you with questions, so that it is less likely they will do job that doesn’t meet your expectations.

Regular feedback is such an important part of team development and seamless workflows. Try and schedule time to provide your VA with both constructive and positive feedback each week and your relationship with your VA will be exactly what you want it to be!

Working with a virtual assistant is a great option for a busy entrepreneur. Working with anyone – real or virtual – is a dynamic situation where adjustments need to be made as the working relationship evolves.

We have worked with hundreds of VA and clients, and find that the key to success with any working relationship is having good communication and setting realistic goals.

Today, interacting with your virtual assistant is done using various electronic technologies. Setting up a virtual workspace for communicating with your VA is essential.

These technologies should include the following:
Email – let your VA know if you will be setting them up with a specific email address for your business, or if they will use their own email address to communicate with you. Determine a response time that is acceptable to you and your VA.
Live Chat– Skype or Facetime once a week or once a month if that will help you stay connected.
Document Sharing –Dropbox, Basecamp, and Trello are some options where you can share work and give instructions that can be accessed remotely.

Your VA’s output is greatly dependent on your initial orientation, and the systems that you have already set up, along with some training provided by you.

As your working relationship develops with your VA, you may need to be tolerant and allow for a learning curve. If you remember to communicate, give appropriate feedback, and provide the tools and the training necessary for the job, your VA should become a great asset to your team.

Many people think that sending business related emails may not be an effective way to reach their customers, since many of our in-boxes are over-flowing with daily,weekly and even monthly messages.
Shockingly, trends and statistics are showing the complete opposite. People are reading and still opening their emails every day.

That being said, let’s look at a couple of tips from Huff Post – What’s Working With Small Businesses that will help you take advantage of using email to convert sales.

1. Communication – Think about it. You talk to customers daily. You, or your team, interact with customers and prospects (and multiple people within a customer) daily. Much of this interaction occurs through email. Be sure that you are using some type of email marketing platform that allows you to track your emails – when your contacts open and/or click through to certain links. Platforms such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact or iContact are just a few to name.
2. Offer an incentive – Name one person that doesn’t like free stuff. Offering a free gift or providing a special time sensitive discount is a great way to push leads to convert. The discount doesn’t have to be something outrageous and the free gift doesn’t have to have a high monetary value. The average consumer simply can’t pass up a free offer or a limited-time discount.
3. Ask for the sale – How is asking for the sale ground breaking marketing advice? It’s not — it’s actually common sense, but something that many businesses just don’t do. Ask your leads if they are ready to purchase and watch how many reply “yes.” They became a lead because they were interested in what your business offers. Food for thought: if your business doesn’t ask for the sale your competitor will.
4. Develop a great FAQ page on your website – Many leads won’t convert because they have questions that they need answered before they pull the trigger. Answer common questions that your leads might have and make it prominent on your website. Talk to your sales team and customer service reps to put together a list of common frequently asked questions. Take a look at this excellent FAQ page from Webdesigner, to learn how to create the perfect FAQ!