As a new Virtual Assistant you might be wondering how on earth you communicate with clients when you’re virtual?
What’s ‘best practice’?
What’s more effective?
What’s the most efficient way?
Or you might just be thinking. How did I get to this blog, I was looking for a crochet pattern?
Anyway, here are some of the best ways to communicate with your clients as a Virtual Assistant. Some you’ll probably already have thought of.
Phone Calls
If you’re comfortable giving out your phone number you could communicate via good old fashion telephone.
Cautious me wants to warn you to always follow up a call with an email, so there’s no confusion over what was discussed.
Phone calls are a great way to get a deeper relationship with your client because of the inevitable small talk. You also get to know someone’s personality a little more when you speak to them. Slight differential tones, a giggle, informal. Whereas written text can be interpreted in many ways.
But, calls can be a massive time zap compared to emails, and your time is money!
Almost everything can be done by email. In fact, I’m going to say, EVERYTHING can be done by email.
I no longer give clients my phone number and it’s not done me any harm. So if you don’t want to either, don’t!
If you do give out your phone number ensure it’s stated clearly on your booking form that all calls are charged at your hourly rate. You might also want to stress that calls must be booked in advance otherwise you’ll get clients calling and texting at all times of the day!
Zoom Calls
Videotelephony is a brilliant way to convert potential clients on a discovery call. I know it feels scary but it gets easier. You just need to remember two things:
- You’re their equal
- It’s not an interview
- They’re just as lucky to have found you as you are them
I’d never managed to connect a video call successfully at my old employers, I just couldn’t get the hang of the software and all the codes and troubleshooting. So when I started my business back in 2015 this was my BIGGEST fear.
To make it a little easier I did a mock call with a fellow new VA to practice logging in and get used to the way it worked. Do give that a try if you’re a nervous wreck like I was.
Being in business is all about stepping outside your comfort zone and taking opportunities you’d have never had the chance to experience as an employee so don’t dismiss this wonderful way of converting clients from potential to secured!
In time, when you’re more confident converting clients purely by email, you can drop the video calls if you so wish. I can no longer do them with potential clients as I find them incredibly tiring and I have only, to date, lost one enquiry as a result.
Emails
This is always my preference for taking instructions from clients. The number one reason is there is a paper trail, so if a client something you agreed – and sometimes they do because they’re equally as busy – you can say ‘In your email dated DD/MM/YYY’.
It avoids so much stress for you and allows everyone to move on swiftly.
Of course, it’s just as easy to refer back to voice note or a social media DM but they can be deleted, unlike your emails!
Iit sounds like I’m being paranoid but, in business, you need to have a backup and something that you can refer to should you ever have somebody that’s difficult.
Also, with an email you just get straight into what’s needed. With a call you’ve usually got the ‘how are you’, ‘what have you been up’. And as you become busier in your business you’re going to want to make sure your time is well spent. Please don’t think I am not interested in other people or building relationships, I am. But I find talking incredibly hard and exhausting with my brain tumour and Addison’s disease. Email works for me. As always, you must do what is best for you and what makes this Virtual Assistant journey as enjoyable as possible.
Again, if you’re happy to give your phone number out you might be happy for your client to send work requests through via WhatsApp. However, this is where you would need to set boundaries from the off and let the client know when it’s acceptable to WhatsApp and when it isn’t.
I used to give my phone number out but one client soon taught me it wasn’t a great idea. She’d WhatsApp at all hours and on a Sunday. I’d inevitably read it and then think non-stop about it, worried I’d forget.
Your WhatsApp might be for your friends and family and it’s perfectly acceptable to keep it just for that.
You can always state things like this on your Booking Form that comes with the Terms of Business from KoffeeKlatch. Don’t forget to use discount code CATH10 for 10% off.
Voice Notes
I don’t know how you feel about voice notes but I’m not a fan. God, I sound like a right fun sponge, don’t I. The trouble with me is, I have so little awake time due to my health that I really put an emphasis on how my time is spent. And that has actually done me well because it means very little of my time is wasted when I am working so I am able to maximise profit, thus avoiding that famine stage freelancers often talk about.
With voice notes there can be a lot of waffle ‘I’m just crossing the road, hang on’, ‘OMG you should see this cute doggy’, ‘*slurps oat flat white*’. Maybe that’s just my daughter. Haaaa.
But again, if there’s a lot of waffle at the beginning and potentially at the end, and the middle actually, I have to listen to them a few times. Then right down what they’ve actually asked me to answer / do to make sure I don’t miss anything THEN I like to send an email so everything has a trail. All of that time would be charged to the client because it’s time I couldn’t work for someone else.
It would have been a lot easier if they’d emailed me, and cheaper for them!
Social Media DMs
This is okay for me in my role as a VA Mentor, but you’re going to want to think about whether you want to be disturbed on, or in, places that you may use for personal stuff. It is so easy to read it, phone rings, or you take a break and – if you’re 40+ like me, you’ve completely forgotten about the message in 5 minutes until you wake for a wee at 4am. I don’t take any instructions by a DM on any platform for virtual assistant work and again, you don’t have to either if it doesn’t work for you.
Project Management System
As you become more familiar with a client you may both find you like to communicate via a Project Management System. Something like; Asana or Trello. These are great for logging tasks and noting your progress. The client can login too and see where you’re at with them.
These systems allow you to ‘complete’ jobs but still keep them in the software to refer back to.
Your client could also set the tasks on their directly, assign them to you and then the software would be set to automatically email you. So you’ve not only got a paper trail, you’ve also got the perfect virtual set up!
Don’t worry about learning any of these project management systems before you get a client because they’re very easy and will take you a matter of hours to pick up.
Just open a free account when the time comes and, this is probably the only time you’ll see me suggest this, take advantage of their free training videos or other videos on YouTube.
How to Change your Communication Preferences
You may have given out your phone number, started taking instructions via WhatsApp or be bogged down by voice notes and want that to change. Do not worry, it’s really easy to move clients away from any type of communication that you’re not comfortable with as a virtual assistant.
If you’ve not yet secured any clients, remember, my recommendation is to state your communication preferences on your Booking Form (it comes with your Terms and Business from KoffeeKlatch).
Something like; ‘All work requests to be sent via email. Any requests for calls to be received 48 hours in advance. Calls will be charged at my hourly rate and an email sent afterwards outlining what was discussed’.
If you’ve already secured client/s and want to change how you communicate then by all means adopt how I handled it:
Initially I sent an email and say ‘To ensure I do not waste any of your time completing tasks I’d like to request that we move all communication over to email. I use DM / WhatsApp / voice notes with friends and family so things can easily be missed or read in haste. If I keep all business communication in my inbox there’s no chance of anything being missed and we both have a trail. Do let me know if there are any problems with this’.
If they continue to ignore this request you must stand strong and reply with: ‘Could you send that via email for me?’ and don’t do what they’ve asked until they comply. Because, the one time you let your new rule lapse it tells them it’s not important.
If you’ve got a client that isn’t familiar with working virtually they may think that they have to do phone calls. If that doesn’t work for you, that’s fine! I find that it helps to say ‘I charge for calls so it’s much more cost effective for you if you can email me, plus having it in writing ensures I don’t miss anything’.
Now we’re not saying we don’t charge for reading emails. We do. But I wouldn’t put it on the time report as ‘reading emails’ I would just add the time to the task that they’re asking you to do. Your time is money!
Think about how you would like to communicate with clients and set those boundaries straight away.