The work of a virtual assistant seems attractive and flexible, but it brings with it many hidden challenges. The most important of them directly concern the personal qualities of a virtual assistant.
Many clients complain about their assistants’ lack of reliability, professionalism, or communication skills. Imagine a situation when the client expects a quick order, and his assistant is late with the response and does not inform him about the progress of the work. Or even worse, when he commits to performing a task that he is unable to complete due to a lack of appropriate skills or tools.
That is why it is so important for virtual assistants to have the right characteristics and skills to meet customers’ expectations and needs.
Get ready for a handful of practical tips to help you become a better version of yourself in this demanding role. Ready? Let’s get started!
Reliability
This feature seems obvious, but unfortunately for many virtual assistants, it is not. It is difficult for me to cite client stories here, because so far I have worked mainly with people for whom I was the first virtual assistant.
However, I can give a situation in my agency as an example. At least a few people (both women and men) passed through my team who were able to complete a simple task for several, if not a dozen or so, days, without informing the client or me about the progress.
Later, as the person managing the team, I had to explain myself a lot why it took so long to complete it. I have also heard of cases where an entrepreneur, after a long selection process, chose a virtual assistant to work with, and she simply cut off contact. She stopped replying to emails and taking his calls.
These are unacceptable situations, and they are largely ruining the still-young virtual assistance industry in Poland. An assistant who takes on work with such a “disaffected” client will have to work harder to make them trust that they are competent.
Seriously, I can get pretty pissed off reading about such situations or witnessing them firsthand during the recruitment process for our team.
Professionalism is key in this industry. If you want to be taken seriously, you must return clients’ calls and messages at least the same day.
Great communication skills
At the very beginning of your cooperation with the client, you should inform them about what the cooperation looks like and establish how you will communicate with them, including how you will deliver your work results, whether they want to be informed about progress on an ongoing basis, or whether they prefer to receive the final effect of the implementation. You should also specify the details before you start the assigned tasks.
It would be ideal if all clients could delegate tasks precisely and clearly. Unfortunately, many of them do not do it well.
You will probably most often get:
- Short instructions, taken out of context, without familiarizing you with the purpose of the task itself,
- Emails forwarded as CC (for your information), with a wall of text or a history of a dozen or so conversations and the note “can you arrange this?”,
- Several tasks at once, the content of which is duplicated or – even worse – mutually exclusive,
- Tasks that you will not have the permissions or tools to perform.
Therefore, depending on the task, your goal will be:
- Asking about the broader context – if you feel that it is necessary for the proper implementation of the task,
- Carefully read the entire content of the email conversation sent to you (if you received one) and understand the process you are to follow,
- If you have been given several tasks that are somehow related to each other, organize them and, by paraphrasing the content, make sure that you understand what needs to be done.
- Establishing permissions with the client if you do not have them; for example, if you are supposed to run a fanpage profile on FB and you have not received access, you should remind the person who was supposed to give it to you as soon as possible; and if the client sent you a file with a password-protected spreadsheet that you did not receive – you should also let them know about it as soon as possible.
The frequency of communication should also be established at the very beginning of the cooperation. Some clients prefer to be up to date with each order and receive daily feedback. Some will send you a task and wait for the result. Others will want to call you once a week to discuss the current status of the tasks.
The forms of communication can also be varied. Some clients assign all tasks to me via email, while others need to discuss every idea with me over the phone. The vast majority prefer to assign tasks via a chosen messenger, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, or similar.
I also think this is a good solution. It is much easier to find the necessary fragment of the conversation back. And above all – it protects me in disputes with the client, when each side has its own argument. Then a screenshot of the conversation is enough and the matter is clear.
Skillful time management
You will work with clients who will be convinced they are your only or most important client and will expect your full attention. And if you can make them feel that way, they will treat you as one of the most important people in the team.
Clients like to feel that they are the center of your attention and that their needs and tasks are always a priority. It is your time management skills that can make each client feel unique and treated individually.
How can you do this when you have several or even a dozen clients under your care? And when you really have a lot to do throughout the day? Time management is more than just planning tasks in your calendar. It’s about strategic thinking, flexibility and the ability to prioritize tasks. Planning your work is key here. You should do it in advance, also leaving yourself a reserve for unforeseen situations.
The ability to delegate tasks can also come in handy here. As a virtual assistant, you need to be able to recognize when it’s better to delegate a task to someone else so you can focus on your strengths. This way, you can effectively use your skills and gain additional time for work that actually brings value to the client.
Resourcefulness and cleverness
Sometimes new virtual assistants ask me questions that they could easily find out if they spent just a little time Googling.
In this job, you will be asked to do many things you have never done before. And you will have to learn how to do them. If you do not learn how to efficiently solve customer problems, you will never be a “level master assistant.”
Of course, it’s hard to expect you to be Alpha and Omega; you can’t know everything. As long as you’re fair to the client and don’t try to convince them that you can do more than you actually can.
On the other hand, clients won’t expect you to know everything either. If you’ve never done what they want you to do before, tell them that. You’ll make an even better impression on them if you tell them you’ll educate yourself on the new topic, rather than learning a new skill at their expense. Then find materials that will help you understand, and just do it.
Reading comprehension skills
Theoretically – it’s obvious. In practice, the subject is a bit of a limp topic for a lot of girls who start their careers as virtual assistants. I don’t consider myself a task delegation expert. I’ve read a few articles on the subject, I’ve taken two courses on communication and team management. And I certainly know most of the ways to do it wrong. But let’s say I know the basics and I try to specify the tasks my team has to do so that there are as few doubts as possible about what needs to be done.
But if I assign an assignment that says “use the template I provided you with in Canva, just add a new photo to it and change the text to something else”, and someone makes me a graphic completely from scratch, then they probably have trouble reading.
We sometimes get very complex, multi-step tasks from our clients. If the assistant doesn’t even read the content of what she has to do several times, she definitely won’t do the task well. So if I see that someone has a problem with correctly completing a trivial matter, then unfortunately… I won’t spend any more time with such a person.
The ability to inspire trust and meet expectations
You need to know what you have to do, but you should also make sure that the client is sure that you know what you are doing. Often, the person who comes to you is making contact with a virtual assistant for the first time.
Therefore, they may not know what such cooperation looks like. If you do not lead them by the hand, they may get discouraged. Usually, clients will expect you to guide them through the process of introducing them to cooperation. That is why it is so important that you explain how you work on an ongoing basis.
This will show the client that you can be trusted, and that’s what you care about. Additionally, by taking responsibility for the implementation process, you show your confidence in what you do. And we like working with people who know what they’re doing, especially in business.
What if you get a distrustful client? Since you don’t work for the client in the office, they may feel that they have no idea whether you are really doing the tasks for them and how much time it takes you.
In such a case, a great bargaining chip will be to show them that they can verify your work, thanks to the tools you use. For example, when recording your work time on a tracker such as Toggl or Clockify, divide individual tasks into tasks and describe them precisely.
This way, the client will immediately see how much time you spent on a given task in the reports. Over time, when they gain trust in your cooperation, I guarantee that they will stop checking you.
Commitment to the client’s business
It is important not to limit yourself to the tasks that are assigned to you. Most clients will be interested in whether you are involved in the business they are doing. They will appreciate it when you are proactive. If you see something that could be done better in a client’s business, let them know.
But be careful not to overdo it in the other direction – that you don’t start behaving like an Oracle. Remember that the client knows their business and what’s best for their company. Constantly lecturing the client or pointing out their mistakes is a straight path to ending the cooperation.
Summary
In conclusion, running your own virtual assistant business is not easy, but with the right skills and approach, you can become a master assistant that every client can count on. Remember to always focus on developing your skills and being open to feedback. This will allow you to constantly develop and adapt to your clients’ needs.