Tag: effective communication

Why Reporting Your Daily Accomplishments Matters

Why Reporting Your Daily Accomplishments Matters

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Communication has always been an essential part of taking the role of a virtual assistant. However, it is not simply a single entity, but is composed of various factors that should be identified individually. One of the essential components of effective communication in virtual assistance is updating the client of your daily accomplishments.

Various virtual assistants tend to make the mistake of not even giving their clients report on the things that were finished for the day. As a result, problems arise. For instance, clients would need to spend extra time simply to check if you have done your work for the day. This will definitely be a bother, especially if he or she is often caught up with tons of appointments daily. Remember, you are a virtual assistant for various reasons, one of which is to lighten the burden of your client.

Moreover, there is a possibility that your client may even doubt if you have done anything for the day. This is normalcy, especially if the virtual assistant simply logs in and leaves work without even considering to update his or her client. This has been experienced surely by a handful of VAs already. The end scenario is always that he or she has to defend his or her end. This is an event that could have been prevented in the first place.

By updating your client, you will also help in keeping him or her aware if he or she is still supplying you tasks as necessary. There are clients, who depend on what you report prior to delegating further activities on your end.

There are various ways to keep your client aware of your daily accomplishments. One good example is to maintain a habit of updating him or her every time you have done an activity. This is regardless of not receiving any response from your client often. As long as you are certain he or she is able to read your updates, this could already work.

On the other hand, you may report at the end of your work day instead. Simply ensure that your report is concise enough, which will keep your client from reaching out to you and clarify things out. Otherwise, this would just make the whole idea of updating him or her useless.

As a virtual assistant, updating your client could also be your opportunity to keep open communication between you two. This is also your chance to ask questions and even propose better means of executing certain activities for him or her. Alternatively, as you exchange words regarding your tasks, you can even learn from your client as he or she shares how things should be done more effectively.

Always keep in mind that even though you are a virtual assistant, this does not imply that you have to alter your work ethics altogether and adopt robotlike manners. Even if you are working home-based, you should still preserve human touch while reporting to your client. You may not be physically present, but you can appear to be such with the way you work.

Communicate continually.

Patience Is a Key to Establishing Good Client Relationship

Patience Is a Key to Establishing Good Client Relationship

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As a virtual assistant, it is understood that you will come across various types of clients during your home-based career. There will be ones, who you can describe as the best people to work with. However, there will be cases that you would describe your client as exacting or someone that gives you much pressure with regards to work.

Moreover, there will be ones that are very new to virtual assistance. As a result, they commit mistakes that will test your patience expectedly. Indeed, even virtual assistants have to cope with a client’s shortcoming.

One good example is when a client is not aware that he or she cannot simply call or reach out to you whenever he or she pleases. Lots of virtual assistants could attest that this somehow happened to them one way or the other. Nonetheless, you should remember that it is all about speaking up. There is no disrespect if you want to put a boundary between your personal and professional space. If there is an established schedule for you, then you do not have to worry at all, given you can simply state to your client that you are only available during those times.

Another good instance is when a client thinks he or she does not have to elaborate things for the tasks to be done. There will be ones, who would expect a lot relative to your output without even considering the need to explain what they really need. This is common in graphic design projects. Still, as a virtual assistant, patience is a virtue in this situation.

Once again, it is all about voicing out your concern. Prior to starting your work, you should complete your requirements. Otherwise, it will be your peril provided that you are at risk of repeating your work or making mistakes. If you are paid by the hour, you would never want this to transpire.

Speak up by explicating that your viewpoint will not meet his or hers if some parts of the project are explained vaguely. It will also be a problem for your client if repetitive work will arise; to be specific, missing deadline is highly probable to happen.

If you will analyze the aforementioned situations, you could practice patience by working your way to establishing a good communication ground between you and your client. As noted, you should not lose faith in settling things out. It is your loss if you will simply leave your job or project, more so your client, due to such instances. Everyone makes mistakes and there will be misunderstandings if one is new to something.

Start making forbearance a part of you, and you will definitely sustain harmonious relationships with your clients or employers.

learn the unheeded power of follow-ups

Learn the Unheeded Power of Follow-ups

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Follow-ups are often considered annoyance, which is why even virtual assistants forget and neglect how important it is. Do you know that it has immense power that you may be missing? Have you ever thought why some marketers usually take note of following up or reconnecting? This is not to cause repetitive offering of their products or services. Instead, it is one way of actually catching a client.

There are also reasons why you should consider follow-ups in your virtual assistance work as early as today. To begin with, the following facts will open your eyes relative to its efficacy:

Keeping your clients organized. It is understandable that clients are always filled with schedules and appointments to attend to. This means that you are hired as a virtual assistant for you need to at least keep your client aware of his or her upcoming endeavors. Yes, they do have calendars and software applications to remind them, but this does not mean that they would always notice it.

This is when follow-ups are best used. Before even a meeting starts, follow up with your client. This will not only help him or her be prepared but this may also open for early cancellation, if an urgent matter arises. At least, you can still reach out to other participants of the meeting and notify them of the unforeseen revocation.

Avoiding deadlines. If your client has a deliverable to submit to the management or company concerned, following up with him or her would definitely help. Similar to what has been indicated earlier, a client is anticipated to be filled with a lot of things to do, so he or she needs reminding.

This also goes the same with you. For instance, you will be missing the deadline if you still have not obtained clarification regarding the instructions of the tasks given to you. If you would follow up, you would urge your client to attend to your concerns right away; thus, avoiding your output from being late.

Tracking the progress of your team. Team leaders would find follow-ups useful, especially if your subordinates have to work in unison. By following up, you could always remind your team members to avoid deadlines and focus on what has to be done. Moreover, follow-ups also prevent your subordinates from procrastinating.

Naturally, when employees are not receiving any follow-ups from their superiors, the tendency is for them to think that they are not being monitored. Additionally, this could lead to lower productivity.

Ensuring seamless transactions with customers. Considering you are working for a client, who has required you to work on invoicing and coordination with their clients for payments, you should also learn the essence of follow-ups. It may be quite disconcerting for you to follow up regarding a payment, but remember that this is part of the sales system. Thus, there would always be a time wherein you have to remind a certain party of an upcoming bill or missed payment. You cannot always rely on the fact that your customers will remember their due dates.

Better customer service. If you are assigned as a customer support, follow-ups are also powerful in making your company’s clients’ experience better. For instance, there is an issue that has been reported to you and you have provided a solution. If you would add a follow-up treatment on how the client is doing subsequent to your support, you would definitely find him or her pleased with your relentless concern.

With the provided facts, hopefully, you would already be encouraged to use follow-ups at work. But of course, too much is never right. Thus, you should reconnect in respectable manner – professional and alike to a soft reminding.

Communication: A Key to Effective Virtual Work (Client’s Perspective)

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Previously, we have discussed how important communication is when you are a virtual worker. Apparently, without it, you will not be able to survive the online industry at all, for you will not just waste a lot of job opportunities. In truth, you will also fail to build a reputation for yourself as a reliable home-based employee.

Now, it is not just about the virtual worker itself, or even if we are talking about a virtual assistant. Take note that communication requires a two-way relationship. Thus, even the employer or a virtual worker’s client has the obligation to maintain good communication.

There are so many instances that a client-employee relationship ends due to failure in effective communication. However, one should not deduce that it is only about the worker. Remember, as mentioned above, it is a two-way requirement. Thus, there are certainly cases that communication fails on the part of the client.

To give you proofs, given below are common situations:

Client fails to provide a complete picture of what he or she wants to be done. This is common during the hiring process of virtual workers. There are times that clients do not provide a complete list of requirements. As a result, they are incapable of finding a good talent for their operations or a simple project.

Although they may find someone despite the vague job description, in the end, this will cause a loophole to develop. It is either the employee will give up for he or she is being blamed for an incorrect output despite the fact it has been the wrongdoing of the client in the first place – not explaining things enough.

Be reminded that if you are a client, you should be as specific as possible in elaborating your needs for a virtual worker. You cannot just say, “I need a good web developer.” There are various programming languages and platforms that such a person could be proficient in. Also, for certain, you are in need of a specific web development skill.

One good example is, you actually need a WordPress expert. If you do not indicate this, you may end up with an inexperienced web developer, who will be going through a lot of practice first before knowing every nook of WordPress.

Client does not even consider to touch base with his or her virtual worker. Take note that work is not all about sending a task and expecting it to be carried out. You should also develop a good relationship with your employee by maintaining a regular communication with him or her.

You are not obligated to actually connect with them every now and then.  The only thing is, you should at least check if he or she is doing well with his or her work, or confirm if there are no issues on their end.

This is not all about being compassionate about your people. Instead, it is about ensuring that everything is on track.

There are times that virtual workers tend to assume (which is entirely wrong, but you cannot blame them all the time), especially when their clients are not reachable at all times or they do not even give the hint that their employees could get their assistance. This is regardless if they will respond or not right away.

Client does not provide a straightforward feedback. You should know that virtual workers are aware that their work could be criticized for their own benefit. It is not solely about telling that something is done incorrectly and your employee should find the mishap himself or herself.

As much as possible, use communication to explain everything that has gone wrong with the output. Provide constructive criticism. This is not a complete waste of time, for it will provide you advantages in the long run. The more you give clearer feedback, the more your virtual workers would be able to identify your style, needs, and wants.

Client provides limited communication leeway for his or her virtual worker. This may be trivial for some, but it is totally helpful. As a client, you should not only provide your virtual worker one communication platform to speak with one another. You should at least provide two. A good example is providing them tasks via e-mail so that you could write everything down effectively and assisting them via a messaging platform of your choice.

Some make a mistake by relying on e-mail alone. As a result, their virtual workers do not get immediate responses or just replies to their inquiries, delaying whatever has to be carried out. Furthermore, e-mails could stack with one another, and admit it or not, clients are mostly not frequent visitors of their inboxes.

Thus, if you really aim to assist your virtual worker to make things work, agree on another communication platform. Well, you got a lot of options around. You got Skype, Messenger, Viber, WhatsApp, Zoom, Slack, etc.

The aforementioned situations are only a few of many instances that could prove communication does fail on the client’s end, too.

Once you have established a good communication with your virtual workers, there is no doubt that you could maximize their abilities for your own benefit or your business’.

Communication: A Key to Effective Virtual Work (VA’s Perspective)

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Virtual work has now been considered as a better alternative to office-based work due to many factors. Let us begin with the difficulty of traveling from one place to another. There is no denying that most virtual assistants chose to work from home since commuting from their home to office have only been excruciating for them. You cannot blame them to complain. Just imagine your day being consumed by being on the road for hours!

Another factor that makes being a home-based worker more advantageous is the ability to be near your loved ones. Working in the office has taken this privilege at an unlikely level – mothers not being able to rear their children or fathers not being able to witness their children grow. Is that how life should be? Apparently, no.

However, no matter how you consider virtual work your future, you should have to consider a lot of things to make it work. Now, we will focus on communication. Neophytes in the home-based work industry would think having an employment online will be the same with working in the office. No, it will not be entirely the same. In truth, it is more sensitive and requires more commitment.

Let us go back to why communication is one thing you have to focus on while being a virtual worker. Truthfully, without it, you will not even be able to get a job online, more so in keeping your occupation.

To make it clearer for you, given below are top reasons why communication should be the foundation of your home-based work:

It is what your client depends on to make everything work. Without communicating with your client, you will not even get to know him or her better. Plus, the work that has to be done or his or her requirements will not at all be disclosed.

Since he or she will not be able to work with you in the flesh, what he or she will rely on is the messaging platform you will use. This could be e-mail, Skype, Messenger, Viber, Zoom, or anything that you could think of being used to communicate virtually.

It is what makes you worth being paid. Without communication, you will not be able to inform what you have accomplished. Remember, not all clients have the time to check what you have finished in a certain shift immediately or regularly. They depend on what you report to determine what you have done for them or their operations in a day.

It is what keeps you a reliable employee. Communication will always give you the chance to prove that you are a reliable virtual worker. How? By opening up about something that is not right with the tasks you are working on. By making your client aware of improvements that could be applied to their systems. By admitting your pitfalls and assuring that you will be better in the future.

If you will analyze it, you can say that without communication, no virtual work would even be on your plate.

The question now is, how could you improve communication with your client? It is simple: maximize the use of the messaging platform you are currently utilizing to be in connection with him or her.

Whenever you are reporting or logging out, inform him or her. Report whatever you have accomplished in a day. Ensure that he or she is updated with his or her future appointments. Keep him or her aware of your project’s progress. Voice out what you think should have made the proposal better.

There are too many ways you could improve communication while working online. As stated above, MAXIMIZE it.