Tag: professionalism

Setting Reasonable Expectations With Your Virtual Assistant

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As someone who hired a virtual assistant, you should be aware of your boundaries when dealing with them. Indeed, they are totally flexible compared to the office-based workers you have in your firm at present, but remember that they are still humans that deserve to be treated with due consideration.

There should be no discrepancy in terms of dealing with either remote or office worker. They also get tired, their skills may be limited to certain fields, and you cannot push them to produce something unimaginable or time will not allow.

One good situation to explain the aforementioned thought is this:

Anna just hired a social media manager for her accounts, specifically on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The virtual assistant or the person, whom she assigned the tasks to, is Julie. Indeed, Julie has this relevant experience in marketing via social media platforms. However, Anna set an impossible goal: Julie must see to it that with one hour every day, her social media accounts have at least one fresh post. Furthermore, the VA must be able to engage with people on her account.

The end result? Julie appeared to have failed the expectations of Anna although she deserves to be provided with more hours to prove her skills.

What Anna asked for is totally unachievable, given the fact social media posts may be easily lodged onto someone’s account, but it does not mean that these only take minutes to be created. Be reminded that creating content for social media accounts requires careful research, analysis of one’s industry, consideration of the target audience, determination of the client’s wants for the posting, content writing, and graphic design. Apparently, these tasks will never take an hour.

Also, engaging with people on one’s account will not last a few minutes at all. There are cases that inquiries may even call for coordination with the management itself or other departments of the firm. For instance, the questions are relative to products or services on hand, which the Virtual Assistant may not be able to respond to accordingly without further confirmation of information.

Be reminded that when setting expectations with your virtual assistant, it is best to have a meeting with him or her and clarify things out. For instance, you could ask the VA to give you an estimate of hours for the work completion. To be assured that you are not being led on (i.e. for the VA to acquire more hours than necessary), require a concrete explanation on how the hours will be spent.

You will know that a virtual assistant is telling the truth based on how they give details on their steps. They will certainly provide you with specific activities entailed on the task you have given and their corresponding required time.

From this perspective, you can see that setting expectations is also accompanied by trust – trust that your virtual assistant will work accordingly without spending more time when not necessary.

Importance of Setting a Schedule With Your Client

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There are a lot of problems arising when there is no consistency or set of standards followed when working with a client. As a virtual assistant, you should remember that at times, it is you, who should be taking the first step in ensuring problems will come out of a lack of organization. One good example is when you do not agree upon a schedule with your client.

It is true that there are virtual assistants who tend to work on a flexible schedule. It does work for some, but there are instances, it will not.

One good way of explaining this is with an example situation:

Imogen and Claire just started working last week. The former is the client in this circumstance, wherein Claire is the virtual assistant. Apparently, Imogen complained about not getting responses from Claire via their chosen messaging platform last Friday. However, when Claire’s side was obtained, it was found out that she already worked beyond her hours, which is four hours per day. It is also added that Claire informed Imogen that she will be starting her work at 9:00 A.M. PST, but the client is complaining of not having a response by night time at 10:00 P.M. PST.

After further investigation, Imogen has been used to sending messages to Claire almost the whole day from Monday to Thursday, while the virtual assistant has no complaint in attending to it. In other words, the client got used to getting replies and at one time, she did not receive one, she already panicked.

If you will analyze the situation above, it is apparent that lack of schedule could result in unnecessary complaints and unfair treatment to the virtual assistant (though this is not the intention of the client). There must be a boundary all the time, and the best solution is a strict schedule to follow. In such way, the client will be aware that the virtual assistant is obligated to respond during her working hours. On the other hand, he or she has the freedom not to respond to client’s inquiries not until her next shift.

Clients should be aware that a virtual assistant is not a round-the-clock employee. They may work in a flexible manner, but they also have the right to obtain some hours of personal privacy away from work.

Of course, virtual assistants, most of the time, should initiate setting up a schedule. It is one way of protecting one’s self from the aforementioned issue. One cannot blame the clients all the time, for once you get them adapt to a certain routine, they will definitely anticipate it to occur going forward.

Professionalism: An Effective Key to Retaining Your Virtual Work

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When people tend to become comfortable with what they are doing, at times, they forget how important their traits are when dealing with their superiors or co-workers. There are cases wherein they would think that their long experience in the field would already secure their job forever, if not, for a long time. Due to this, they become too proud of what they can do, resulting in poor socialization with their peers at work.

You should know that this also happens in the virtual world. There is a tendency for virtual assistants, who have years-long experience in the field, to actually think that they are better than others. The worst part is, this is even reflected to how they deal with their clients or superiors. They have this “Oh, I can find another work.” thinking. This must be prevented at all costs. You may think that your attitude is not a big matter to discuss, but far from your expectation, it is actually damaging the entirety of your career, piece by piece.

Professionalism is the best term that you could use to describe the trait that will take you a long way in the virtual world. Be reminded that it is not simply about being committed to your job. No, it is never relative to that alone – it can be applied in many ways.

One good example is when you actually care about your clients instead of focusing on your own good. Let us say, we are talking about Mike and Johanne, with the former being the client and the latter as the VA.

Mike provided Johanne a series of tasks, which should be the done in a week. He was too busy to actually check each of the accomplished work in every platform used. Thus, he trusted that Johanne would actually carry out whatever should be done while considering the deadline, which is by the end of the week. He also asked for a daily report to get an insight of the progress.

Unfortunately, Johanne did not adhere to the simple request of providing a report. As a result, Mike is confused as to what he had accomplished within the week. While Johanne insisted that he had finished all the work, there is no proof at all, since there are no reports and there are no outputs.

Mike decided to put a halt on his work. The situation is made worse by Johanne by being unresponsive after this decision. Instead of complying with his client’s request of report and explanation, he decided to keep mum. Despite countless messages, Johanne decided to ignore for an unknown reason.

This situation is a big picture of lacking professionalism on the part of Johanne. In the first place, he did not follow the simple instruction of his client. Also, simply because he lost the job, he would already leave the client hanging. He had committed to finishing all the necessary work. Hence, even if it all turns out unlikely, you should close the book in a good way.

Be reminded that as a virtual assistant, the end of a client-employee relationship must be expected. No matter what the cause may be, you should initiate parting ways with a good impression. If you made a mistake, admit it. If not, then defend your side professionally. As for the aforementioned situation, Johanne only showed that he is not worthy to be considered a reputable virtual assistant, for he just ruined the trust of the client. You may also say that the respect has been absent throughout the scene.

If you have respect, you should consider being in the shoes of your client. What would you feel if your staff is treating you that way? It would be disappointing, as well.

As written in the Bible, in Luke 6:31 to be specific, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

If you want to become a reputable virtual assistant, attitude is a very important thing, which includes professionalism. Be reminded that at present, most clients include personality in their requirements for a VA. This is to sustain a harmonious relationship among their employees, which leads to better operations of a company.