Q & A for Virtual Assistants #2 - happy clients, how to succeed, making businesses accessible, finding clients, and where to learn new skills
Hello, hello! Welcome to the Desire to Done Podcast for Virtual Assistants! I’m your host, Billie Gardner.
Last week I did a special Q + A episode where I answered some great questions from VAs. I ended up having so much fun that I decided to do another Q + A this week too!
Before we hop in, if you have a burning question you’d like me to answer on the podcast, go to desiretodone.com/podcast and fill out the form at the bottom of the page.
Alright, let’s dive into Question #1!
What are some things I can do to improve my customer service experience for my clients?
Ok, so I get it. We tend to focus on getting new clients, but the truth is, it’s equally important to keep the clients you currently have!
Some easy and free ways to impress your clients and hopefully keep them forever are to:
- Communicate with them consistently throughout the week so that they don’t feel forgotten. Make sure you are contacting them by their preferred method and not too often so you aren’t interrupting them.
- If you have ideas on ways that they can improve their business, share them! Business owners need all the help they can get and appreciate suggestions for making things better, quicker, and more efficient.
- Tell them from time to time how much you appreciate them and enjoy working with them. And give specific examples if you have them.
It’s also a good idea to remember your clients during the holidays and their birthdays! Send them gifts if you can. Even something small in the mail is a great way to show them how much they mean to you. And don’t forget… you can write off client gifts on your business taxes!
Question #2: Is there a specific personality type (like one of the Myers-Briggs types) that is more likely to succeed as a VA than others?
My answer to this is … absolutely not!
Any personality type can grow a thriving VA business; introverts, extroverts, thinkers, and feelers! The great thing about VA businesses is that they are all so different.
What you have to do is know the strengths and weaknesses of your personality type. Make sure that the business you build aligns with who you are and that you are attracting clients who will benefit from those strengths.
Question #3: What do you think would be a good service to offer existing and new clients to make their business accessible to more people?
So my question is, have you thought about helping your clients create captions for their videos? Captions make videos accessible to people who are Deaf or hard of hearing.
Here are some service ideas for you:
YouTube has a feature that will create video captions for videos uploaded to their platform, but what I’ve found is that automated captions are never perfect - no matter the platform. You could assist your clients with fixing grammar or spelling errors in these automated captions so that they make sense.
Another idea for you is to help Skillshare teachers with their video captions. Skillshare now automatically creates captions for teacher videos, which is super cool, but unfortunately, they are far from perfect.
As a Skillshare teacher myself, I don’t want weird words popping up when my students are reading the captions on my videos, making them confused and annoyed. So just like with YouTube, you could assist teachers with cleaning up the automated captions so they make sense.
Another suggestion is to help membership owners and course creators with their captions because these people usually have tons of videos.
If you’d like to learn more about captioning, I have a blog post with tools, terms, and more. I’ll link to it in the episode description.
Question #4: I’m an introvert and I’ve been struggling to get clients, especially via social media! What can I do to get more clients?
Good question! Finding clients can feel daunting for introverts, especially through social media. I mean, come on! The word Social is right in the name, and it’s one of the things we introverts tend to dislike!
I’ve found that the best way to get clients is by directly reaching out to them.
Are there any entrepreneurs you look up to? Who do you follow on social media? Whose blog posts or newsletters do you read consistently? Think about how you can add value to their life and email them directly. Let them know how they inspire you or changed your life, and introduce yourself. Sometimes it can be as easy as that!
I still use this technique as a VA mentor. In fact, I reached out to someone today.
I was watching an online summit interview where the summit host and another coach were talking about hiring VAs and how it feels difficult to do when first starting out as a business owner. I was so inspired by this and knew I could help so I emailed the summit host. I told her how long I’ve been a fan of hers and why and then offered my support by sending a link to my free hire a VA service in case she or any of her coaching students need to hire a VA.
I also told her about my Hire a Virtual Assistant Workbook on Amazon and offered to send her a free copy. I figured it was a good way to get in front of her, send her a gift for inspiring me, and who knows, maybe she’ll love the book so much she’ll refer it to others. If she doesn’t, that’s ok. If she does, that’s great too! It just felt good telling her how amazing she is and how she has helped me.
Final question #5: How can I learn new skills to offer clients? I feel like I’ll never be an expert, especially with all the different online tools!
So, the good news is... you don’t have to be an expert to offer help to your clients! You just need to know a little more than they do.
There are several ways you can learn new skills, however:
Most online programs have tutorials on their websites that you can use for FREE. Some of them even offer certifications!
There’s also good ol’ Google. Spend some time searching for articles and courses on the skills you want to learn, and you’ll probably find all kinds of resources!
There are books, online courses, and memberships on just about anything! Just look for a reputable teacher who can guide you through the process.
Another option is Skillshare - I already mentioned Skillshare earlier, but you can take a variety of online classes spanning from design, entrepreneurship, technology, and more. I’m currently learning how to use different video editing programs because I want to uplevel my video editing skills. There are tons of classes to choose from!
And of course, there’s my membership the Introvert VA Club. We have over 70 trainings, templates, checklists, and more to help you learn new skills. We have classes on ConvertKit, Honeybook, Dubsado, WordPress, Divi, Buffer, and lots more. And it’s super affordable. Check it out at introvervaclub.com.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode why not check out last week’s episode where I covered websites, consistent money, raising rates, day rates, and a new service idea. And be sure to subscribe too so you won’t miss any future episodes.
Hope you have a great day! byeeee!
