It's vitally important if you are to sustain your Virtual Assistant organisation, that you keep the clients that you already have. This will lead to long term income and often times, many regular referrals; in fact, my biggest new client intake comes from existing clients recommending my services.
What we need to do, therefore, is to make sure that our existing customers are always looked after and that they maintain a good level of satisfaction throughout. I have some experience working in 4 and 5 star hotels, which allowed me to really bring a remarkable element of customer service into the relationships with my clients, which otherwise wouldn't have existed if I wasn't always trying to keep hotel guests happy and coming back to stay again and again.
I have put together "top three tips" that are really important if you are to keep those clients:
Tip One -- Always Follow Through And Do Exactly What You Say You Are Going To.
Don’t ever think that there are any casual arrangements in business - there aren't. Whenever you say that you are going to do something for a customer, it doesn't matter how small it might be, it might just be sending an e-mail, agreeing to do a small piece of work or making a call, it is very important that you actually do this.
This is something which is vitally important to gain the trust of your clients, because without their trust, retaining them hangs in the balance. If you truly establish this feeling of trust, unless something goes horribly wrong, or changes in your business, I believe you will have a client for life.
Tip #2 - Never Miss A Deadline.
If you are not sure that you can meet a deadline, never announce it. If you promise Tuesday night and you send it Wednesday morning, you have missed the deadline and you have broken one of the golden rules of good business.
Learning when to commit is something I learnt over a long period of time. When I started off I was so eager to please that I would take on an amazing amount of work with crazy deadlines and I would often find that I was staying up until four or five o’clock in the morning to meet the deadlines, which I always did, but it was difficult and I felt like death warmed up the following day. So please, always set yourself reasonable deadlines, and if you know you can make it, then go for it, but if you have any doubt - it's much better to inform the client that you will need a longer deadline, potentially risking losing the work, rather than to take it and let them down. The repercussions from one breach of trust can be serious, even from something seemingly insignificant at the time.
Tip #3 - Always Be Impartial.
I always try to remain impartial with clients. I avoid any preconceived opinions at all times, except, of course, unless I am specifically asked. Interaction must always be based on fact, although you should also draw on your personal experiences. I always try not to give a response based on my emotion. For example, if the client has been rude or is very upset, I must sympathise with the way they are feeling, and try to be the “Grown Up” in the matter, by taking control of the situation, offering a solution or a resolution -- without getting too involved. So, when it comes to dealing with these client issues, please keep in mind that whether you're considering a virtual assistant program now, or you're thinking about checking out a virtual assistant program in future, or even if you've already had some sort of virtual assistant program experience, come over to www.virtualassistant-live.com and see for yourself what other like-minded people are saying about this extraordinary "home based business opportunity," Virtual Assistance!
You have to be very clear and succinct with clients right from the beginning, this is the best way to bypass any conflict, making sure that they know what they will receive from you and what you, in turn, expect from them in return. Don’t allow the client to be subject to any unusual surprises, whilst you may decide you don’t want to work on Wednesdays (which is of course fine, it’s your business, your terms), the client needs to know too, as they may have something planned for you to do every Wednesday which they haven't mentioned yet, and if this is the case, they may question their decision on hiring you when you cannot fulfil their requirements.
