How to Go the Extra Mile in Your Virtual Assistant Business
Excellent customer service is a must for a service provider. Sure, you can do just enough to provide the service you promised. No more no less. But the moment your client is presented with an opportunity to move on from you, they won’t feel the loyalty to stay with you.
And really, if you love what you do as a Virtual Assistant. If you love supporting your clients, this should be an easy thing to accomplish.
But sometimes life gets in the way and we move our customer service to the back-burner. We do the bare minimum.
So here are 3 quick and really simple ways you can go the extra mile for your clients without feeling like you’re bending over backward.
Be extremely responsive
I say extremely but I want to make it clear that this doesn’t mean you make yourself more available than what your client pays for. If you have boundaries set to not be available after 5 pm or on the weekends, by all means, keep your boundaries in place (but of course, make them verbally clear with the client from the beginning so they will expect this).
But during your workday with your clients, make sure you are responding to them quickly. Even if they reach out and ask you to do something for them and you don’t plan on doing it right then, respond to let them know you got their text/email/slack/whatever and you’re on it. Give them an ETA on the finished product. Never make them question if you got their communication.
Once you’ve finished a task, make sure they know it’s ready for them or that it’s done. If the task was to research something so they could make a decision and then you are waiting on them to get back to you on what phone to order or flight to book, make sure you nudge them if you don’t get a response right away.
2. Offer up your assistance even when it’s not asked for
If you are having your weekly check-in with your client and they mention having to travel next month…but they don’t ask you to look up flights or accommodation...Ask them if you can anyway. They may not have thought about it yet but YOU know that they won’t think of it until the last minute so you might as well as NOW. :)
Another example of this, is if you notice something in their inbox that you can take care of but they haven’t sent it to you, ask them if you can take care of it. Give suggestions for how. Maybe the email just needs a quick response, so you offer to draft one up and send it once the client approves it. Or maybe it’s an invoice you’ve seen hanging out in their inbox for a few days, ask if you can get it taken care of for them. Never leave things waiting!
3. Put everything on their calendar.
Even the things that don’t involve other people. Put lunch on their calendar. Put your vacation time on their calendar. Put reminders on their calendar (or maybe even shoot them a message with reminders, as needed). If your client doesn’t use their calendar, shoot them messages more often.
It doesn’t take much to become irreplaceable, just be intentional about your customer service and own your work! Baby your clients as much as they need it. Some clients won’t need or want that, and that’s okay! But get in-tune with the type of relationship they want so you can step up and be that for them.