One of the most common questions we get asked when talking to potential Clients is ‘how will you keep in touch?’. Working with a Virtual Assistant requires a different way of communicating, but if it’s clearly defined from the beginning, it’s really straight forward. Here’s a brief overview of how we communicate with our Clients:

1)  Initial Meeting

If possible, we try to make our first meeting with a client face to face. This helps build trust and a good working relationship.

Sometimes, depending on locations, it can be difficult to meet face to face. In these cases, we will arrange a video call.

2) Day to Day

We will agree with the Client early on the expectations for communication, this will include how much independent initiative they want their VA to have, at what point they want any issues raised, what level of decision is with the Assistant and what should be referred to the Client. As a VA gets to know the business, their initiative and decision making level will increase as they better under the business owner’s priorities and goals.

There are lots of different ways for an Assistant to communicate with a Client on a day to day basis. Sometimes it is dependent on the Client’s systems. We use a variety of tools with our clients including:

• Telephone: there’s nothing like a proper conversation to clearly communicate a decision or task.
• Instant Messenger: instant messages allows you to relay tasks in writing but keep inboxes a little clearer. There are lots of different systems, but the main ones I use with my clients are Skype for Business and Slack.
• Video Call: this is a great way to have a face to face meeting without being in the same location. The only thing to be aware of is that sometimes your broadband speed can impact on the quality of the video. I mainly use Skype or Google Hangouts for video calls with my Clients.

3) Review Meetings

It’s important to have regular Client / VA review meetings and at a minimum of every 12 months. This is a great way to make sure things are working how they should be and that tasks and objectives are being achieved. As with the initial meeting it is good to do these face to face, but they can be via a video call.

Communicating with your VA is straight forward as long as you clearly define when, how often and how you will keep in touch.

One of the most common questions we get asked when talking to potential Clients is ‘how will you keep in touch?’. Working with a Virtual Assistant requires a different way of communicating, but if it’s clearly defined from the beginning, it’s really straight forward. Here’s a brief overview of how we communicate with our Clients:

1)  Initial Meeting

If possible, we try to make our first meeting with a client face to face. This helps build trust and a good working relationship.

Sometimes, depending on locations, it can be difficult to meet face to face. In these cases, we will arrange a video call.

2) Day to Day

We will agree with the Client early on the expectations for communication, this will include how much independent initiative they want their VA to have, at what point they want any issues raised, what level of decision is with the Assistant and what should be referred to the Client. As a VA gets to know the business, their initiative and decision making level will increase as they better under the business owner’s priorities and goals.

There are lots of different ways for an Assistant to communicate with a Client on a day to day basis. Sometimes it is dependent on the Client’s systems. We use a variety of tools with our clients including:

• Telephone: there’s nothing like a proper conversation to clearly communicate a decision or task.
• Instant Messenger: instant messages allows you to relay tasks in writing but keep inboxes a little clearer. There are lots of different systems, but the main ones I use with my clients are Skype for Business and Slack.
• Video Call: this is a great way to have a face to face meeting without being in the same location. The only thing to be aware of is that sometimes your broadband speed can impact on the quality of the video. I mainly use Skype or Google Hangouts for video calls with my Clients.

3) Review Meetings

It’s important to have regular Client / VA review meetings and at a minimum of every 12 months. This is a great way to make sure things are working how they should be and that tasks and objectives are being achieved. As with the initial meeting it is good to do these face to face, but they can be via a video call.

Communicating with your VA is straight forward as long as you clearly define when, how often and how you will keep in touch.