Be of Service

Last Sunday afternoon, my husband Greg and I went shopping at a big-chain grocery store. We noticed a sign in the window as we walked inside that said “Corn – eight ears for $2.00.” This got my attention immediately since I love eating corn, as do the chickens.

While checking out, we scanned our rewards card, and then the corn. That’s when we noticed that we were charged $5.14 instead of the promised $2.00. We waved to a store employee for help and she said, “You need to download the coupon to your account.”

I mentioned that we had scanned our rewards card and she said, “Oh, this is different.” It’s a much longer story, but what happened next was that we needed to jump through a bunch of hoops to get the promised price for corn. Not cool.

Don’t do this with your clients. Make it easy to work with you. Adopt an attitude of being of service. This will be one of the keys to your success.

Here’s how:

1. Make information-gathering easy. When a client needs to give you information – passwords, credit card numbers, or special instructions, let them decide the best way to do it … email, text messages, or telling you over a Zoom or phone call.
   
   
2. Don’t use jargon. As VAs, we have our own “language.” Don’t assume that your client will understand what you’re talking about. The employee at the grocery store, when I asked her why we were charged the wrong amount, spoke in half sentences that made no sense to either of us. Make sure you’re being clear by using straightforward language.
   
   
3. Be concise. When communicating with clients, be thoughtful about how you share information. Many will not understand the technical details of the work you’re doing for them; most just want to understand the outcome.

Being of service is a mindset shift that’s important to being a successful VA. Remember: you’re the solution to their problem. Make sure that they feel like you’re on their team.