How To Deal With Clients

Every client needs to be under the illusion that they are your first priority and the most important client to you. Always make them feel important. Never advise them that another client’s work is taking priority over their work. Never advise them that you are not able to complete work for them due to an internal reason (eg because of moving desks around, taking out the rubbish, looking after someone’s child etc). Our clients are number one in priority, always.

When doing any written/published work for a client, there needs to be two eyes over everything. Ensure that another virtual assistant reviews for you. This includes but is not limited to e-newsletters, articles, books, blog posts, online posts.

Never go to clients with a problem, always try and investigate solutions first.

If you have any queries about the work you are doing for the client, ask your Team Leader first. They may be able to provide guidance or training or make a decision on something for you. If they cannot, then the query needs to be passed up to Jo. The ultimate goal is to free up our clients time and take care of things for them behind the scenes.

Each client will have a password or handbook in their client file that you will need to be constantly adding to. You need to ensure that all passwords, emails, and usernames that are used are in the password sheet and any instructions on how to do something goes in the handbook. This just makes life easier if anyone is to take over from you one day or a client is handed over to another team member.

If you own a client, it is your responsibility to monitor, manage and communicate the budget with the client, on some occasions, you may find that they go over their budget so they will need to be notified immediately.

Some clients you will start to build a strong relationship with that may start blurring the lines between personal and business friendship. It is important to remain professional at all times and never forget that they are our paying clients. Always remember to make them feel like they are your number one priority and an important client.

If you start having client issues, you may need to talk to the client account manager or your team leader to try and resolve these as quickly as possible. See also the 'Setting boundaries with clients' page for help with workload, timeframes, clients contacting you outside of hours etc.