The Virtual Assistant Customer Service Expert

Customer service is an important aspect of every business. When customers aren’t satisfied they go elsewhere. For business owners that don’t have the time to provide proper customer service, they can hire a virtual assistant with the skills to do the job.

What is customer service? It can be as simple as answering an email from a customer in a timely fashion. Or, it is providing a FAQ page on the business website. To a customer, having their needs met is the definition of good customer service.

The Market
After business gains clients through marketing and advertising, that is only half of the job. They may have fifty one-time customers who spend $100 each on the site. That is $5,000 worth of business.

If poor customer service drives them away, that $5,000 will seem like small change in the long run. Better still are the same fifty customers spending $50 each time they visit because of customer loyalty inspired by great customer service. Now, the business makes $2,500 each time these fifty customers visit. A satisfied customer is the best marketing tool a business can have.

Because the customer has the power to make or break a business, treating them like they are important (which they are) is a crucial step in the business plan. Businesses use email systems, answering services, automated phone messages and instant messaging services to deal with customer issues. But, each of these types of service ideas needs someone to effectively manage them in order for it to work.

Customer Service Expert Virtual Assistant Tasks
When sales drop off because of customer dissatisfaction, it’s time to get help. Virtual assistants are trained in communication skills. These skills not only benefit you in finding clients but doing your job as well. As a virtual assistant customer expert you will be working with the client to solve their customer problems. Your work for them will be done with their customers and reported back to them.

Part of your job will be:

• Addressing customer complaints (calls, emails, IM)
• Handling product issues between client and their customers
• Answering customer questions
• Sending out emails, catalogs and newsletters to subscription customers

How broad your services really depend on what the business is in need of. They can give you leeway to offer customer refunds, exchanges and other offers depending on the situation at hand. This requires that you have access to customer accounts databases and privileges to update them.

Much dissatisfaction with outsourcing customer service by customers is the lack of knowledge of the product or the company. As a virtual assistant specializing in customer service, you will become familiar with the company and their products as a common practice so that you can do your job well. It is an added bonus for you to have worked in the customer service industry before.

A virtual assistant brings skill in communication to the table when dealing with customer service issues. Your work with create lifelong customers for your clients.

The Virtual Assistant Web Designer

One niche that virtual assistants are pursuing is that of a web designer. More and more brick and mortar businesses are taking their products to the Internet. Without the savvy to create the base for their online presence, they will need your help.

What is a web designer? A web designer is someone who works to set up websites for other businesses. If you have knowledge in this area and are talented to boot, you can take your virtual assisting business in that direction.

The Market
The Internet is the next great frontier. Millions upon millions of people use the Internet everyday to look for information, conduct business and buy merchandise or services. The way into this world is through your online presence. It is the way that people learn about you and your business.

Web designing has a tremendous learning curve. Most people don’t know anything about HTML or RSS except that they are letters. It can be intimidating for someone who wants to build a website (for an existing business or as an Internet business) to do so and not make mistakes.

Mistakes can cost you business. Pages that won’t load or graphics that are too loud can turn visitors away before they can see what the business has to offer. Many businesses would avoid this part if they could.

The area of web design is ripe for the picking for any virtual assistant with experience. Website designers who can take the ideas of the business owner and turn them into reality are and will continue to be in demand.

Virtual assistant website designers perform tasks like:

• Website setup
• Blog setup
• Monitoring forum discussions
• Page setup
• Search engine optimization of pages
• Uploading files, videos, audio and podcasts
• Troubleshoot coding problems
• Website maintenance

Visitors look for different things in a website. Placing ads at the top of the page are more eye-catching. Dedicating each webpage to a different product allows more information about the product to be readily available. Well-informed visitors are more likely to buy the product that way.

These are just a few of the tasks you may be called upon to perform. Believe it or not, just taking care of the website duties is a weight off of the mind of business owners both small and large who want to concentrate on the business side of things and not pulling their hair out trying to manage graphics or blog posts.

The good news is that any one of these areas can further be defined as a sub-niche. Within web design you can concentrate on website maintenance or simply the initial setup. Both are much needed services. Any virtual assistant, who likes the technical side of the Internet, will see their passion fulfilled as a website designer.

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The Real Estate Virtual Assistant

Many virtual assistants worked in other areas of corporate America before they went into business for themselves. If your area was real estate, think about the opportunities waiting for you as a real estate virtual assistant.

Real estate agents either work for a company or they can go out on their own and work as an independent. To make money, they sell homes and other properties. Agents stay busy with listings, showings, sales and other projects. Combine that with their office responsibilities and the “little details” and you have way too much for one person to handle.

The Market

As any business owner will tell you, it is hard to juggle promotion, client satisfaction, daily operations and professional affiliations all at once. Many new businesses like an independent real estate agent are not in the position to hire new employees at first. Besides that, the pick of local applicants may be less than qualified to do the job without some hand holding at first.

The real estate industry was among the first to use virtual assistants to meet their needs. Virtual assistants had the necessary skills to handle bookkeeping, accounting, database management and various other office activities. Virtual assistants that once worked in real estate decided to use that knowledge to build a niche business for themselves. As such, they were able to expand their services to real estate agents beyond just the basics.

Duties of a Real Estate VA

Virtual assistants that have been in the real estate industry know that an agent needs help with basic office needs and much more. With that in mind, virtual assistants, like you can offer services like:

• Business marketing plans (creating company logos, brands)
• Website management (virtual tours, website content)
• Contacting potential clients (home sellers, home buyers, FSBOs)
• Coordinating listing activities (data entry, promotional info, presentations)
• Closing activities (escrow, inspections, signings)
• Keep track of appointments
• Create new business leads

With the knowledge of real estate, clients will seek you out to make their job easier. You will be able to propose new areas for business growth, create sales copy depending on the area and the situation with the housing market and deal with the questions that customers ask but agents don’t always have time to answer.

Many real estate virtual assistants work with local agents and develop a professional relationship. With your expertise, you are not limited to that though. Maybe you deal mainly with website services. In that arena, you can create stunning websites and virtual tours for clients in any time zone as long as they provide the needed information for you to get started.

A virtual assistant in the area of real estate is a vital member of the team. Your knowledge helps the agents to concentrate on the business of helping clients to buy or sell property and leave the rest to you.

How to Specialize as a Virtual Assistant and Why You Should

The virtual assistant business is booming. Businesses have realized the advantages of hiring someone to help them with their business tasks. As a virtual assistant you can work to meet the needs of any and every client or you can change your tack and specialize in one or two areas of business.

Have you heard the phrase, “Less is more”? It’s true when you are talking about virtual assistants. A general virtual assisting business lets you take in clients from all walks of life. That’s good if you like that, but sometimes the learning curve can be quite big with certain projects. When you specialize, the client gets the benefit of your accumulated knowledge on each and every project.

The reason you started your virtual assisting business in the first place was to go to work for yourself. Going into business as your own boss shouldn’t be an unhappy proposition. If it’s not a law it should be, wouldn’t you agree? As the person in charge, you have the right to decide what work you do or do not do.

Take your virtual assistant business to the next level with niching. Niching involves tightening your business plan to include one main area of expertise. When you stick to one thing, you become good at it. You can even call yourself an expert in the field. Clients will pay a lot of money to work with someone who knows their stuff. You can be that person.

Specializing

How do you specialize? First, decide what services you enjoy doing for your client. It could be website design, social networking, handling personal matters or another area altogether. Many virtual assistants worked in the public or private sector before they became entrepreneurs. Use that knowledge to create a niche for your new business.

Reasons to Niche

The first reason is more money for your services. Because you provide the same services to all your clients, you can ask for a higher rate. You can make the same profit that you did before but with fewer clients.

Secondly, niching lets you work at something that you love to do. It is a proven fact that when you are happy, you work better. That goes for employees and business owners. You gladly answer questions for customers or take on a trying task.

Thirdly, you can keep your clients satisfied with great customer service and job integrity. Your clients get your best work always and will recommend you to others. You build a solid faithful client base.

Specializing as a virtual assistant is a way to increase your business. Clients get an expert in the field and you get to work a business that you love.