When you’re working with a Virtual Assistant communication is vitally important. To get the best results and build an effective relationship you need to be able to get your point across with ease. Finding a Virtual Assistant who has a similar communication style and complimentary personality helps. But a certain amount of effort will still be required, particularly when the relationship is starting out.
The remote relationship means that communication may be a little harder. You won’t be able to catch the non-verbal indicators that occur in face to face conversation. It also leaves a lot of room for misunderstandings based on email and SMS messages.
Get the results you want
If you want your partnership with a Virtual Assistant to be worthwhile, it’s important that you can hand over work and get it back the way you want it. So it’s essential that your communication is on point.
Your Virtual Assistant has their role to play when it comes to communication between you as well. They should be quick to let you know when they’re unclear on something and ask for more details. Or, if they can know of a better way to get the result you want, they should approach you about it.
These things depend on having excellent communication.
What can you do? At the start of a relationship, be very clear about what you want. If you get something that’s not quite right, let you Virtual Assistant know. It may mean that you’re often picking up the phone to talk things through. But it’s worth it to make sure you’re being clear about what you want. In emails, be honest about what you want, but keep in mind that your Virtual Assistant can’t see that you’re joking or exaggerating in text and may assume that the email that’s meant to sound light-hearted is, in fact, harsh criticism.
Build a good relationship
I think it’s important to have a good relationship with my clients. It doesn’t mean we must be BFFs but it’s important that I feel that I can talk to them about any issues I have with their work. And the same in reverse, if there is anything I send a client that they don’t love, I want them to feel comfortable telling me.
Which makes relationship building important. It’s important that you feel you can broach subjects as needed. To make you feel you can speak clearly without being overly concerned that the person you’re attempting to communicate with will take it the wrong way. And because the better your relationship, the easier communication is.
What can you do? Again, being honest about what you want is a great start. Finding someone who communicates in the same way you do also helps. As does working with people who prefer the same communication mediums that you do. Both work, because being comfortable when communicating, makes communication easier. Starting an email when you’re feeling tense and concerned about misunderstanding is likely to cause you to write an overly complicated email that leads to misunderstanding. Likewise, making a call when you’re feeling on guard and defensive is likely to cause a stilted conversation.
Working with a Virtual Assistant is a fantastic way to find time and increase your services. To get the most out of the relationship, excellent communication is key. Virtual Assistant communication isn’t difficult, you just might need to slightly adjust your normal style to account for the fact you don’t get the benefits of face-to-face communication.
If you’d like some more tips on how to get the most out of working with a virtual assistant check out my previous posts on Working With A Virtual Assistant.
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