Oct
31
Brilliant Ideas On Being Transparent When Enlisting Freelancers
As a business owner, you already know how important it is to communicate effectively. This is vital when it comes to client relationships. But, as an employer, you will need to be even more transparent to get the job done. Your business brand is probably built on quality and timeliness. Your clients depend on a high caliber of work from you as well as meeting their hectic deadlines with time to spare.
None of that is going to change when you enlist the aid of virtual assistant subcontractors. This means that you have to ensure that your own VA’s know exactly what you require of them and can produce a quality of work that is up to par. Being transparent is not about laying your soul bare. It’s more about leaving no stone unturned in the pursuit of client satisfaction. Does that all sound daunting? This is what I’m trying to say:
Outline Your Case at the Beginning
Let’s go back to the start. There is a great selection of virtual assistants out there, but they’re not all suitable. Find a virtual assistant who has a work ethic that is similar to yours, with a personality that will not clash. Experience alone is not sufficient, as you will find out.
Make sure everybody who you are considering knows your work requirements. They should be very clear about your work methodology right from the very beginning. For example, you might need periodic feedback for the larger projects and any subcontracting VAs need to be really clear that there are several deadlines involved.
What exactly are you going to outsource?
Determine the required skills and see if your potential assistants possess them. You might, as an example, need articles on a broad range of topics. If one of your clients is a real estate broker, you don’t want to hire someone with experience writing only gardening articles. Simply being able to write is not sufficient.
You have established standards with your clients. They receive information from you in a format that has been mutually agreed upon. To receive the same from your virtual assistant subcontractors, they will need instructions. While this can be a very tedious undertaking, it is far better to do so upfront and visibly, so that mistakes are not made and relationships are not strained. It also makes it a whole lot easier if the person under consideration just does not pan out. You’ll already have the instructions ready to send to the one who takes their place.
Here’s what can happen if you don’t. First, you will receive the completed work. When you look over it, you find several things wrong. You can either return it to the subcontractor, or you can handle these issues yourself. If the time it takes to rework the work is over what has been agreed with the client, then you have to suck it up and lose money. Worse, if it threatens to put you over the deadline you will have some explaining to do with your client. Nothing about that is going to sit right with you, or, and most importantly, your client.
When it comes to outsourcing to other professionals, you have to be transparent. If you are, the chances are that everything will be done correctly the first time and you will have a happy client. You will be in a good position to build on your successful service organization.