2009 August | Virtual Assistance University

How to Track Blog Visitors Through Google Analytics

Aug 302009

If you follow me around at all you know that I am a huge fan of WordPress Platform website/blogs. In fact, I blog about it quite a bit on my Internet Mastery Blog. Just type in “wordpress” in the search box and you will find a lot of very helpful information.

Plugins can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine and one that is on my “MUST INSTALL” list for any WP installation is Ultimate Google Analytics.

How to install and activate Ultimate Google Analytics

Login to your Google accounts control panel. If you have not set this up yet, you will need to create an account here.
Create a website profile by clicking the “Add Website Profile” link.
Provide the URL of the site that you will be adding Google Analytics to.
You will be provided with two options. You need the Web Property ID from the yellow box at the top of the page entitled “Tracking Status Information. The code will look something like this: UA-999999-9.
Login to your WordPress Admin. Depending on the version of WP that you are using you should be able to install new plugins directly from your dashboard. If not, you will need to download this plugin and FTP into your account.
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, enter your Google Analytics account ID and save your options.

Make it a point to login to your Google accounts regularly to track visitor traffic such as the total number of visits and page views your site received, the average number of page views per visit, (P/V) and the number of visits and page views over time. You will also be able to see visits by new and returning. This is valuable data to have and will assist you in creating content that your visitors want to return to time and time again.

**You have permission to reprint in your publication or to your website/blog any articles by Denise Griffitts found on this Website as long as Denise Griffitt’s name and contact information is included. Denise Griffitts, Virtual Assistance Industry Expert, http://virtualassistanceuniversity.com, info @ virtualassistantindustry.com, 888-719-6711.

Why Superb Customer Service Is So Critical For a Virtual Assistant

Virtual Assistance Industry No Responses »

Aug 142009

Customer service is a powerful differentiator that can set a virtual assistant apart from her competitors. This translates directly into more new clients, more work from existing clients and ability to charge higher professional rates.

And yet for all its potential benefits, some virtual assistants believe that simply being polite, professional, and accommodating is enough. In other words, they seem to confuse customer service with “being nice”.

The truth is a business cannot be grown on “nice” alone. The most common complaint that I hear from people about their FORMER virtual assistant is not that they weren’t “nice”, but that they didn’t communicate, didn’t respond to calls or emails and never let the client know what was in the pipeline or where there might be problems.

So if you are a virtual assistant and an overall nice person, but have a problem retaining clients and getting repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals, ask yourself if you’re making any of these mistakes.

Being a VA first and everything else second

This mindset is the luxury only employees have. When you work for someone, you have a well-defined job – an administrative assistant, a sales rep, an editor. Now that you are a business owner, you are first and foremost a marketer and a customer service manager.

Not listening to your client

Take time to understand each client’s communication and work style and preferences. This includes how often should you contact them and by what means; how detailed should your reports be; what are their procedures for handling problems; even file-naming conventions and use of proper software versions.

Some clients might find it hard to let go when it comes to delegating work to a virtual assistant and will require frequent and detailed progress reports. Others will find such updates unnecessary and distracting. Some will be ok with just e-mails while others will be more comfortable with regular phone calls.

Not managing client’s expectations

Just like their clients, virtual assistants have different capabilities and limitations when it comes to skills, availability, and work styles. It is absolutely critical to match client’s expectations to your capabilities even before the retainer agreement is signed.

For example, if you do not work early morning hours or weekends, state it clearly. If there are hours when you’re offline or unable to answer the phone, let clients know. If you will be out of your office for any period of time, be sure to provide your client base with a cell phone number where they can reach you in emergencies. Be crystal clear about the length of time it will take you to respond to client’s messages.

Be upfront and honest about your skills and experience. Clients are not guinea pigs. Taking on projects that require skills you don’t have or for which you only have theoretical knowledge is a guaranteed way to lose a client and begin the slippery process of earning a bad online reputation. You can be assured that your name will come up in conversation with the next VA or an online friend or colleague. And not in a good way!

Not turning down prospective clients

Turning down clients doesn’t seem like a good idea, especially if a prospect is a good fit for your skills and work style. Yet having too many clients or too many projects means your efforts are spread too thin. Setting aside the issue of quality, taking on more work than you can handle will have a major negative impact on your customer service efforts.

You have a couple of choices in this situation. You can hire a sub-contractor VA to assist you with some of your projects, thereby beginning the process of building and growing your own practice into a multi-va firm, or you can refer the client to another virtual assistance firm that you know and trust.

Ignoring client’s need for transparency

Transparency is a popular word nowadays. But all it really means is simply showing your clients what it is that you do for them. This includes letting your clients see work-in-progress as well as tools and procedures you use when working on their tasks.

There are plenty of options that allow just such information sharing. It can be something as simple as sharing documents through Google Docs or as detailed as creating a client-specific wiki to hold all the documents, links to resources and standard operating procedures. We use and recommend ClientSpot which allows our team to collaborate with the client on projects, share files, and keep track of assignments and deadlines.

Not dealing with problems and ignoring emergencies

It’s ok to make mistakes. Most business owners understand that occasional mistakes are unavoidable. What matters is the way you handle the errors and emergencies. Handled correctly, even a bad mistake can turn into an opportunity to build client’s trust and loyalty.

When you do make a mistake or face an emergency, let the client know right away. Apologize and own up to whatever you’ve done wrong. Then throw all your resources into making things right. And when it’s all over, apologize again and let the client know how you plan to avoid similar issues in the future.

Not rewarding your clients

Sometimes business owners get so busy following up the leads and chasing potential clients that they forget about their existing ones. Go beyond thank you notes and season’s greetings cards. While I am not a fan of offering discounts for your hard work, I do recommend doing a little something extra or “lagniappe for a client as a gift every now and then. What is lagniappe?

Something unexpected – the extra benefit or gift should be a surprise. It is a “bakers dozen”, something thrown in for good measure that surprises and delights the recipient.

Relevant – the item or benefit should be of value to the recipient. Has your client ever had a Squidoo lens built for their business? Take an hour and put one together as a gift.

Authenticity – it is more about “how” it is given, as opposed to “what” is given. The small gift or lagniappe communicates that you care about your client and that you appreciate their relationship with you.

Committing any one of these customer service mistakes will slow down your virtual assistant business growth as you will not be in a position to ask for, or receive referrals. Consistently committing several is a quick form of business suicide.

Your ability and willingness to provide sincere “added value” will set you apart from your competitors, cultivate your niche and develop your professional reputation. Your satisfied and happy clients will be more than happy to refer your services to their sphere of influence.

Have questions about the Virtual Assistance Industry? Email them to me at info @ virtualassistantindustry.com

How to Set Your Virtual Assistant Professional Rates

Virtual Assistance Industry No Responses »

Aug 032009

Most virtual assistants start their business with a picture-perfect idea of flexible hours spent working with long-term clients on interesting and well-paid projects. Fast forward a few months and what many virtual assistants end up with are long hours, clients from hell and income that is barely enough to pay the bills. So what happens within the first few months of starting a virtual assistant business that separates successful VAs from the ones that are barely making it? It all starts with determining what your skill sets, core competencies are and then setting your professional rates.

Search for the phrase “virtual assistant rates” on Google and you get over 700,000 results. Reading through just the first few links is enough to get the general idea. Most virtual assistants, regardless of the types of services they offer, charge between $25 and $50 per hour. Or at least that’s what they report in surveys, on discussion boards and in comments on blogs.

But the truth about virtual assistant rates is a lot more complicated. It seems there is a vast difference between the rates new virtual assistants would like to charge and the rates they end up charging their clients.

Dig deeper into the message boards conversations and blog comments about virtual assistant rates and you’re sure to come across a message such as “I know, I should be charging more than I do now, but…”.The author then proceeds to explain her reasons for lowering the rates and concludes with a promise that at some unspecified later date, when business gets better, she will raise her rates.

Unfortunately, in most cases the business doesn’t get better. Instead, it gets worse and worse leaving the virtual assistant wondering what it is that she’s doing wrong. The answer is simple – lowering rates and under-pricing oneself is exactly the wrong thing to do regardless of the reasons for the rate drop.

But I’m new to this business and I have to prove myself first before I can charge higher rates.

The problem here is not lack of experience, but lack of confidence. You might be new to running a business and being your own boss. But, unless you start your virtual assistant business straight out of college, you do have years of experience in whatever services you offer. I advise that you “follow” yourself around for a few days with a piece of paper and a pen and determine just what your core competencies and skills are. You will be surprised at what you know and have forgotten, or simply overlooked. Are you absolutely brilliant with Excel spreadsheets and macros? Write it down. Are your interpersonal phone skills off the charts? Write it down. Even if you think a soft skill is not something that you should be listing, write it down. Once you have a clear picture of your skills, hard and soft, you will be able to determine what works with what and present a list of skill sets that you are proud to discuss with potential clients.

Actually, low rates will be a turn-off to many business owners who rightfully believe in the “you get what you pay for” principle. Undervaluing yourself by setting low rates screams “I’m not good enough and I know it”. This has nothing to do with proving yourself, but everything with holding up a big sign that says “I’m not your best choice. Now feel free to denigrate my rates, offer to barter my time and hours for your program or service and just generally make me feel unworthy.”

I’m lowering my rates because I need to attract more clients. When my practice is full…

Excuse me for interrupting, but I have to jump in on this classic. What you really need is not more clients, but more income. Sure, getting more clients or working more hours for existing clients will help you make more money. Another option is to not lower your rates and still make more money. If you are still undervaluing your skills you are still setting ridiculously low professional fees.

It is simple math. If a virtual assistant charges $20 per hour, she needs to put in 50 billable hours to earn $1000. If she charges $40 per hour, she only needs to work 25 hours for the same $1000. It is the quality of support that you provide, not the quantity that makes the difference here.

Once I get the client, I will raise my rates… eventually.

If you are offering a lower introductory rate do you make it crystal clear to your new clients that this is a temporary rate and you will be charging them your regular rate after a specified number of hours? If not, beware! It’s not even that raising the rates for existing clients is one of the hardest things to do.

Here’s the real problem with this plan – cheap products attract cheap buyers. And cheap buyers or clients are notoriously difficult to deal with. They set unrealistic expectations, demand additional discounts, request countless reviews and revisions of deliverables and oftentimes do their level best to barter you out of your hard earned cash. These are also people who will not be satisfied no matter how hard you work and may even post miserable things about you on the internet. You don’t need these, nor do they.

Not everybody is suited to have a virtual assistant working with them. If your “spidey sense” is raising alarms during the initial interview call, use your instincts to avoid this type of client and politely decline to take on the project or retainer. As much as you may need the money now, you don’t need the tears, angst, and potential damage to your professional relationship that this can cause.

I need the money! Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Life throws curve balls all the time. Bad things happen, whether it’s unexpected medical expense or your significant other getting laid off or major urgent repairs to your car or your house.

However, lowering the rates for your services in order to quickly raise money is entirely counterproductive. Letting potential clients know that you are desperate will send many running in the opposite direction. After all, clients are looking for a virtual assistant who is dependable and fully vested in their projects. Your clients need to know that your business is running smoothly and effortlessly at all times.

The few clients that will jump at the opportunity are not the kind of clients you want, especially given your situation. They will prey on your desperation, pushing for ever lower rates and ever worse payment terms. It is not uncommon for these types of clients to not pay at all, and if they do, it is grudging and contentious.

A much better option, in this case, would be to seek temporary part-time or full-time employment and run your business part-time until your finances are more stable.

I know that I’m making less per hour now than when I was at my last employer. But I save money working from home. So overall I feel that it’s a good trade off.

Sure, you no longer have to commute to work, buy work clothes or lunches. But that doesn’t mean you are saving money. Your previous salary was only a part of the total compensation package that included paid sick days and vacation days, health insurance, and taxes.

Now that you are self-employed you have to pay your own taxes and health insurance in addition to the regular business expenses. If you’ve never calculated your real rates – after all the expenses – you’re in for an unpleasant surprise. In some cases you might find out that you work for less than the minimum wage and are very likely working harder than you ever have before.

This last excuse is a good example of the real reason behind a virtual assistant’s decision to lower her rates. This reason has little to do with finding new clients or having to prove oneself. Instead it is the inability or unwillingness to go through a paradigm shift.

Virtual assistants are not employees. They are business owners. Consequently your client is not your boss; you are. When a virtual assistant uses low rates as a cure for all her business problems or as a kind of a business Miracle-Gro, she misses all the other opportunities and jeopardizes her long-term goals.

Action Steps

1. Determine your core competencies, hard and soft skill sets.
2. Sit down with an accountant or CPA to determine how and when to pay your taxes.
3. Create your business model and stick to it!
4. Mastermind, network, and contract to and with other successful Virtual Assistants.