February 2006
Outsource To A Virtual
Assistant
Hold More Effective Meetings
Resolving Employee Conflicts
Customers Are Only Human
 
Many small businesses have already discovered
the benefits of outsourcing certain functions of
their organizations. Tasks including accounting
and payroll are often handled by external
providers more efficiently and economically than
if kept in-house
As long as a business retains its core
competencies internally there are few functions
that can’t now be strategically outsourced,
thanks to a new kind of entrepreneur known as a
Virtual Assistant, or ‘VA’. VAs are independent
businesspeople with skills and qualifications
needed by other businesses who can handle a
range of administrative or technical services as
required.
The rapid growth in the use of VAs has been
largely driven by technology that has removed
the barriers previously imposed by sheer
distance between the person needing the service
and the service provider. There are many
services already offered by VAs and the list is
constantly expanding. These include: office
administration services, sales support, database
management, website development, graphic design,
market research, telephone answering, making
travel arrangements, bookkeeping and invoicing,
desktop publishing, and computer network
management.
In
simple terms, a VA produces your work on their
equipment from their office and charges only for
the time they spend working for you. They can be
located anywhere – in your building, in your
state or anywhere else in the world as long as
it’s served by modern communications linkages
and data delivery systems.
Think of the benefits for a business that needs
to provide a 24/7 help desk. Using VAs in
different countries allows the business to do
this as well as to ‘shop around’ for the best
possible rates. Here are some other reasons to
use a VA:
-
VAs only
charge for the time actually spent on your
projects. They aren’t on your payroll and
can be used only when they’re needed
-
VAs are
independent businesspeople in their own
right who understand the need to provide
their customers - your business - with a
high standard of service
-
VAs cover
their own costs for office accommodation,
insurance, holiday and sick pay, retirement
plans and workers compensation
-
VAs also
don’t add to staff totals when considering
association membership fees and other
numbers-based costs
-
VAs
provide any equipment needed to perform the
work. They provide their own hardware,
software, communications equipment and
skills, reducing your costs of capital
equipment and training
-
Your organization can focus on
its core business without distractions that
can affect its ability to deliver a high
standard of service to customers
-
Your risks
of industrial action and of being sued by an
employee are reduced
VAs are highly skilled specialists who can
consistently perform their tasks at a superior
level because they do it all the time.
Outsourcing to VAs will save you management time
and energy. They don’t require your personal
supervision, they look after their own morale,
and their personal problems don’t become yours.
VAs are negotiable on their means of
compensation. Many are quite happy to work on a
retainer basis for a fixed number of hours per
month if it suits their customer. They can also
provide different services on varying hourly
rates depending on the nature of the work
required.
Keep the high-performing staff members you
already have and retain the core functions of
your business in-house. For everything else,
consider using the services of a Virtual
Assistant.
To Top
Meetings are a part of business, whether it’s
meetings with your team members, with your
business associates, or with community groups.
Here are some ways that you can make your next
meeting a success as well as a pleasant
experience for all those who attend.
Provide sufficient advance notice
Plan your meeting well ahead of time and make
your invitations informative. Include details
such as the meeting venue, the starting and
finishing times, the agenda and what should be
brought by those attending. If possible, give
those you want to attend a minimum of a week’s
notice so they can either schedule it in or tell
you well ahead of time if they’re unable to
attend.
Start and finish on time
The meeting should always begin at the time
stated on the invitation. Even if you know
others will be arriving shortly thereafter,
start the meeting on time and don’t let
latecomers interrupt it. It’s also important
that your meetings finish as scheduled to show
that you respect the value of other people’s
time.
Work to an agenda
To be effective a meeting should be run to an
agenda, with each issue managed so as to stay
within a stipulated period of time and to stick
to the point. If people know exactly what’s
expected of them in the meeting they’ll be more
likely to focus on the topic under discussion
and avoid becoming distracted.
Pay attention and use eye contact
If you’re the only person speaking it’s not a
meeting – it’s a lecture. Encourage others to
participate and when they do, use eye contact to
show that you’re listening to them and thinking
about what they’re saying. When they’ve finished
you might summarize what they’ve said or ask a
clarifying question. This is not only courteous,
it will also enable you to continue managing the
meeting even if others are speaking.
Make your guests comfortable
If you anticipate the needs of your guests
during the meeting they’ll be impressed by your
professionalism. Have a pitcher of water and
glasses available for all participants and put
some bowls of mints on the table too. If it’s an
especially long meeting allow for a five minute
comfort break at least each hour - but be sure
to restart the meeting promptly at the end of
the break period. If your meeting overlaps a
mealtime provide food that can be eaten
comfortably by people standing up and allow a
twenty minute break to eat it.
Have all materials on hand
Each participant should have a pad of paper and
a pen or pencil at their seat. A copy of the
agenda is also essential. Rather than having
things passed around the table during the
meeting, have a copy of every item at each
place. If you’re concerned about attendees
‘jumping the gun’ and seeing something ahead of
time, put it in a sealed envelope and let them
know at the start of the meeting that it’s to be
opened later on when you ask them to.
Don’t let big talkers dominate the meeting
In most groups there are ‘talkers’ and
‘listeners’. Giving too much time and attention
to the talkers can mean missing out on valuable
contributions from those less inclined to speak
up. You might go around the room and ask
individuals what they think about what’s been
said rather than asking for them to put up their
hands, or simply assign everyone a one or two
minute opportunity to give their view about
what’s been discussed.
Record ideas on a flip chart or whiteboard
As people in the audience contribute, make a
note of their comments on a flip chart or
whiteboard. This will remind everyone of what’s
been said during the meeting and give you the
chance to invite comments from anyone who hasn’t
yet spoken up. It also makes it much easier for
you to give a recap of what’s been covered at
the windup of the meeting. If appropriate,
summarize the meeting’s highlights and send a
copy to everyone who attended.
To Top
Intervening in employee disputes is a risky
action and, often as not, ends up with the
manager alienating both parties. A better way to
proceed is set up a policy that will enable
management to listen to any employee with a
grievance, yet still encourage those with
disputes to do everything they can to resolve it
among themselves.
This should be a formal policy, stated in
writing and copied to everyone who is employed
in the business. It should also become a part of
employee orientation and be incorporated into
the company’s policies and procedures manual.
Be a mediator – not a judge
While it’s preferable to allow people to resolve
their own disputes, if that doesn’t happen or if
the conflict is affecting their performance or
the business itself, then you will have to play
a part. In this situation make your role one of
mediator rather than as judge and jury. Have a
plan and work to it or you’re likely to make
things worse.
Guide them through a simple process that makes
them think about why the problem arose and what
they can do about it. Begin by seeing each of
the parties separately. Here are some of the
questions you can use to be sure and get their
side of the story:
-
Ask each of them what has been said and done
-
Ask each of them why the other person feels that
a dispute exists
-
Ask each of them if any other co-workers are
involved
-
Ask each of them what they feel would end the
dispute
Make careful notes and when the sessions are
over compare records to identify the major
points of difference or misunderstanding.
Bring the parties together in a neutral
environment
Now that you’ve familiarized yourself with the
parties in the dispute and how they feel about
the key issues, bring them together in a
location outside the work area of any of those
involved. Summarize their respective positions
and try to get them to be objective about their
position as well as that of the other person.
If it’s a realistic idea, propose to both
parties their own solutions – the answer they
each gave about what would resolve the dispute
for them. Start from those positions and try to
work them both towards a middle ground that will
probably be a compromise but hopefully will be
acceptable to each of them. Point out where the
parties have seen things the same way and try to
build an agreement from those foundations.
Your role must be to remain objective and
impartial. Even if you personally feel that one
of the parties is ‘wrong’ and the other is
‘right’ your place is to help both parties see
things clearly and work it out between
themselves.
Ignore complaints that are anonymous
Complaints that are unsigned or made anonymously
(telephone calls or emails) must be ignored.
Once an anonymous complaint about an employee is
investigated it has been given credibility. You
become the villain because you’re the one making
the accusations.
To Top
As businesses of all sizes increase their uptake
of technology and use equipment to save money
and take over functions previously provided by
people, they’re also running the risk of
alienating their customers.
Extensive ‘telephone trees’ intended to direct
callers into the most appropriate channel to
handle their inquiry require customers to go
through a series of options even though they
already know what they want to accomplish with
their call. Something that is more convenient
for the company becomes an inconvenience for its
customers.
Voice recognition systems are another irritant
for callers. Anything ‘new’ that doesn’t
function at 100% effectiveness reflects poorly
on the business, and to be told by a synthesized
voice that it didn’t understand you is an
invitation for the customer to go somewhere else
where people will actually listen to them.
The human link is essential
No matter how much your business can save by the
adoption of automated systems, the ability for
your customers to link to your organization
through personal contact is essential.
Inflexible automated systems can be very
frustrating for people trying to deal with a
business and makes them feel they aren’t being
treated as an individual.
Ben Levitan, the CEO of EnvoyWorldWide, says on
MarketingProfs.com: “The more times a customer
has to call to resolve a problem or obtain
information, the more likely he or she will
become frustrated or dissatisfied with the
business, jeopardizing the relationship. As many
companies have learned over the past few years,
increased customer frustration leads to churn.”
Some workarounds for the problem
It is possible for a business to reduce its risk
of creating customer frustration when it decides
to take advantage of automated systems. Although
callers would prefer to speak with a person
first, they are becoming accustomed to automated
systems of one kind or another and will tolerate
them – to a degree.
The following list of principles can help you
design a telephone answering system that
integrates automation with human service and
overcomes the major objections customers have to
automated systems:
-
When customers call your business they shouldn’t
have to choose from more than three options
before being attended to by a person.
-
Callers should never be kept waiting on hold
longer than one minute without being
acknowledged by a person - and no more than two
minutes waiting in total.
-
There should be pleasant background music or an
interesting voice track for callers waiting on
hold; silence makes them wonder if the line has
disconnected.
-
Customers should never have to be transferred to
more than one person before their needs are
attended to.
-
The caller’s name should be recorded by the
first person they speak with and passed to the
person to whom the call is transferred.
-
It should be easy for customers to get their
most common questions answered quickly. Have a
system in place to do this.
-
Be able to transfer calls to a specific person
at all times, even when they’re away from the
business.
-
Make it possible for customers to contact your
business via email and through your company’s
website outside of normal business hours.
Mention this facility in your after hours
message.
Reducing customer frustration
Everyone feels their call is important or they
wouldn’t have made it. Being transferred around
an office and having to repeat their request is
frustrating. The communications system in your
business has to make it easy and fast for
customers to get the information they need, and
to get it without the need to call more than
once.
To Top
|
