Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today I want to talk about the importance of client retention in your VA businesses.
Today’s Quote: It costs 7 times more to attract a new client than it does to retain an existing one. – Neil Patel
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Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
Client retention is more than just getting a client and keeping them.
It’s about building a great relationship that helps you grow as a VA, and helping your client grow too.
Strong, long-term relationships with our clients helps us build a stable and profitable business.
One of the most important pieces of building your long term relationships with clients is mastering communication.
When communication is clear, it helps to avoid misunderstandings, but it also helps you efficiently work together.
Here are a few tips on how to retain your clients:
Active Listening
I love this tip. I love it because when I learned to do it, so much changed in my business.
Active listening helps you truly understand what someone is saying, and it also helps you make them feel understood.
It’s an interesting technique and when you hear how to do it, you might even think it’s nothing.
All it is, is listening. Really paying attention to what the other person is saying.
It was pointed out to me once that I was simply ‘waiting for the other person to finish talking to say what you want to say’.
I was like, what? No I don’t.
Then I listened to myself in conversations. That’s exactly what I was doing. I was thinking faster than the other person, and I had formed my opinion before they were finishing speaking.
And then I just kept going, making my point, or whatever. It was actually kind of embarrassing when I saw it for myself.
What is active listening? Well for one thing it’s actually paying attention. But it’s about slowing it all down.
Taking a pause and making the other person feel heard. Not as a courtesy, but because you are actually hearing them.
Communication is a two way thing.
It’s not just about the conversation part, it’s about the whole thing. Collaborating, asking questions, and being able to set and manage expectations.
I talk a lot about production meetings as a great tool to keep your work with clients on track.
They help you take the lead on client work and elevate your reputation as a great VA/business owner.
But they also can help you practice your active listening skills! Having real conversations with clients is the best way to get really good at listening and articulating yourself.
Have a look at your last few conversations. Are you active listening? If not, it’s a simple shift to make and it can make a big difference in your VA business.
I promise, you will see immediate results, like I did.
The next thing that you need to consider for client retention is being proactive.
Be Proactive
The best way to grow your business and become a really crucial part of your client’s business is to be proactive.
A lot of Virtual Assistants are task takers, or task doers. That’s not a bad thing – it’s what we do for our clients. We do, their tasks.
But to uplevel your VA business, you have to do more than just be there when your clients ask you to do something.
You need to be proactive.
Look ahead for them.
Learn what you need to learn to grow your services you can offer them.
Manage the workflow so they don’t have to.
Being proactive means putting yourself in the drivers seat.
You don’t have to become a full on strategist for them, you need to do what you do best. Implementation.
Step into the role.
I suggest production meetings again as a tool to do this.
When you meet with your client face to face each week, you build a better relationship with them. It makes it easier to stay on top of all of the things you are doing together, and also helps you look ahead at what’s coming up or further down the horizon.
Being proactive sets you apart from a lot of other VAs who aren’t.
This goes back to building that relationship with your clients too.
When your clients feel understood and supported, you spend less time communicating too. You can work more efficiently together because there is so much less back and forth.
It also helps you have fewer misunderstandings, which leads me into my next point.
Handle Difficult Clients and Situations
You often hear VAs talk about the struggle with some of their clients. Maybe you talk about yours.
Working one on one with someone can sometimes cause there to be a bit of a power struggle. Two opinions with no tie breakers like maybe a boss in a corporate job setting, conflict can arise.
And yes, sometimes it is the client who is at fault. Maybe they don’t listen, maybe they micromanage you, maybe they don’t communicate clearly and they send you 20 emails for each task they need done.
Sometimes it’s the client, and that’s the way they deal with everyone.
BUT
Sometimes it’s not the client. Sometimes it’s the way you are handling the relationship – the way you are reacting to their requests or how they ask you things –
I know, sorry. But sometimes it’s you.
The cool thing is that when it is YOU, you can fix it.
You can’t fix other people. I’m sure you may have tried, but you can’t. They have to fix themselves.
So if you are finding that you are working with difficult clients, you may want to look at how you are handling that relationship.
Being proactive can help a lot. Some of the difficulties come from only being reactive. Letting the client set the standards, manage the communication, make all the decisions.
Always remember that you are your client’s equal, not their assistant.
You are not their employee. And while they do get to make the decisions about their business, they don’t get to make the decisions about yours.
And that includes how you work with your clients. How you work with them.
Assessing what the problem is with a difficult client is the number one thing you can do to make sure that you are deciding how to work with them in your business.
How to fix it? Sometimes the bed is made. The relationship can’t be saved. In that case you need to just get out as gracefully as you can.
I know this is an episode about client retention – but sometimes the reason we are trying to do something in our business is the result of something going wrong previously.
Don’t hang on to a bad client simply because you want the money. It’s not worth it.
Instead make space for new clients and make a point of uplevelling your professionalism.
Having difficult conversations is a part of business.
If someone micromanages you, set up a meeting to explain to them how you work, and how they need to work with you. And with future clients, address this in your onboarding procedure.
If someone pays you late, have a conversation to set up a payment plan or discuss when payment will be made. And with future clients, set up prepayment so you don’t do work that you don’t get paid for.
If someone doesn’t communicate well with you, have a conversation about it. Figure out a way that works for both of you, and let them know why it’s so important.
If someone is crossing your boundaries, be sure to reiterate what they are, and why they are there.
The good news? The more difficult conversations you have NOW, the fewer you will need to have in the future.
Like WAY fewer.
So there’s that.
I’m going to leave it here for today. I hope you got some good tips on how to create long term relationships with your clients.
I always went into a new client relationship with the intention of working with the client long term. It’s so much easier to keep working with someone than to constantly be finding new clients.
As Neil Patel said in today’s quote, it costs 7 times more to get a new client than to keep an old one.
New clients are important. They keep us on our toes, they keep us growing, and they often come in at higher rates that our existing clients, but when you find a good client, focus on keeping them and growing together.
To recap what we learned today: look at your last few conversations and assess your active listening skills. Start having production meetings with clients so can be proactive. Fix a difficult situation with a client.
Doing just one thing from today’s topic will help you take a step forward.
And that’s what I always want to help you do. Moving forward means growing. You don’t have to double your business, but becoming better at one thing at a time can help you become so much better at what you do.
Do You Need Help?
If you need help taking a step forward so your VA business is filled with amazing long-term clients, get in touch with me. I’m here to help.
It’s the only reason I’m here at all, as you know. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.
I have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving through private coaching, group coaching, and live and self study trainings. If you want to talk about how we can work together, let’s connect on a Cut to the Chase call. You can book yours at YourVAMentor.com/chase
Thanks for tuning in this week! I’ll see you next time!
What You Need to Do Next:
PRIVATE COACHING: Let’s work together privately to get you to your really big goal. It’s the fastest way to get results and we can start right away. Learn more about private coaching here.
GROUP COACHING MASTERMIND: The Virtual Circle is a group coaching mastermind option that costs less than private coaching, and can help you achieve the goals you set for yourself. We have one group training call and one group coaching call each month that will help you set goals and plan and implement the action steps to achieve them. There is also a VIP level of TVC that includes a monthly private coaching call, if you want a little extra personal attention. Check it out here: https://yourvamentor.com/TVC. We’d love to have you join us!
MONTHLY EMAIL MEMBERSHIP: I also have a brand new low-cost monthly membership program that will help you build your VA business – and it doesn’t require you to be on social media! It’s an email membership that I call The Virtual Toolkit! Every Monday morning you’ll receive a lesson and a downloadable resource in your inbox, that you can use to take a step further in your VA business. I’ve created TONS of amazing resources for you – from business foundations and building resources (financial stuff, calculators, productivity, tech tips and tools, website planning guide) to marketing tools (branding worksheet, blogging templates, content calendar, client acquisition, marketing campaign planner) to advanced business skills (package planning, branding tools, onboarding checklist, seo checklist, client management) and personal growth stuff (goal setting worksheet, networking, speaking tips and tools, conflict resolution tips). All of this is available to you for just $9 a month!! You get your first resource as soon as you register, and every Monday morning after that you’ll get a fresh new one. Get more details and sign up here now!
SELF STUDY PROGRAM: My self study program Getting Started as a VA can help you get your VA business started easily and quickly too. You can sign up right away and be on your way to getting clients by the end of the program, with all the right foundations in place. Check out the program here.
COMPLIMENTARY CONSULT: Reach out to me if you need to talk about where you are stuck and what the right option might be to get you moving. It’s literally all I’m here to do is help you get to where you want to go. Book a complimentary Cut to the Chase call with me here.