Customer Service Ain’t What it Used to Be

Do businesses prioritize customer service anymore? How many times have you gone to a fast-food restaurant and had to wait for the server to finish his/her conversation with a co-worker before they’d ask for your order? Or how about returning an unwanted item to the customer service center of your local retail store? Do they act as if they are doing you a favor by simply waiting on you? I’m fed up with our culture’s lack of customer service!

I know, what can I expect from a teenager who’s making minimum wage at the burger joint? Well, I expect fast, friendly, reliable service, that’s what! If it weren’t for us — their customers — they wouldn’t have a job! When are they going to wake up and realize their customers aren’t an imposition, we’re the reason they’re working in the first place.

You know who I think is at fault here? Often times it’s the management. I don’t believe they’re training their employees to serve their customers, perhaps because no one taught them!

When I do business with someone, I expect excellent customer service. Is that too much to ask? I don’t think so. And I also don’t think it’s that hard to do. In my own business, I make customer service a priority.” I WILL NOT stop until my client is satisfied. If I’ve made a mistake, and I have, I make it up to my client. If I cannot correct the error, I offer my client discounts and other amenities to make it up to them.

If you think I’m laying it on too strong, think about this: A bad customer experience can spread ten-fold. You know the old saying, “If a customer experiences bad service, they’ll tell 10 friends, who in turn tell 10 friends, and so on.”

In “Customer Service is Not a Four-Letter Word”, Gregory P. Smith states, “Many organizations have eliminated the human element, replacing it with a lower-cost, impersonal conglomeration of voice mail, email, and online request forms. For many shortsighted service companies, it is about cutting costs, cutting corners and driving up profits.”

I’d like to add one of my personal pet peeves to his list of impersonal conglomerations: telephone menus. You know, where you call a number and go through the list of options, never having the opportunity to speak to a live person. Sometimes, that’s all I need to do. Financial institutions, and banks in particular, are infamous for doing this. What happened to good old-fashioned customer service?

I believe good service can make up for a lot. If a customer feels that you really care about them, they not only will continue doing business with you, they’ll give you some leeway when you need it. Humans aren’t perfect and there will be times when we make mistakes. If you have a good relationship with a client, there’s a good chance they’ll realize that people make mistakes and continue doing business with you instead of switching to your competitor.

I cannot stress enough how important I think superior customer service is to a client-business relationship. Think about the times you’ve been treated exceptionally well by a business and how it made you feel. Alternately, consider the times you were treated poorly by a representative of a business. This little exercise will give you a good idea of how important customer service is to a business that wants to stay in business.

Information Overload: Is it helping us or hurting us?

With the proliferation of available information, it’s almost as if we know about something before it even happens. Ok, that’s an exaggeration but the speed at which we receive the latest news, it’s not that far off the mark.

Seriously though, consider the information and communication technology we have available to us every minute of every day: telephones (landlines, cell phones, VOIP, pagers, voice mail), email, faxes, video conferencing, Internet (instant messaging, chat rooms, discussion groups, RSS feeds, newsletters), radio (local, national, international, satellite), television (local, national, TIVO, On-Demand, DVD), newspapers, magazines, etc. and I’m sure there’s more that I forgot to mention. Talk about information overload! How can we possibly expect to process all this information logically and still complete our daily tasks?

There’s a term for what we’re becoming due to this bombardment of information: “pseudo ADD.” This term was coined by two Harvard psychology professors who noticed that many people are experiencing a shortened attention span because of advances in communication. Those affected do not have what is considered clinical Attention Deficit Disorder; they simply cannot focus on a task without compulsively checking their email, voice mail and/or surf the Internet. Does this sound like you?

In his online journal, “Dealing with Information Overload,” Paul Chin said that this “rampant multitasking and deluge of available information have produced a counterproductive culture and created a paradox: the more we try to do, the less we get done; and the more inundated we are with information, the less time we spend absorbing it.”

One important consideration about information overload is that since businesses must compete for people’s time and attention, it is important to focus on bringing quality information to the consumer.

Decrease in personal time
Keeping up with all the news, learning new technology, reading and responding to email, making and returning calls take up a lot of our time each day. This then decreases our personal time. We’re communicating ourselves into a frenzy. And it’s affecting our health.

Stress can kill
In “Dying for Information” — a paper written from a 1996 Reuters study — 42% of the respondents said they suffered from ill health due to stress caused by information overload. This correlates to a loss of job satisfaction.

There’s no need to let stress get the best of you. Paul Chin suggests you change the way you manage the overabundance of information to keep it from working against you. Try to:

• Stop being obsessive about email. Unless you’re looking for something in particular, you don’t need to check it constantly.
• Designate a specific time of the day to catch up on the news or surf the ‘net.
• Stay focused on your task. It’s all too easy to get sidetracked on something else, especially on the Internet.
• Don’t file things away that aren’t important or relevant expecting to get back to it – there will be more tomorrow.
• Don’t sign up for content delivery just because you can. Be selective about what information you get.
• Organize your content. Categorize your material to avoid clutter.

Keep in mind that it’s more likely to get more technology and information rather than less. We must decide how to manage it better before it gets the better of us.

The Ultimate Portability Tool: Accessing your computer remotely

“Out in the woods or in the city, it’s all the same to me, when I’m driving free.” When The Who wrote “Goin’ Mobile,” I doubt they had any idea how easy it could be to work while away from home unless you were a traveling salesman or rock band. Well, guess what? It’s no longer a vision of the future. Many of you, no doubt, already use your Blackberry, Treo, etc. to access the Internet while working away from the office. But how would you like to be able to access any file on your computer as if you were sitting in front of it even if you’re in another state?

With the advent of such great software as GoToMyPC.com, PCAnywhere, FilesAnywhere, LogMeIn.com, RealVNC, etc. we can take our work with us anywhere! Sure you can get an external hard drive and back up all your files on it or use your trusty thumb drive to have the most important files available to use from another computer, but what if you wanted to work on another computer while you’re away from home just as if you were sitting right in front of your home computer?

I have to do just that when I visit my husband for extended periods of time. Because my husband has taken a position with the government in the D.C. area and we are still in Augusta, GA waiting for our middle daughter to graduate from high school, we often travel to visit him. Since I can’t stop working just because I’m not at home, I had to find alternative ways to access all my files while away from home.

I’ve used gotomypc.com to access clients’ computers so I could add email signatures, update their computers and so on. It worked fine, although it’s slower than actually working from my own computer. I then heard about LogMeIn and its free version. I like free. So I thought I’d give it a try. I’ve got to say I had some trouble getting it to work on my laptop. I contacted customer service and they were very helpful in troubleshooting ways to get it to work.

Because this is our portability issue, I thought I’d share with you the different software that’s available for accessing your computer while away from home. Below, I’ve provided a quick overview of the most popular programs out there. I have quoted from their sites.

GoToMyPC
“GoToMyPC is for individuals needing remote access to 1-20 PCs. It’s an easy and secure remote-access solution that enables you to conveniently access email, files, programs and network resources from home or the road. Get unlimited access to your PCs from any Web browser anywhere.” They do offer a trial version good for 30 days.

LogMeIn
“The ultimate in mobility, freedom & flexibility. You’re always looking for ways to make your schedule more flexible – it’s the key to work/life balance. And the key to flexibility is access to your computer. LogMeIn Free lets you get on your computer without physically being there.
With access to your PC from anywhere, you can go wherever, whenever:

• open remote files
• check your email
• run programs
• run system diagnostics
• access from any browser
• access from wireless Pocket PC
• Easy-to-use interface
• 100% free to use”

PCAnywhere
“Symantec pcAnywhere™ 12.0 is the world’s leading remote control solution.* It lets you manage computers and resolve helpdesk issues quickly, and connect to remote devices simply and securely.

Now pcAnywhere adds support for Mac OS® X. And new gateway functionality enables remote users to quickly find the hosts they need through firewalls and routers with minimal setup.”

PCNow
“PCNow gives you the ability to access your PC anywhere, anytime. Conveniently access your files, programs and email whether you’re at work, at home, on the road or on vacation.”

Real VNC
“VNC (Virtual Network Computing) software makes it possible to view and fully-interact with one computer from any other computer or mobile device anywhere on the Internet. VNC software is cross-platform, allowing remote control between different types of computer. For ultimate simplicity, there is even a Java viewer, so that any desktop can be controlled remotely from within a browser without having to install software.

The open source version of VNC has been freely available since 1998, and more than 100 million copies of the software have been downloaded. The software has also appeared on numerous magazine cover disks, and for several years all popular versions of Linux have included VNC. It is in active use by many millions in industry, commerce, education and at home. Virtually all Fortune 500 companies use VNC, and installations of VNC across thousands of workstations are commonplace. For the free download, click here.”

Installing and using these programs is easy
If you want to work directly on a remote machine from some other location, just sign up for one of the programs I just mentioned.

Your home computer has to be connected to the Internet all the time so just leave it on while you’re away. (It’s a good idea to protect your computer during a storm or other power outage by having it plugged into a power surge protector.) Then, access your computer while away from home by using any computer that’s connected to the Internet such as your laptop or someone else’s computer. To access your computer back home you simply log on to the Internet and visit the login page of the program you downloaded. You can then initiate a session by logging on with your user ID and password that you created when signing up for the service.

It’s that simple! Now you’re ready to work from anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection! I love this capability; without it I would have a much harder time trying to work from my husband’s townhouse while visiting him.

Give it a shot; what have you got to lose?
 

The Trials and Tribulations of Computer Security

Computer security, and antivirus software in particular, is driving me nuts! This summer my laptop had been slowing to a crawl, then it actually froze to a complete halt. Finally, I couldn’t even boot it up at all.

I rely solely on my laptop when I’m in Northern Virginia visiting my husband. We’d done this several times over the summer and it’d been a frustrating experience trying to work on a computer that works V-E-R-Y slowly, if at all.

During one of its “working, but slowly” episodes I got the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death” (or BSOD) a couple of times. I proceeded to search the Internet for more information and possibly find a fix for this problem. I found lots of information about the BSOD but the recommended fix was somewhat complicated and involved using another computer which I couldn’t do until I returned home. Since I’m no computer geek, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by having to follow the intricate instructions. At home the kids are the ones using the laptop, so it hasn’t been a priority to fix it. That is, until it I lost my Internet connection.

When my Internet connection and cable are down, I have to take my laptop down to our local Taco Bell to get online. Our provider, Comcast usually can’t fit us in for at least a week. This wasn’t too big a problem until the laptop stopped working all together. When that happens, I’ve go to share my college-age daughter’s laptop with her at Taco Bell until I can either take our laptop to a professional such as the Geek Squad at Best Buy or Comcast fixes our cable issue, whichever comes first. After all, my livelihood revolves around computers and the Internet and I’m in big trouble without it.

I forgot to mention that while all this was going on, I read in the IVAANet forum about other VAs having similar issues and they blamed it on their antivirus software. I then started doing some digging and found whole forums dedicated to discussing their woes involving Norton Antivirus (the antivirus software I was using). I decided that must be my problem too and promptly removed it and replaced it with McAfee (offered free as a service to Comcast subscribers). It didn’t seem to make much difference so I researched McAfee and, lo and behold, others were having problems with this software, too.

In the IVAANet forum, a couple of VAs touted the performance of the free version of AVG antivirus. Although it’s a little tricky to find the free version, I removed McAfee and installed AVG. I stopped having problems with my PC and the laptop started working a little better. However, a week or so later it caught a Trojan Horse virus but there was no way to remove it, quarantine it or anything. I thought to myself, what good is antivirus software if you can’t get rid of the viruses it detects? So I reinstalled McAfee on the laptop and tried to remove AVG. Couldn’t do it.

By the way, I’d also finally, after several attempts, successfully used a previous restore point to a time when the laptop wasn’t having so many problems (It wouldn’t let me restore it to any of the several dates that had restore points created when I knew the computer worked perfectly). I thought this had worked but it hadn’t.

I’m hoping my trials and tribulations with computer security will help others in similar situations. One thing I learned — besides the fact that the old adage, “a little information is a dangerous thing” is definitely true with regards to me and computer technology — was that, through research, you can always find others that are having the same computer problems you are and they are willing to share their experiences as well as what worked for them.

Also, if you get nothing else out of this blog, you’ll realize that whenever you search for information on any software there will always be plenty of those who either intensely love it or hate it vehemently. You have to decide for yourself — or from the advice of a trusted professional — which software you should use.

I have seriously considered using Open Source software and switching to the Linux Operating System. I am entertaining this idea because of the inundation of viruses and other attacks on Microsoft software and its operating system. Mind you, I know Macs and Linux are not exempt from attack; however, they have a bigger, fatter target in Microsoft.

After reading in the latest issue of Information Week’s (August 14th edition), “Security — Myth Versus Reality,” I’ve realized switching operating systems isn’t as easy as it may sound. I’ve definitely got more research to do.

Marketing Your Business Doesn’t Have to be Expensive, Just Creative

Marketing is essential to a successful business. In fact, without it a business cannot survive. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or costly; it just has to reach the appropriate market. Your target market is anyone that could use your services. By marketing specifically to those most likely to use your services, you can direct your message to reach them most effectively.

As I said, marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, you could take out a $15,000 ad in The Wall Street Journal and not be as effective as a well-targeted networking event that costs little or nothing. Some of the most successful marketing I’ve done has cost nothing — except my time. It just takes a little creativity and perhaps, acting on an opportunity when it presents itself.

Here’s an example of creative marketing that has been successful for me. Early in my Virtual Assistance career, I was featured in a popular national e-zine. This put me in touch with a very successful marketing coach to real estate professionals. Since 99% of my clientele are real estate agents, this gave me tremendous exposure to my target market. However, the marketing didn’t stop there. I signed up for his e-zine and started receiving his notices for seminars. I noticed that one was being held in Charlotte, only about three hours from where I live. Since he is a HUGE advocate of virtual services, I e-mailed the speaker and asked if I could attend. I explained that it would be beneficial for his attendees to actually meet a VA who could be there to answer any questions they might have. He agreed to let me attend. I met several potential clients, networked with other VAs and learned a lot.

During the presentation, the speaker showed an example of an impressive e-mail he got from one of his students. I noticed in the e-mail that the coaching student was looking for someone to create a newsletter for him. So when I got home, I e-mailed him and told him I could do it and he hired me!

Those creative marketing techniques were very successful. Not only did I get exposure to the attending realtors — and obtained several long-term clients — but it went a step further. I was able to network with the speaker and his personal assistant. Because of that first meeting, I got subcontracting work from his assistant, invited to participate in the National Association of REALTORS® “Meet the VA of Your Dreams” conference and later, invited to author a new column for the marketing guru’s e-zine — which currently has over 10,000 subscribers who are mostly in my target market. All this from a little creative marketing.

When doing research into this industry prior to forming my own business, I ran across the Military Spouse Virtual Assistants program. I wanted to join, not only because of the Request for Proposals (RFPs) that members receive but also for the networking opportunities. The problem, I found was that in order to join you had to complete the MSVA training. Not only that, but to attend the training it must be offered at the military installation at which you are currently stationed. So I had to contact my post’s Army Community Service office (ACS) to see if they would be willing to offer the training. Let me tell you, that was easier said than done! After repeated attempts to call and e-mail the appropriate person at ACS without any luck, a fellow VA finally succeeded in contacting a representative. Once that was set in motion, we just had to wait for the ACS representative to finish the MSVA’s T3 (Train the Trainer) course. Then they finally scheduled the training so we could attend.

Although I knew most of the material provided in the training, it was helpful in that I had the opportunity to network with some important people in the industry. Christine Durst and Michael Haaren are credited with starting the VA industry and they are often asked to do interviews. When this happens they offer a chance for VAs to “tell their story.” I never pass up the opportunity to answer their questions or provide insight into the industry. Because of that, I was included in their best-selling book on Virtual Assistance called “The Two-Second Commute.” There have been other publicity opportunities that I have taken advantage of and been included.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to network. It’s not only free but also, in my opinion, it is the best marketing you can do for your business. Volunteer in national organizations. This piece of advice is important not only by providing name recognition with your peers but could possibly provide an opportunity to learn a new skill. Many organizations will train you for a volunteer position with their organization. I would have to say that volunteering with a major organization in the industry was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my business. I got to know several people and gained a mentor as well. She has taught me more about the industry, marketing and business than anyone I’ve ever met. My relationship with her is the key to my current success.

Now that I’ve offered you a glimpse into some successful marketing techniques I’ve used, here’s a review of what you too can do to market your services successfully.

• Network with everyone and anyone
• Volunteer with industry organizations
• Join and participate in industry organizations
• Start a weblog (blog)
• Create an e-zine

These ideas can help you market your business. Along the way, try to add some creativity. Do something a little different from someone else. Act on opportunities and, most importantly, don’t ever stop marketing.

A Career Military Spouses Can Take With Them: Even when stationed remotely

For the first 10 years of my life as a military spouse, I was not employed outside the home. I felt it was crucial to my children’s well-being to stay at home with them. I did not return to the workforce until the youngest of my three children started school. When I reentered the workforce – armed with a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university and past work experience – I was only offered entry-level administrative positions. That was all well and good – I was willing to pay my dues and work my way up – but no matter how hard I worked or tried to advance, I found no one was interested in helping me succeed. They were content keeping me doing the job I apparently did so well. I finally figured out that I was the only one that cared whether I succeeded or not. So, for my graduate thesis I completed a feasibility study on the Virtual Assistance industry. While finishing my Masters degree, I started my own business. I now specialize in desktop publishing and professional writing services.

Defining success
Am I successful? According to my own definition of success, yes I am. I do work that I love so much it doesn’t even seem like work most of the time; I get to make my own hours (even though they are sometimes very long hours) and I am available to my family as necessary and I bring in another income. These are the issues most important to me and how I quantify success.

Real estate professionals and VAs: the perfect match
So who hires VAs? As most of you already know, real estate professionals have really embraced the virtual industry. Their profession seems well-suited to having an assistant on hand when needed. They need to be out of the office showing homes or aquiring listings; they aren’t making the best use of their time sitting in the office doing necessary, but time-consuming, administrative tasks. That’s why a Virtual Assistant is the perfect match for the busy professional. They pay the VA for only the time they actually spend doing the work, freeing the agent up to get out of the office to make money.

Why Virtual Assistance is ideal for military spouses
It’s really hard for military spouses to have a career. Sure, they can get jobs but, because of the inherent transient lifestyle of the military family, no one really wants to hire them for anything more than a “job.” One of the first questions asked in interviews is “Oh, you’re military. How long will you be here?” And then look for the next applicant.

I was amazed when the Military Spouse Virtual Assistant training came to our post and only three people, myself included, were interested in attending. Didn’t all the other spouses realize how important it is to have a career that could move with them? Maybe ACS didn’t publicize it well enough, I don’t know. I just know that it is one of the best moves I’ve ever made.

Words of advice
My advice to new VAs is to network and be life-long learners. Networking is the most cost-effective way to market your business. Join VA associations and volunteer in those organizations. Get your name out there. When other VAs need to pass along work, they’ll remember names they have become familiar with through those associations. And I truly believe that you must continually update your skills or add new ones. We all know how fast technology changes, so change with it. Learning new skills means you have more to offer current and potential clients. It makes you more valuable.

These are the things I’ve learned along the way in the four years I’ve had my own business. I’d love to see more military spouses interested in the wonderful opportunities this portable career offers. You can work anywhere as long as you have a phone line and an Internet connection; you can live on top of an isolated mountain or in the middle of a big city, all without the hassles of commuting to work!