Should You Meet With Your Clients Face to Face?

I’ve been following a discussion on Virtual Assistant Forums about meeting clients Face to Face. The consensus has been positive but I think we need to look at the negatives as well. Candy over on 2 Minutes with a VA did a post that focused on how to respond to clients who want you to come to their office and I think her points have a bearing on this discussion.

Our business is to work with our clients not for our clients. Many people are still trying to wrap their brain around the idea of working virtually and asking a VA to come to their office to do work or for a meeting is just a way for them to fall back into their comfort zone. It invites them to treat you like an employee, not a professional. You need to educate them as to why coming to their office does not benefit them. As Candy points out, it wastes time and is inefficient. Exactly the opposite of what your client is trying to do by hiring you. With the technology available, it is also not necessary.

On VAF, a lot of the VAs are talking about how it strengthens the relationship. I disagree. I think it limits. While you want to have a good, strong relationship with your clients, it needs to be a business relationship. Don’t be their buddy. This can really make difficulties down the road. For example, if money is tight for them they are more likely to ask a friend to wait for a payment but they might not ask that of a professional service provider.

It also limits you to accepting local clients. I have a client who is oversees and I would never have had the opportunity to work with them if I only looked in my backyard. (By the way - I have never spoken with this client over the phone. Our sole communication is via Basecamp. I’ve been with them for almost two years and we have an excellent relationship.)

But, you say, my client likes to brainstorm and meeting for coffee is a great way to do that. I get that - I love to brainstorm with my clients. It’s a great way to really get into what they need and share ways you can help them accomplish it. It’s a great way to sell your services without selling. So save the gas and the travel time and do a Skype video call. There is less tendency to chitchat, and you can record the call for documentation purposes.

Always set an appointment and a time limit. I really like using the appointment feature with Google calendar for this (you can do it in Outlook too). Even if your prospect or client doesn’t use Google calendar you can still set the appointment on your calendar and email the notice to them. You can always choose to go longer if you really feel the conversation is valuable or you can say that you need to get to your next appointment. They don’t need to know that the appointment is picking up your kids from school.

I realize that many people work with VAs because they aren’t tech savvy but doing a Skype call is very simple. A webcam is very inexpensive - for the cost of their gas and a latte for a couple of meetings, they can buy a webcam if they don’t have one. And they might find that this opens up a lot of other doors for them in their business.

I really like the idea of doing a video conference for consultations and orientation meetings. It gives you valuable feedback in the form of facial expressions. You can tell if something you are saying is not understood or if they disagree. On a video conference you have as much control as they do over what is discussed and you have all of your resources at hand. You don’t have to make a note to send them the link to your report on the value of using Twitter, you can send it to them immediately.

If your prospective client still can’t wrap their brain around this then they need an employee. Do you want to be that employee?

Popularity: 1% [?]

If you have any questions or suggestions, just click on Contact Me above and send me a message. I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for visiting!