How To Improve Brand Reputation: VA Edit✔️
As a VA you’re expected to be on it - organised and reliable, even more so than the clients you’re working for. The VA industry is big, so making sure you stand out is PRIORITY. You’re amazing at what you do, but you need to collect epic reviews and build a client base that raves about you. It’s all about building a brand reputation that can’t be ignored - luckily, I can help you do just that with my client experience strategy hat on.
Let's start with why your reputation is so important?
Brand reputation matters in all service-based businesses, but it’s especially important for you as a VA because you’re being trusted to go ‘backstage’ in someone else’s business and brand.
There’s an assumed level of trust that comes hand in hand with you being granted access to the inner workings, often with the intention of cleaning things up and making their systems slicker. Business owners are often nervous to take on a VA because they have to show the messy, disorganised parts of themselves that they don’t present to their clients - this means they want someone they can implicitly trust to be discreet, tactful, and most of all really organised.
Business owners are often looking for a long term relationship with a VA, so it’s a decision they need to get right. Recommendations are important, and so are the tools, processes and systems you use to help them with whatever it is they need. You’re often brought in with the expectation that you’re more organised than they are, so getting your ducks in a row now will really benefit you in the long run - great systems are the key to great brand reputation, which is the key to rave reviews for you.
I know that you know you can do a great job for your clients.
You've become a valuable member of their team. I also know it can feel really scrambly, managing your clients’ muddled thoughts, 3am emails and ‘can you remember what we did with…?’s as well as all your own stuff. Having systems in place to make sure you’re really on it in your own business will ensure you can deliver your best work for your clients, and stay sane in the process.
5 Ways to Build Brand Reputation As A VA
1.Slick Booking Systems
Getting your to-do lists out of your notebooks and deadline reminders out of your iPhone app will go a long way to a tidier brain and better experience for your clients. When you're taking lots of enquiries, booking calls and sending of proposals the last thing you want is to have to do this manually.
With a tool like Dubsado to support you in taking enquiries, booking clients and onboarding them you'll never have to play diary tennis, remember to send an invoice reminder or type out anther welcome email ever again!
2. Easy Onboarding
Great a client booked... NOW WHAT?!
I’m really passionate about great onboarding - it’s your chance to make an amazing first impression and instill confidence in your client from the word go. As a VA, your onboarding process sets the tone for the rest of your relationship with your client. Show them here that you’re really organised and prepared, and you’ll find a much more relaxed start to your work together.
I recommend automating parts of your onboarding process, including lead capture, sending proposals, contract signing and invoicing - all of this seamlessly happening for your clients while you go about your day is a great start to your working relationship.
Grab my free onboarding toolkit to help build your process below.
3. Seamless Internal Processes
Keeping track of tasks and deadlines internally is just as important as working on each job for your clients. ClickUp is a great tool for managing your to-do lists, collaborating with others, and combining everything you have to do for your clients with your own on-business tasks each day. With an actual process and a tool like ClickUp, your clients get an amazing experience from the start - no waiting for you to manually do all the onboarding admin or wondering how this is all going to work, just ease and confidence in you.
4. Managing Your Marketing Schedule
When you spend a lot of time on client work, your own marketing can fall by the wayside. I personally use ClickUp to plan and keep track of all my marketing for my own business, alongside task and team management. In your VA business you could use it to plan out your social media and blog content, keep track of your email schedule and view your to-dos without switching platforms. This means much less chance of you dropping the ball on any element.
Read exactly how I do it here.
5. Welcome Guides
I know as a VA that business owners can easily get confused about things like when their billing cycle is, when you'll send the time tracking report, how to communicate best with you.
That's why I'd encourage you to send a Welcome Guide as soon as someone books with you. This what you can set boundaries, communicate, welcome them, tell them about how everything works neatly in one place.
To make this part easy for you I've created a Canva template that you can just plug your branding and copy into. Grab it here for £10
How I Can Help You
On my business journey I’ve come through various iterations of OBM and ops strategist to land where I am now, as a Dubsado and ClickUp expert and client experience design pro - so there's not one scenario, roadblock, offer confusion, or tech issue I haven't experience.
If you're a budding VA or someone who wants to learn more about setting up as a Systems Specialist I have a mentoring offer available called Systems Sister where I support you in building your business, creating offers, learning more about Dubsado & ClickUp and how best to deliver your offers.