The new Fall TV lineup is in full swing. I’m watching one new show. Just one.
No, I can’t tell you what it is. No one knows. I record it and watch it the next day when no one is around. No one must know that I enjoy this show. I really shouldn’t even be writing about it here. Because the fates will hear. And then...CANCELLED. You see, I am the person that cancels your favorite shows. I watch them happily and am excited for the next episode. Only, there is no episode, because shortly after I start watching, the show gets cancelled. I am THAT person. And it doesn’t stop at TV shows. No, my adoration and appreciation for wonderful, amazing things can shut down just about anything. That amazing cigar bar? That was me. That fantastic cocktail and tapas bar - a gem in the midst of nothing. Closed. The 100+ year old restaurant with the amazing, homemade slices (hunks) of pie so fresh that they were still warm when served. Also gone. And that’s just here in Michigan. I’m afraid to think what chaos I’ve caused in my travels around the country. (I’m sorry, favorite hotels, restaurants and interesting places to visit!) And so, my dear clients, I will refuse to enjoy your communications. I won’t think fondly on your businesses. I might even sigh deeply and with great frustration when I do your work. Because I want our relationship to last. I don’t want your business to be cancelled.
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When I was younger...and not a virtual assistant...I worked in project management. And, truth be told, I am kind of a geek for it. Project management is all about organization, and structure, and having a starting point, a middle, and an end. It contains a lot of “if this, then that” and all the answers (keyword: contingencies) to any problems you can think of when you start are already written down.
I love that. You know what’s going to happen. Sure, there might be a problem that you didn’t think about in the beginning, but, for the most part, everything is in place. Without thinking about it, a lot of what you’re doing has that project management flow behind it. Example: Buy groceries at the grocery store. You make a list. You have a plan on how to get there. You figure out “if they don’t have X, I’ll have to get Y.” You have a budget. See - cooooool! Over the holiday break I was subject to the most chaotic, frustrating lack of project management. A logistical nightmare. Of course, I knew I had to share it with you. A few days earlier I heard on the news that an organization that gets a large group of musicians together to play one song was having a function in Detroit. (Yeah, I’m keeping this generic, but you can Google it all and find out more on your own.) My son is a guitarist, and so I mentioned it to him. He decided to sign up. Thus, the nightmare begins. I had, luckily, planned to take that day off already, to have some relaxation time. (Ha!) Unfortunately, there was no relaxing. Upon receiving the schedule, we learned that this would be from 9am to 7pm. That is a long, long day. We were told that they were going to film it for “an award winning TV show.” Okay, sure. We had already seen the videos of the previous events that were held, so we already knew it would be filmed. My husband took the day off. Because this wasn’t something I could do on my own with our son. Not with all the equipment, the location, the length of time. Let me break down how things progressed. Poor Planning Point #1 (lack of proper communication) A day or two before the event, we luckily logged into the website to find that the location was changed. It’s a good thing we checked. Poor Planning Point #2 (lack of organization and scheduling) Upon arrival to the location, we’re told that 9am check-in just got switched to 9:30. We, along with a line-up of musicians, all wait. At 9:30, standing in front of check-in, we’re told that it’ll be a little longer. They were still setting up. Poor Planning Point #3 (lack of timetable understanding) I think check-in finally began at 9:45. This was for all guitarists, bassists, drummers, horns, etc. Now, if you don’t know any musicians, let me tell you how long it takes for a guitarist or bassist to set up. It’s about 2 minutes. Plug in amp. Plug in guitar. Plug in pedal if needed. Tune. That’s about it. Horns? Open case. The drummers have the hardest job, but they’re pros, and they probably set up in about 15 minutes. According to the schedule, set up was going to take three hours. Even if there had been three times as many musicians (there were probably 100), three hours is overkill. And this was the problem with the whole project. They initially planned for hundreds and hundreds of musicians to show up, but they knew how many they had two days beforehand. They should have had an alternate schedule for a smaller crowd. Poor Planning Point #4 (timing) Just to throw this in, this event was the day before 4th of July. The invitation was announced to the public a week before. The organizers (European for the music, and Californian for the TV show), apparently had no idea that we Midwestern types take vacation, and go up to our cabins and campgrounds for the holiday. (It’s a pretty big holiday, you know?) Let’s continue with the terrible schedule. At 12:30, the singers were to show up and check-in. I’m not sure why they came in last. They didn’t even have to bring microphones. They just had to show up. At 1pm, it was lunch time. That means for four hours, you’ve had a group of musicians sitting in blazing hot sun (it was about 90 degrees that day) for absolutely NO REASON. This brings us to the next point. Poor Planning Point #5 (wasting resources) If this was a real project, people would be getting paid. And there isn’t a company out there that wants to pay workers to sit around and do nothing. At 2pm rehearsals were supposed to start - and go for three hours. They actually didn’t. It was a few short rehearsals. (These were all pretty seasoned musicians playing an easy song.) And then more waiting in the hot sun. (One positive point: The organizers were nice enough to provide snacks, lunch and all the water and Gatorade people could drink, along with sunscreen, though if you’re keeping people all day, you should really provide three meals for them.) Somewhere around 4pm we finally figured out why we were sitting around waiting instead of just getting on with the filming. The TV Show was a reality TV show, and they were waiting on the contestants to show up (which they figured would be 5pm, so filming would be 5-7pm). No, I’m not telling you which show it is. I love me some reality TV and I refuse to say anything about it, or who the contestants were, or what they had to do, or why they were there, or anything. I HATE SPOILERS, and I refuse to divulge any info. 5pm comes and goes. Somewhere around 5:20? 5:30? Some contestants show up. That’s when the musicians have to start playing. And playing. And playing. The same song, over and over and over and over and… (and if I had any love for that song before, it has been played out of me completely). Some more contestants show up. And the band played on…. But then stopped, because everyone was burned out, literally and physically. And then started back up again, and played and played… Poor Planning Point #6 (environment) If you are going to keep people outside in blazing hot weather in a city all day, you need to provide them with shade, at the very least. Provide a comfortable environment. Poor Planning Point #7 (explain the project) The musicians were there to play a song to be filmed as a fun group thing. No one was informed that they were going to be playing the song 20 or 30 or 40 times for the TV show. When the project is kept secret from the team, the team cannot do the project well. Honestly, I think if the people in charge had divulged this, they may not have had too many people show up. These musicians thought they’d play the song a couple of times, have fun and go home. Poor Planning Point #8 (circle back to the lack of communication) Around 6:50pm the head of this chaos walked away. Left. Where? Who knows? After the song ended for the nth time (who knows what # that was), he stepped down from the podium and went somewhere. No announcement. No instructions. Nothing. He disappeared. After 10 minutes of the disappearing act, several musicians started packing up (along with us) and left. It was 7pm, and was definitely time to go. What happened after we left? Not sure. Based on some news reports I saw, we’re speculating that it could have been another couple of hours. For the sake of all the musicians, especially the drummers, who I think had it the worst, I hope things ended after the first group of musicians fled. I guess we’ll see how it all panned out when the show finally airs. The moral of this story? Plan. Plan. And then plan again. Big or small, every project needs a plan. Every project needs to have those “what happens if” contingencies built in. Otherwise you’re just going to be mired in chaos. This JUST HAPPENED and I wanted to get it all out there while it was fresh in my brain, because it's important.
I want to take a quick moment to talk about customer service. GOOD customer service. The kind that makes you want to continue giving your hard earned dollars to a business. Here's how I spent the past hour or so of my day: 1. Siding guy bumps AT&T NID box while working and a couple of wires come loose - Uverse/Internet is down. 2. He tries to fix, can't, and tells me to call someone to come and fix and he'll pay for it because it was his fault. (That's GOOD customer service.) 3. I call AT&T U-verse support and spend about 15 minutes waiting for the girl to reach the service people. She tells me it'll be $149 someone can come out - on June 11. (Yeah, five days later) (That's BAD customer service.) 4. I'm usually pretty patient with customer service, because, well - I get it. But I was starting to get peeved. She somehow manages to find a Saturday appointment. (Three days later.) (Still BAD customer service in my book.) 5. I ask - can't someone just TELL me how to put the wires back in. No. It's a "specialist" that has to do it. 6. Siding guy decides to call AT&T because he's mad about it, too. (That's GOOD customer service.) He doesn't get anywhere with them either. 7. Siding guy takes time to search the Internet, finds a You Tube video that shows him what to do, and Voila! Here I am back online. (That's GOOD customer service.) All AT&T had to do was get someone on the phone to tell us how to insert two wires back into the box. It literally was all of a couple of seconds of work. I would have been happy. The siding guy would have been happy. And AT&T would have been happy because they would have (A) helped a customer, (B) saved a service guy a trip out for two seconds of work, and (C) shown what good customer service is all about. Look, I know that poop happens, and fixes aren't immediate. But when you have the opportunity to help - a simple, easy help - by all means, HELP. Sure, you didn't get $149, but you would have gained a customer that would be with you for the long haul. Now, I'm not so sure. There is something that has been bothering me, and I need to get it off my chest.
A few weeks ago I was on Instagram and I happened to see a live feed from a business coach. I decided to stop and see what kind of motivation she was offering. For the first minute or two everything was going well. And honestly, I don’t remember exactly what she was saying, but I was still listening so I think it must have been good. But then she started talking about how she gains clients, and this is where she lost me. Now I’m going to paraphrase here, but this is the sentiment: “If someone is on the fence with signing up with me, I just ignore them. If they email me or call me, I won’t answer. I don’t have time for that. I don’t have time for people who are unsure if I’m right for them. That doesn’t make me money. So don’t waste time on people that aren’t going to make you money.” I shut down the video. Did I hear that right? A coach doesn’t want to help anyone that isn’t ready to commit and pony up the cash to her ASAP. Even now I’m throwing my hands up and my head is shaking frantically. HUH???!!!?!?! You’re a coach. Don’t coaches help people? Don’t they motivate them? Don’t they put them in the right direction? I can’t imagine giving up on someone I just met - someone who I know needs help, who came to me for help - and just because they were nervous about the steps, or the investment or whatever. And not answer their emails or calls. Lady, you’re in the wrong line of work. We are all in the service industry. Coaches, virtual assistants, social media experts, web designers, etc. - all of us. We sell ourselves as helpers, serving others so that they can benefit from our knowledge and have a strong support system to help them grow. Just because someone is hesitant doesn’t make them unworthy of help. If anything, they’re the ones that need more of your help. So someone can’t invest in you right now. It’s okay. Keep in touch with them. (Isn’t that what newsletters are all about?) And don’t people say it takes at least 6-8 touches before someone will feel secure enough to want to buy from you? So why would you let someone go after the first contact? When you choose to help people, it’s because you want to help them, not because you want access to their bank accounts. If that’s the case, you’re in the wrong line of work. One of the more difficult things to learn when you’re working with a virtual assistant is how to assign her work. I want to share three tips with you that can help keep things sailing smoothly in your work relationship together.
Last Minute Work Doesn’t Work It’s 4:59pm on a lovely Friday afternoon. Your virtual assistant is shutting down the office for the weekend. “Ding” She gets an email from you, asking her to do a laundry list of tasks. And they all need to be done before Monday morning. Don’t do that. That’s just cruel. Virtual assistants are working on time tables and schedules and have developed excellent routines to fit in all of their work daily. If you send an email at the end of the day, or right before a weekend, or a holiday, or vacation (you get the point), you’re putting your virtual assistant in a corner. She wants to help you, but she has a life outside of work. A family. Friends. Laundry to do! Plan your schedule and tasks so that she can get things done at your deadline, but while not infringing on her off hours time. Know What You Want You fire off an email to your virtual assistant. Maybe it says “look up some flights to New York for me.” No. Take that email back immediately! It’s so important to give your virtual assistant all the details she needs in order to do her best job for you. Looking up flights to New York is generic. From just that one task I can ask:
Details are key. We know you’re in a rush and you’re doing a million things. But if you can take an extra minute to think about what it is you actually need, your virtual assistant can get right to work for you with little to no questions. Change is Bad You’ve got your task. You tell your virtual assistant to create a landing page for you and she gets to work on it. Twenty minutes later, you tell her that instead of the images you gave her, you decided to use different ones. She removes the old images and adds the new ones. Then you change the text. Then the images again. Then the coloring and call to action. Then the images again. And more text. And your virtual assistant is now pulling out her hair. If you’re changing things that much, you’re not ready to assign the task. And this goes back up to tip #2 - you have to know what you want before you can assign a task to your virtual assistant. Keep these three tips in mind and your virtual assistant will greet each task you assign with a much happier attitude! |
Author28+ years of business experience. 15+ years of virtual experience. topics
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