Communication, Communication, Communication

As I said in my previous blog post, things are going really well for me. I have clients who give me a lot of work, 2 of them people I don't know personally and who have a different lifestyle. When one takes up a new task, the most important thing is understanding the task. 

In the Virtual Assistant world it is not unusual to communicate only via email. Communications in writing is not new, rather it used to be the main means of communications. But it most often was accompanied by face-to-face contact. A king looking for a new bride would perhaps not make the track to another country by himself, but he did send his aides to have a look.
Since computers, email and texting, written communications have changed. They have become faster and shorter. And with it the habit of thinking before writing has become faster and shorter.

This happened to me too with the 2 clients I mention above. It took a bit of emailing, misunderstanding on my part and frustration on their part before I decided to do the old fashioned thing and communicated face-to-face, that is via Skype. Face to face contact certainly makes it a lot easier to communicate. Facial expression, tone of voice - all these things get lost in email communications.

I have heard other VAs speaking about "intake" forms or "get to know" forms. I have not done that until now, sticking only to the business basic. The experiences I mention above have taught me that I have to invest more time in getting to know the client, and I will.