Davis Virtual Assistants

How often has someone said to you, “Hold on … I’m trying to figure out how to make this cheaper for you”?

This week’s Killer Customer Care Award goes to P. at the Popeye’s on Boston Road, here in the Boogie Down Bronx. The scene: Late night working here at home and I had to step away from the computer and the radio and the street noise and all the thoughts racing through my mind. I tell Hubster Joe I’m going for a drive, and he asks me to pick up some food on the way home, as neither of us were in the mood to cook.

So, off in the car I go. I’m feeling good, feeling relaxed and the concerns of the day are gone. I find my way to Boston Road, hang a left and head up through the neighborhood. I steer the car towards Popeye’s, pull into the parking lot and head inside to see a dining room at half capacity. Note: I really don’t like drive thru’s!

So, there’s P. at the counter. He greets me with a smile and “how may I help you?” (Note: Fast food restaurants here in The Bronx are notorious for their poor service. The fact I was greeted with a smile floored me.) Even nicer … that’s how I answer my phones and that’s how I love to be greeted. I give him my order and he hesitates for a few moments before keying my order. I ask if there’s anything wrong and he says, “Hold on … I’m trying to figure out how to make this cheaper for you.”

Will Popeye’s be upset that P. found a way to charge me a little less money for my order? Don’t know; don’t care. What they should care about is they now have a new customer, as well as a customer evangelist.

Rock on.

Shame on you! I see you haven’t signed up for the DavisVA Digest, the virtual assistance newsletter from Davis Virtual Assistants. Had you been signed up, you would have read about the wonderful and money-saving specials we announced for September 2005.

You haven’t joined.

You snoozed.

You lost.

All right, all right … I’ll be nice, but just this once.

Click here, sign up and bask in the glow of knowing you’ll never miss another fab-u-lous special!

My anti-nickel-and-dime mentality does not mean I work for cheap or underbid my services. On the contrary, dear reader. My rates are very competitive and forward thinking, meaning I want my clients with me for years and years and years — not six months.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say Client Tom has a piece of software he’s purchased, but he’s by no means a geek! Client Tom wants to know if I can give him the 1-2-3’s of this software — the quick and dirty “how do I do this, this and this.” Fair enough, Client Tom. I tell Client Tom I’ll give him one hour free to compensate for my learning curve — this applies to any piece of software I haven’t touched. At the end of the one hour, I deliver my “how to” training manual to Client Tom and also make note of other valuable features I discovered during my hour of learning the software. Nine times out of 10, Client Tom will tell me to move forward and provide him with a more detailed training manual on his newly-purchased software. Plus, I just had the opportunity to learn one more piece of software — sometimes very expensive software — making me and my company even more of a threat to the competition.

On Client Tom’s invoice, I’ll include a highlighted note about the one hour of service he received for free.

Client Tom loves me and his loyalty stays with me, Lori Davis at Davis Virtual Assistants.

Take some time to reflect on your billing policies and rates. More important, imagine if YOUR billing policies were in play with one of your service providers and ask yourself, “Would I pay these rates?”

As a side bar I have enjoyed your web site …you have a great business sense, a can do attitude with an open and honest communication style which is refreshing.

Makes all the hard work worth it ….

Lori’s Recommendation

I love Your World with Neil Cavuto on the Fox News Channel. Guess who was just on? Jeff and Rich Sloan of StartupNation. Excellent!

The only point I disagree with, in regards to their presentation, centers on borrowing funds from family and friends. Nope. Nadda. No can do! Never will this Director of the Future borrow money from my family, in regards to my business ventures. Too much room to create ill will among family members.

Checkout StartupNation.

Rock on.

Today’s Gold Star goes to Main Graphics in California. My client needed to place an order for presentation folders — an order which was last placed nearly two years ago. I discovered that Main Graphics had acquired the company which previously handled this order for my client. The kick ass customer service began with the nice lady in Reception at Main Graphics, who very quickly assigned me my Account Representative, providing his name, direct extension and e-mail address. I talked to the Account Rep for my client, and he confirmed they still had the artwork, as well as the specs for the presentation folders.

My Account Rep, Christopher Allen, provides superb customer service, answers my questions in language I can understand and is an all around great guy!

Tell me, dear reader, who gets YOUR Gold Star for today? Call that person TODAY and let that person know just how much you appreciate their time and efforts.

Too funny — and true.

Speaking of work … tell me, where has the work ethic gone? Where are the folks who are dedicated to their art and their craft, who believe in delivering kick ass customer service and who go the extra mile?

I was truly disappointed last week after I interviewed a potential Associate for Davis Virtual Assistants. On paper, she looked really good. Still, the doubting thomasina in me had that nagging “this is too good to be real” thought. Go with the gut instinct Lori — it’ll never fail ya. The gut instinct held true this time, as well.

Disappointment kicked in when her references didn’t pan out; when her list of “things I don’t do” far outweighed her “things I do” list. Her list of demands was incredible, overblown and completely nondeserving of my time and attention. I stopped the interview after about five minutes, after mentioning the issue with her references. I was rewarded with, “I never thought you would call them.”

Where are the folks who understand it’s my good name I’m promoting? Where are the folks who understand what it takes to run a business, albeit a small one? Where are the folks who know that not all business stops at 4:59:59 PM?

The lack of a work ethic in my co-workers was yet another reason why I left the corporate world. My last and final full-time corporate gig — which for the most part was thoroughly enjoyable — was also incredibly stressful due to the near-constant shenanigans of two co-workers. My “I can’t take this anymore” threshold was reached, surpassed and finally exploded.

I want and need to surround myself with folks who understand this work ethic of which I speak. I know you’re out there and when I find you, I’ll say “thank you.”

For those of you with hundreds, or thousands, of business cards taking up space, this one’s for you. Your mission is to work with Davis Virtual Assistants to get those business cards scanned and then transferred to Outlook, ACT! or Excel.

The largest business card scanning project we’ve handled to date involved four large boot boxes — not shoe boxes, BOOT boxes — stuffed and crammed full with business cards. We handled that job to perfection, and we can handle your business card scanning needs just as well.

Highly competitive rates, fast turn-around time, plus a standard 10% final invoice discount.

Whether you’re Power Player Pete with thousands of business cards, or an entreprenuer with 100, stop procrastinating and do something today to get this task off your “I should have done this years ago” list.

Dial our digits or egg us with an e-mail to get the ball rolling.

Do you check your site’s STATS on a regular basis? Of course you do … don’t make me yell at you in public!

Anyway, I’m going through the STATS for davisva.com and I notice a MASSIVE increase of hits and page views coming from .mil (military) sites. I’m stumped; pleased, but stumped. Where is all of this activity coming from? I’m not marketing to the military, though I should. It’s no secret I spent a few years in the military, but so did millions of other folks.

I will ascertain why I’m receiving all this activity. The next thing to do is figure out how to exploit all these hits for the greater good.

Title Schmitle: I get so tired of the standard titles I see! CEO? Boring. President? Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.

I like to change the “titles” I append to my name in my e-mail signature blocks. For example, if you were to receive an e-mail from me this week, you’d see my name as:

Lori Davis, CPP, CAO

What is a CPP and a CAO, you ask? A CPP is the Chief Paper Pusher and a CAO is the Chief Admin Officer.

Cheesy? Yup.

Icebreaker? Absolutely! When I’m responding to inquiries about my services and company, nine times out of the 10 the recipient of the e-mail will ask, “Hey, what do those acronyms mean?”

So, dear reader, tell me … who are you?