Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sue L Canfield on February 10, 2010 at 8:01pm

Hi Ella. Dealing with negative feedback can be challenging. It seems from your post that you have received negative feedback several times because of work your team has done. So the first thing I would do in this case is review procedures with your team. Otherwise you will continue to receive negative feedback and you want to avoid that if at all possible. I agree that you shouldn't have to double check all of the work your team does. Yet they obviously need some additional training of some sort in order to avoid these situations.

As far as handling the negative feedback, since it seems to be valid, you need to do everything in your power to avoid future mishaps and then go out of your way to apologize to the client for the mishaps. Always accept responsibility for your team. That's why it's so important to have team members who think and work the way you expect since your reputation is on the line.

If your clients are WOWED by the way you handle this, I believe you'll find they remain good clients - as long as they don't continue to have negative experiences. Read my blog post about how I handled a negative client experience.

Hope this helps. Sue

Permalink Reply by Ella Pelayo on February 10, 2010 at 8:24pm

Thanks for your insights Sue. Sometimes I feel like I should stop having a multi-VA business and focus on just working as a solo VA. However since my team and I have worked for more than a year now I feel bad letting them go but then this has lead me to business losses too. So I am actually torned between the 2. I am not afraid to take responsibility for this cause I look at this as learning opportunities. I read your blog post and its very helpful... Thanks for your insight Sue. :)

Permalink Reply by Sue L Canfield on February 10, 2010 at 8:32pm

I'm glad my insights and blog post were helpful. You may be interested in learning more about how I work with other VAs in a free Q&A Subcontractors Call that another VA, Collette Schultz is doing next Tuesday. You can learn more at her website.

Permalink Reply by Joel D Canfield on June 3, 2010 at 3:39pm

Ella, besides agreeing with Sue's comments, I wanted to add that when you trust others with your clients, you have to know they're trustworthy. That takes time and research. At first, it's a lot of work. You do have to monitor the work and know what's being done.

I'm a firm believer in giving trust, but checking anyway. I don't start out distrusting folks; that's negative and mean-spirited. But if you were doing work which represented me, you'd best believe I'd check it before it went to a client.

When someone is representing you, you must do the work to know you can trust them. It's hard work up front, but pays off in the long run.

If you have subcontractors or employees who don't share your work ethic, you have only two options: convince them to share your work ethic, or stop working with them. You cannot work with someone who might fool you by submitting quality work for weeks, and then one day dropping the ball because they don't care.

Folks make mistakes. Mistakes can be fixed. If someone doesn't care about their own reputation and yours, you can't work with them. Know when it's a skill problem, and know when it's an ethical problem, and you'll know how to handle it.

Permalink Reply by Charity Van Vleet on August 8, 2010 at 11:07am

I admit I don't have experience with this really in my VA business but I'm not managing others at this point. Here's some suggestions for you based on my experience in other industries.

1) Identify the problem first. Is it a communication issue? Is the VA rushing? What's really causing the problem that the client identified.

2) Look at processes based on what the problem is. If the problem revolves around a VA, schedule a time to talk with the VA and address the issue. Go to the meeting with proactive solutions for the issue and suggestions - that will help reduce the "sting". Also make sure you go armed with things the VA does well and layer those into the discussion.

3) If the problem revolves around the client, find ways to improve the process for the client.

Those are pretty generic as I don't know specifically what the issue is. That and this is a post from February but thought I'd post it in case you still need help.

Good luck!