Setting Virtual Assistant Terms and Conditions and Policies

Your policies and terms and conditions will ensure you are meeting your customer’s expectations as they know what to expect in the first place.

Setting rules and terms and conditions for a virtual assistant business is essential for the benefit of you and your client. Having a set of rules and conditions in place means that there are fewer chances of disagreements between you and your client. In addition, having the right policies in place will result in better customer relationships as you and your clients both know what to expect.

Policies will stop you from getting frustrated that things aren’t running the way you want them to be. Although just having a policy alone does not necessarily mean another party will definitely stick to them, but it will minimise disagreements and confusion between both parties.

Having policies that you stick to will emphasise just how professional you are. In addition to setting up policies, you may also need to implement strategies to ensure your policies are followed.

The best way to make sure customers stick to your rules, is to make sure the other party is aware of them in the first place. They also need to be made fully aware of any consequences of not sticking to your policies.

When it comes to your virtual assistant business, there is a range of different policies that you could consider putting in place.

Below are different types of policies you can add to your virtual assistant business. Without some policies in place, most virtual assistant or freelance businesses won’t operate as effectively. You don’t have to implement them all, start by creating the policies which are most important and most likely to be used. 

Individual tasks

Depending on the different types of services you provide, each individual service may need its own set of terms and conditions. If you are in the start-up phases of your virtual assistant business, you will probably find that the more experience you have with each service/client, the more ideas you will get for new policies. Not having them in place beforehand makes your agreement between you and your client unclear, which could cause a problem for both of you.

Example

You run an email marketing campaign, and you did not specify how many emails you will be sending. You plan on sending eight mass emails that month…

But the client is expecting 13 different emails!

If you state in your terms and conditions/contract that you will send eight emails, the client would have no grounds to expect more and, therefore, won’t be disappointed.

How and when your customers can contact you

You can decide how and when your clients can contact you. This can be done by just using your opening hours. As a virtual assistant, you are likely to face interruptions from one client when completing work for another client, especially if you answer your phone each time it rings. To overcome this, you can specify a particular time frame that you leave open to accept calls during the week. You can even send your client your calendar or a link to schedule an appointment, this way they can book a meeting with you.

Some clients may be suspicious of whether work is actually being completed and whether or not you are truly focused and dedicated to getting them the best results.

This is because you are working remotely and your client is not there to see just how hard you really are working, so by having set times that your client can contact you will give them the confidence that their working hours which they have purchased from you is not going to be interrupted by other clients and calls.

Charges for additional customer contact

Making it clear how much telephone time a client can have with you may seem petty. However, you may want to include this as a policy. Some customers require extra support and may get stuck and call to ask for your assistance. You may also come across customers who wish to phone you to discuss instructions that they need you to clarify.

Our policy is that every customer gets a particular amount of time per week/ month to discuss their campaign/ project, etc. The length of time usually depends on the service they purchase. The bigger the task, the longer the time. We ensure every customer receives this by setting up a repeat appointment with the client. This is usually scheduled for the same time each week/ month.

Any additional incoming calls received by an existing customer outside of their allocated amount of time is usually limited to under 15 minutes. If the client requires phone support that exceeds their allotted time, they may be charged for this as a service depending on the circumstances.

As a virtual assistant, time is precious, so begin to monitor how long these additional phone calls take out of your day. You may realise that it is more time than you thought. This is why it is important to outline this in your virtual assistant terms and conditions.

General Payment

Here are some questions to consider to set up your payment policies for your virtual assistant business.

• Which payment methods will you accept?

• When is payment due?

• Will you require a deposit?

• Will this be for every project or just with new customers?

• Are there additional charges for additional purchases such as materials?

• Will you accept refunds, if so, for which services?

• Are prices fixed or subject to change?

Late Payment

Ensuring your customer pays on time is a policy all virtual assistants will want their clients to stick to. Having clear and concise payment policies will help minimise late payments.

The date that payment is due must be clear.

If there are any late payment fees, this must be stipulated on the invoice and terms and conditions.

You must also make it clear if and when services will be terminated due to late payment. The last thing you want is to stop someone’s project and ruin your relationship with the client due to a miscommunication. This is why it is essential to have the payment date and any terms and conditions associated with it outlined clearly. You can also get your client to sign a copy of your terms and conditions/ contracts directly online using Hellosign.

Deadlines

You need to make it clear to your client whether the date you have agreed on to finish the work is an estimated completion date or if it is a guaranteed completion date. If your client is relying on results for a particular date and you are unsure that you can complete it, then it should be clear that the date given is an estimation. This way, you won’t be held responsible for missed deadlines.

Sharing Info

You can also consider setting a policy on sharing information.

There are some rules and guidelines on sharing personal information, such as G.D.P.R, but you may also need to set policies on how your client can share your information.

In your virtual assistant privacy policy, you can set guidelines on how clients discuss information such as rates and marketing strategies with others and your competitors.

Additional Charges

Your client also needs to be aware if they need to pay any additional charges for items you purchased to complete their task. Letting them know this in advance will minimise disputes later on. Sometimes when you quote a price, your client may not realise that the price does not include additional items you need to purchase to complete their task. Make this clear within your pricing policy.  And also, make it clear when and how they will be charged for the additional items.

Retainer Packages Unspent Hours

If a client purchases a block of hours from you (retainer package), they need to know the terms and conditions related to this. For example, if you want to have a policy that means the hours they purchase must be used that month and do not roll over into the next, your clients need to be aware of that.

The advantage of this particular policy is that it reduces the possibility of overbooking yourself and you have better control of your hours.

Rush Jobs/ Last minute jobs / Irregular hours

Does your time deserve a higher rate for this?

If someone calls you last minute and needs something done, will you charge more for this? If so, this is another policy that needs to be displayed on your terms and conditions.

It’s Friday afternoon; just when you thought you would be free this weekend, a client calls and needs some work done by Monday. Letting clients know about how you operate outside of regular working hours and the payment terms associated with it is advised. If you are available outside normal business hours, let your client know the terms and conditions related to this.

Including this type of policy will also let the client know that your services are still available last minute if they face an emergency or tight deadlines.

Information Storage 

How long will you keep information relating to their project/task?

If a client no longer requires your services and you have their files, for example, in Dropbox, you may want to clear up some space by deleting the file. But wait, what if the client never kept a copy and then requests one from you after you have deleted it.

Letting clients know how long their files will be kept before you delete them will ensure they know they are responsible for their files from a specific date. Sending them a reminder letter before you delete it will also give them another chance to back up. Save their files, or request another copy if they wish.

Referrals

Do you want to provide an incentive for clients to refer you?

A referral scheme is an excellent way of marketing your virtual assistant business. Having policies in place will ensure that you, the person referred, and the client who referred them all know exactly what they will receive. You can consider asking the following questions to create your referral scheme policies.

• What does the client receive?

• What does the person who was referred receive?

• How many people can they refer?

• Does the client have to state they were referred during the point of the sale to qualify for your scheme?

• Does the referred person have to sign up for a specific deal or a particular length of time to qualify for the referral scheme?

These are enough points to help you to get started with creating your policies and terms and conditions for your virtual assistant business. As stated earlier, you will likely set new policies or change your policies over time due to your experiences.

What policies are you going to be setting up or changing? Let us know on our Facebook page here.

Stick to your policies. But don’t forget you are in control of your own business and you can change your policies to suit you and to improve customer satisfaction and results. Just make sure if you do change them you inform your clients in advance.