Over the past 3-months, I’ve been searching for someone to take over front line customer support in my business. My wonderful virtual assistant (VA) of 3-years wanted to move into a more specialized area of membership website management (yay!) and no longer wanted to manage help desk tickets or emails (oh no!).

Sadly, answering emails and tickets are not my strength. Although I love meeting new people, my strength is in training and motivating people to make a change in their business using virtual events.

I thought I could ignore this issue in my business and for a while, I successfully did so. However, after missing a really lucrative speaking gig and getting a few angry emails from clients who were frustrated by the slow response, I knew that I had to find someone to fill this hole in my business and fast.

J. Liz Saunders McManus

Meet J. Liz Saunders McManus. Liz joined my team as my Online Relationship Manager in April 2010. I met Liz at a networking event about 5-years ago. At the time, I didn’t need a VA, but Liz definitely made an impression. So much so, I never forgot her.

Liz has joined the Virtual Event Success family to answer emails, reply to tickets and from time to time, answer the toll-free number. She’ll also schedule appointments in my calendar, follow up with people to provide things that they need and help clients should they run into any problems.

Aside from her infectious attitude, what impressed me about Liz is that she finds the solution and then runs it by me.  This is what’s missing with alot of virtual assistants. I’ve worked with some who will forward me an email and ask “What should I do?” or “What’s the answer?” That is so frustrating.

From the start as Liz was learning about my business, she would forward emails or assign tickets to me saying “I think this is the solution. Let me know if I’m on the right track.”

What a God sent.

Virtual assistants need to think beyond the task. That when they’re booking an appointment in their client’s calendar or when they’re answering an email, they’re representing someone’s business.

That’s why Liz is so much more than a customer support person in my business. I felt that Customer Support Manager was just so limiting. In this day and age, relationships are the new currency and since Liz is the first person prospects, joint venture partners and clients will interact with after meeting me, it’s important that Liz’s title reflects her importance in my business.

So, when Liz asked me what title she should add to her email signature, I told her to put Online Relationship Manager. She has no script. I just want Liz to be herself and know that she’s doing an important task for my business.

In all this, I learned that I could have multi-VAs on my team. I felt I was somehow cheating on my VA of 3-years in a professional sense because I was looking for someone else to join my team. However, I’m learning that as my business grows, so does the VA-client relationship.

Thankfully, my current virtual assistant’s need to specialize prompted me to think about specializing my own business. In my case, not only did my current VA grow with me, but I was able to pinpoint where an additional VA would fit in my business.

So, welcome to the team Liz. And if you’re reading this, would you mind adding a message below welcoming Liz to our little tribe, pretty please?