Chris Brogan is an undisputed internet guru. Many thousands hang on his every word. Generally, I’m a fan of his, and read his posts regularly. But it distressed me no end to read this paragraph in a recent post about how hotels could improve customer services:

“I want a virtual assistant at a rate of $20 USD an hour billed out to me should I have other business needs while staying at the hotel. This person can manage anything from basic laundry and store pickups, to simple business functions like copying, or making reservations, or any of those other services one comes into needing while traveling.”

Now, it’s not a bad idea for hotels to offer VA serices, and they have from time immemorial offered concierge (laundry and store pickups) services. And some VAs (though not many) do offer concierge services.
But clearly, Chris’ understanding of what a VA is differs widely from mine, and it irks me that an inadequate definition is being perpetuated even at the highest levels.... Click here to read the rest of this post at the Virtual Assistance and You Blog.

The Virtual Assistance and You Blog is authored by VAF member Mary of Virtual Writing and Communications Solutions.


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This is such a great post - and one comment in particular [by Chris Brogan] is equally enlightening.

Even I was inspired to comment:

Chris' comment '...my...attempts to...learn more about a VA service were met with dodgy "it depends" kinds of pricing and explanations that turned me off' says quite a bit about where these misperceptions about what Virtual Assistants do, how we operate, and the value behind our skills and services, are coming from. When potential clients, like Chris, are being 'educated' by service providers who cannot effectively communicate their own business policies and pricing - much less represent the industry-at-large - it's no wonder the concept of a professional Virtual Assistant is confused or lost altogether. We're frustrated by what we see as 'bad press', but what we're missing is that WE are the ones responsible for evangelizing what we do in a way that serves our purposes. No one else will do that for us. Yes, it's a new profession - and by virtue of its newness we get to define it. The question brought forth by Chris' comment is - are we doing a good job of crafting that definition?

Every potential client is a golden opportunity to educate.

This is a great post Mary - very informative and right-on. And Chris' comment is equally enlightening. Thanks to both of you for opening this conversation.

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