How We Support Our Clients
We are a bit…well…different…
Some people might think that virtual assistant companies and outsourcing companies are a dime a dozen (it seems like there are millions of them out there), but what makes us stand out is that we truly care about people.
No, seriously. We do.
It’s not just lip service. We put our money, time and energy into ensuring that our clients AND our remote team members are taken care of. And happy people get results.
We’ve got a whole LOVE Team. A Love Team to support the business owners and a Love Team to support the team members.
If you’ve got any problems with your remote team member (or just have a question), you can call the Client Lovers (our Account Managers) directly on their Australian mobile phone numbers. We are big believers in picking up the phone and having a conversation. While similarly your remote team member will also have a key person having chats with them and ready to help them with anything.
For us, when we match you with a remote team member, it’s not just about finding a person to do the work. We’re thinking of establishing a long-term working relationship. Supporting you and your business to thrive. Most of our clients even choose to get a second remote team member within the first six months of working with us. All our agreements are month to month.
We want you to stay because, well, it's awesome … but also because you’re getting an ROI, not because we’ve tied you down.
We have fine-tuned our processes from the very first time we meet with you, to when we match you with the right candidate, we support you every step of the way! We’re even still there for you and your remote team member during the trials and celebrations of your business.
If you're looking for support in your business, Global Teams just might be a good option for you.
GETTING TO KNOW OUR CLIENTS
Before we even start working together, we need to get to know you.
What is your business? What are you currently struggling with? What kind of support for your business are you looking for? Is that really the support you need? Or would a different type of role better suit your business needs
These are some of the questions we would flesh out with you, so that we have a clear idea of what you and your business actually need.
We love connecting with our clients personally and coming to understand what makes them tick. Although this is usually the start of our relationship with you, getting to know you and understand your needs is an ongoing part of being our client.
These chats do not stop when you become a client. They are an ongoing part of our relationship as you grow with us.
Sometimes a client will start with for example an operations and admin remote worker. Later they will consider also hiring an account manager or a sales representative. At each stage, we will be there to talk to you and give advice about which role/s we recommend and why.
Becoming a Global Teams client means joining our community, where we’ll be there as a support system for your growing business.
AMAZING REMOTE WORKERS
People often ask where we get our remote team members. We get hundreds of applications a week. Thousands some weeks!
But our recruitment team do an incredible job of filtering through those applications.
So how do we attract the right people?
ONLINE CHANNELS
Interested candidates can always apply directly on our website. This means we always have a pipeline of great candidates on our remote worker database.
Sign-up for our monthly VA Superstars email where we feature outstanding candidates that you might be interested in learning more about.
Some candidates also contact us via our social channels or start a conversation through emails to learn more about open positions.
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REFERRALS
But guess what? Many of our roles are filled through referrals. It’s the cliche, right? ‘Good people know good people’!
Our team members value their roles and the company so much that whenever we are conducting a wide search for remote workers or are searching for a specific role for a client, our current team members go out of their way to identify people they are confident can do the job well.
In turn, we attract and retain the best remote workers because they also want to work for us. They’ve seen how beneficial the work has been for their sisters, cousins, in-laws, friends and any other relation you can think of.
And we do want our team members to be happy. To want to work and stay with us.
Why our team members Love being a part of Global Teams
And in a beautiful return on that investment in our culture, we have landed on something we didn’t set out to build – an ongoing referral system that has led to some of our best recruitments.
REMOTE WORK
Long, long, long before Covid-19 Carmen and Maureen were working from home and they liked it! But even when they started Global Teams in 2019, they immediately set it up as a fully remote company. They both liked working from home, so surely other people would also love it.
And they were right. They are able to attract top talent, because most people don’t want to go into the office and spend hours travelling. This is no exaggeration!
In the Philippines, the traffic in the major cities is horrific. Some of our team members used to have commutes of three hours one way, resulting in a six-hour daily commute! Our fully remote roles are in demand both in the Philippines and South Africa because many highly skilled professionals are purposely looking for such roles – which means you get to have a pick of some of the most dedicated and hardworking professionals.
“Really good people don’t want to go into the office” - Maureen, Founder & Director
Fast forward to today and we’ve now got a team of over 125 remote workers based in Australia, the Philippines and South Africa.
That being said, even though it’s pretty great to work in a remote environment, there can be some challenges. From feeling isolated from the rest of the team, to collaborating on projects, remote work can be difficult. Good thing we’ve found a whole heap of strategies to overcome them. You can read more about how we give your remote team member a sense of community here.)
Your next hire = Your Perfect Match
We have four people on our recruitment team who are dedicated to screening the hundreds and thousands of applications we get every week at Global Teams.
- Reading resumes
- Emailing and communicating with candidates
- Interviewing candidates daily
- Coordinating interviews between candidates and clients
- Accepting and rejecting candidates
They are switched on. They know what to look for in good candidates and can find the red flags too. And one of our secrets is that we recruit from within the country.
So we have South African recruiters recruiting in South Africa and Filipino recruiters recruiting in the Philippines. They can pick up on cultural nuances you haven’t even thought of. They know the best recruitment processes and platforms for their respective countries. Plus, they have the know-how to vet a candidate’s skills, qualifications and experience.
BUT, that’s not what actually makes Global Teams special. We’re unique, because we see the recruitment process as a matchmaking one.
In fact, we see our recruitment team as matchmakers.
Not only do we find you someone who can do the job (that is almost the easy part!), instead, we are on the lookout for:
- Someone you’ll have a good chemistry mix with
- Someone you’ll want to interact with, bring into your team and grow with.
“One of our clients, Marshall Gray of [Yogability Australia], is so impressed with Lyre (Global Teams remote team member). He shared that the quality of her work and efficiency does not make it feel like she is working virtually, almost like she works there in person with him.”
- Lillian Global Teams | Account Manager
BUT, that’s not what actually makes Global Teams special. We’re unique, because we see the recruitment process as a matchmaking one.
In fact, we see our recruitment team as matchmakers.
Not only do we find you someone who can do the job (that is almost the easy part!), instead, we are on the lookout for:
- Someone you’ll have a good chemistry mix with
- Someone you’ll want to interact with, bring into your team and grow with.
That is the GT Difference!
We find what you are looking for, you get to meet two or three candidates and fall in love with one of them.
Sometimes people fall in love with two, but we can always deal with that love triangle as and when it happens.
REMATCHING OPPORTUNITIES
Most of the time we get a match made in heaven the first time around. But occasionally, things do not always work out (we are working with people after all).
But we have that covered too! And no worries. There’s no extra charge to find and rematch you with someone new. It’s part of our ongoing service that is already included in our fixed fees.
with Carmen to find out more about our fee structure
When a remote worker and client are not the perfect match, we look to rematch the remote team member with another better-suited client. Of course that is only if we have identified that that the team member has done a good job and gave it their all.
We will identify what did not work with the initial client and work to place the remote worker with a different client where there will be a better relationship.
Working well with your remote team members
DELEGATION
Now, you might be uber-excited to get going with your new remote team member (offloading all those tasks you’ve long dreamed about getting off your plate), but that is not the best way to go about things.
We have found that the best way to integrate your remote team member with the rest of your team and business operations, is to gradually delegate with intention. Do it effectively and your team member will quickly become a superstar!
Our Account Manager will help you with:
- Delegation techniques that are personalised for you and your remote team member based on your communication and work styles, plus what you need to get done.
- Layering tasks for your new team member so that they are not bombarded with new information all at once (read more about layering).
- Breaking down bigger projects to determine how to do smooth handovers from client to the remote team member
- Gradually teaching your remote team member tasks that you want automated (tips on how to run your business on autopilot)
- Putting control measures to help manage a new team member still learning the ropes of the role (find out how to manage risk while delegating)
And you don’t need to be the one doing all of this work yourself! If you’re not the one delegating (for whatever reason), we can work with another one of your team members who is already on your team.
Delegating to your team to delegate tasks to a new team member? That is ultimate delegation isn’t it?
ACCOUNT MANAGERS
Every client is paired with a dedicated account manager. They are your point of call. Your person. Your buddy in business.
You’ll get their Australian mobile number so you can directly call them when you need to!
Of course, we do emails and messages too!
But we’re sticklers for the personal touch at Global Teams. Unlike other companies, where you have to rely on messaging or email only, with us, you know you can pick up your phone and talk to a human being.
If you’re feeling frustrated or you’ve got an idea and you just want to run it by Lillian or Nolene, they’ll be there to support you and to add value. They are also there to regularly check-in with you as a client, listen to your concerns and even help you identify opportunities within your business.
What will your Account Manager do for you?
- Share tips and tricks with you to help improve your own business using their past experience working in different industries
- Support you with your business strategy (e.g. how to work with your remote team member to use LinkedIn effectively in your marketing campaigns)
- Discuss non-business related matters because sometimes its just good to be able to talk to someone about what is going on in your life.
So you don’t just have to call us when you have a problem. You can also call when you want some advice or you think there is an opportunity to improve something. There is so much (and more!) that an account manager can do for your business!
THE LOVE TEAM
We do not only support you as our client but are also passionate about supporting our whole remote team!
That includes all the remote workers that work for our clients. We call the support team that is dedicated to our remote team members the LOVE TEAM!
Let me give you a scenario. (This actually happened!)
A client is on a check-in call with their account manager and a member of the Love Team. The client mentions they’re thinking of getting a second monitor for their remote team member.
You see the role is a detailed one with lots of multi-tasking including checking and updating spreadsheets… creating reports… checking labels and deliveries… and a lot more.
The account manager says “Sure thing!”
Our Love Team member, Jong, who is also a tech wiz, jumps on a Zoom call with the remote team member, chats about their current technical setup, asks for photos of her computer’s connections and eventually comes up with two potential options for monitors that will work best for her computer.
The remote team member and client have a chat and select one of the two choices. The remote team member orders the monitor in the Philippines (accounts reimburse her and the cost is added to the client’s next invoice).
Within two days of the client mentioning a second screen, the their remote team member had one!
Done.
That's what the Love Team does. And more!
They’re also there for emotional support. Boyfriends breaking up with them, family troubles, work frustrations, you name it, the Love Team has been a shoulder to cry on for everything!
But it’s not all work and gloom! They are called the Love Team for a reason.
They organise gifts for birthdays, work anniversaries or any other notable milestones. They even help clients give their remote team members ‘thank you’ and ‘well-done’ celebration gifts. And these get delivered straight to your remote team member’s house without you even lifting a finger.
They also plan in-person team meet-ups and even motivate the team with company-wide game sessions and coffee chats.
Even our Love Team is built on giving dedicated and unique support to our remote team members in both the Philippines and South Africa. So our remote workers can reach out to the Love Team any time via our various community channels to share their struggles and celebrate their achievements. They know the Love Team has their back!
Best of all, they know they have a support structure that is there to help them succeed in their role, leading to better outcomes for our clients.
You can find out more about how we support our remote workers here.
REGULAR CHECK-INS
We have a process in place to get you and your remote worker to work in synch within no time at all:
For at least the first month, we will meet with you and the remote worker to help support you and your new team member. We will be there to nurture your growing relationship as you get used to each other and learn to work together. That’s because we know seemingly small tweaks can make a BIG difference to the outcome.
It can be a game-changer for your business! We feel so strongly about this process; it’s actually in our client agreement!
That’s because the people who follow this process do on average have better outcomes. So we’ll work with you to ensure you’re getting that return on investment that you’re after.
After that, the frequency of our meetings will probably be fewer.
We’ll continue to still check in with you and your remote team member, finetuning your operational processes and elevating your collaborative efforts.
As you and your team member get into a regular flow of working, you’ll probably start to feel comfortable telling us “Hey, I don’t need you guys hovering about anymore,” and we’ll gladly back off.
What else do YOU GET ?
WORKERS WHO TAKE INITIATIVE
Although we’ll find you a specialist role, we encourage our team members to take initiative and use their wide-ranging skills and know-how to make an impact in their roles. Many of our clients rave about how their team members have contributed to their businesses in more ways than they could ever have imagined.
Although a remote worker applies with us for a specific role, what usually happens is that by the time they have gotten their teeth stuck into the role, they discover different ways they want to help improve a client’s business. Good remote workers are essentially the type of people who look to keep growing and upskilling and seeing what else they can do.
“I was looking for something challenging where I could take initiative and stretch myself in different areas. And Global Teams has a real eye for talent in seeing what a role could become and not just what it is”
– Teagan, Sales & Marketing Support for Trace (Carbon Accounting Firm)
You could also be a guest on our podcast Scale with Virtual Assistants and not only share your experience working with us but also get to tell our listeners about your work.
There are more opportunities to network and put your business out in front of our audience, just ask.
Marketing your growing business
Sharing our clients with the world is the absolute best.
When you become a client, and if you so choose, we could be talking about you to our database of over 11000 small business owners through our weekly emails and 40,000 LinkedIn connections …
NO TO MODERN SLAVERY !
We are very serious about ensuring that we follow the correct labour laws of the countries in which our team members are based (currently that’s Australia, the Philippines and South Africa).
We subscribe to the Modern Slavery Act, whereby we ensure that our remote team members work under good conditions and are protected from forced, compulsory or trafficked labour conditions.
We protect the rights of our team members and want to work with clients who share the same values. After all, we are all looking for work that is dignified and will help us lead good lives.