 Hi Business moves So we don't hurt ourselves Got Liz with me. Hey, Liz. How are you today? Hey y'all? I'm fine. You're having too much fun. Oh, yeah I got Yeah, and we've got Maria task away with us That's Maria Doreen with task away task away with task too long. Yeah Giving you the critical information You need to know Maria. You need to know that's the way. Yeah all the important stuff Maria is a friend of the family. She is a big part of Big help of maids central she's part of the maids central team She does a lot of work and her company does a lot of work for castle keepers. I Don't know how I could survive if it wasn't for Maria So we really appreciate you taking some time today and in joining us and sharing with a larger audience a little bit about what VA's are about and how How that's kind of changing the landscape of of house cleaning, you know, Liz and I talk about back in the day You know when we started doing I don't know if I could Spell be a 20 Okay, you're not that bad. I'm just saying Not quite But yeah, I Totally agree with you Tom that back in the day not that long ago actually VA's were just the mystery Didn't even seem like something that was accessible like or that would be used at all in our industry I can remember Tom. It's like embarrassing to admit right now But I remember being on a call with you and Derek and maybe Troy is like, I don't get it. What would they do? Now we kind of can't live without them and all fair we've had these calls for a while You know longer than maybe what we we want to admit, you know We were looking we were talking about a project that we did like years past and I dug it up and pages had turned yellow And it was like 10 years old and we just couldn't believe it was No, we were sure it was like, you know Maybe four years ago, but not that long ago What ah Gosh, you're crazy. Time flies. Oh Maria. Did Tom tell you about the Comments you can see live comments on the right hand side of the page where it says private chat. Oh, I see it now Okay. Yeah, got you pointed it out Nobody can see it until we tell you It's not like that Hey, Lisa Sarah Marlowe Marlowe. Thank you so much for sending me that stuff today. I appreciate it You are a dreamboat And I know we haven't gotten you our piece of that agreement. Oh, we will we will We're just We're just not as organized as you are But before we I'm not sure exactly what you did Marlowe, but it sounds great. Thank you You do know I sent it to you Tom. She sent us those testimonials. Oh Well, I don't have a chance. I'm so far behind if that happened today. I haven't even looked at it yet Oh, yeah, he hasn't seen my I gotta wait I gotta wait until the night before I can even hope to get caught up anyway Do we want to do we want to look at what we're doing this week and smart business moves before we get too deep into our discussion here Yeah, but don't get thrown off when I update it on the fly because I have information that you don't have currently Okay, should I show my dad? Sure, we'll show it and I'll tell everybody what the change is and then you can make the changes you can tell me why it's wrong That's right. You can tell me why I'm wrong. Well, actually you're not wrong. You're right We just have to make a change. That's all I'll get out so Today's Monday the 13th Maria is with us and she's going to be giving us the inside skinny on what VA's are all about and why Cleaning businesses use them and the things that we would need to know in the VA world as cleaning business owners What what do you got for the rest of the week? What's what's changed here? Well, we got RJ up and he'll be here. He confirmed with me last Friday. So I know he'll be here his topic is do the right thing and the right things will happen for you and It follows right along with anybody that knows RJ knows that he is very much about doing good in the world and How good things come back to you by doing that and so he's gonna talk to us quite a bit about that and then Tom Why don't you talk to us about field day? Okay, well, this is something new that we're doing with the cleaning business today and Smart business moves is is gonna be a big part of that and what we're gonna be doing is every other Monday and We're not even really gonna formally start. I'm excuse me. I said Monday. I'm out Wednesday every other Wednesday Starting the 15th, but we're really are starting on the 15th. It's kind of a soft start We're gonna introduce the concept and explain how it's gonna work We'll have a deal or two for you, but we're really gonna start formally two Wednesdays from 15th, which I Guess I should know that the 29th but but the whole idea is to allow vendors who offer products and services to the house cleaning industry to Give them four minutes a four-minute video to explain who they are what they do why it's relevant to The house cleaning industry and to make an offer which could be a discount. It could be additional services. It could be Whatever but it would be something that would be special of additional value that you couldn't get anywhere else But would only be available for like the balance of the week anywhere from 24 to 48 hours and bam It goes away. You'll never see it again. So that's what we're going to to introduce on Wednesday All right, and then on Thursday our guest was supposed to be Sharon Unfortunately Sharon has had Something come up and so she will not be able to be on this week We're hoping to get her on next week and move somebody around so we're gonna have Kind of a surprise person tomorrow. We'll let you know Tomorrow, I mean on Thursday, we'll let you know tomorrow exactly who's gonna be filling in for Sharon You can save that to next week if you have that time because she will be Available for us next week Then on Friday, we have a secret guest for on the spot and On the spot is kind of our rapid-fire question and answer you ask questions and Tom and Myself and our secret guest each give one minute answer to any question that you ask We continue asking answering questions as long as you ask them up until the hour We try to get done early on Friday. So we try to answer fast and get done So far we have not been very successful getting out of here early on Fridays But not enough to get excited about Not not more than three y'all so not amazing, but that's okay It's been a good time. We've been having fun with it and this week's guest the clue for this week is This is a man that is Not as well known in the industry, but will be soon That's my clue. Wow Can't wait to find out who that is Yeah, I Can't wait to tell you very good any other housekeeping matters before we jump into our discussion Nothing I can think about off on my head. There was a little bit of an update around unemployment Just saying that they were nothing's changed Yet, but that there is some stuff in the work So keep your keep your like eyes open and your ears peeled and be ready And then one other thing just quick reminder taxes are doing today after tomorrow Or your extension is due. Yeah, you're either way, right? You got a file And yeah Congress is back in session I got ready to say they're back at work, but I Don't know that to be true or not, but technically they're back in the session And we'll be for the next two weeks So the thinking is that what's next well, you know, they're gonna come up with some some bills and put forth you know some some legislation to Become law to pick up and continue the work that they were doing with the unemployment insurance Maybe any changes to you know the cares act PPP all of that this is kind of like their last last to a rod before the November's an election November elections rather so Expect to see some some some interesting stuff coming out of Washington over the next couple of weeks Yeah, I'm looking forward to it I so that's it for me. I just wanted to point that out that that's only limited amount of time But there's some interesting things they're talking about right now So Maria How are you today? I'm great. Thank you So tell us a little bit about you yourself how you got here and what you do Yeah, so I had a house cleaning business in Austin, Texas for 14 years it was I loved what I did honestly and After I sold it Actually sold pretty quickly. It was kind of a whirlwind and I didn't really have a plan for what next But we did end up moving to Spain. So I'm currently in Spain It's 11 o'clock at night. We're as you know, it's obviously five o'clock over there And it didn't take me about six months into, you know enjoying my life in Spain when I was like, man I really missed the house of the industry. It's it was it was literally my identity and as I'm kind of going man What can I do? Like I can't start I mean I could but I really kind of didn't want to because of the language barrier I was you know thinking about what could possibly be down while I was in Spain I Got a call from the owners that bought the cleaning service and they asked me if they if I'd like to be a VA for them and That was really a light bulb moment and I was like, yeah, that's like the perfect job for me I would love to do that and that kind of started the journey and and now what I do is I am a VA and I have a Virtual assistant agency where we hire VA's and we train them and Introduce them to the house cleaning world and we pair them with other maid services that that just need help honestly They're overwhelmed. They need help So that's what we did Wow, so when did you when did you start doing the VA service? When did you get that call? That was 2018 Yeah, about two years ago now Now you did that on your own for a while before figuring out that you wanted to make it a business Yeah, I mean I didn't that's like I didn't start off thinking I was gonna grow a business from it I started off just picking up, you know The owners of the company that I sold and then I picked up another client and that client Just kind of told a lot of people about me and next thing you know I've had four clients on my own and I'm like, oh my gosh if I write down one to do the list It's like 30 to do it was just like overwhelming. I was spending 70 hours a week I thought I can't do this on my own and so I brought on one one virtual assistant to help me and She's still with me today. She's totally amazing and awesome and a blessed to have her So that's actually kind of how it started. It just it just got really really busy really really fast And you were living in Spain the whole time the whole time And you work all night And I work all night. You're like you're a vampire. Just go tell everybody you're a van I'm a vampire. My sister will tell you I'm a vampire, but I love it because in the US I was a night owl so it works like my friends and family knew that they can call me at 2 3 in the morning in the US and I would be awake and so for me now It's it's like the perfect schedule because I get to stay up till 5 6 in the morning And then I wake up in the afternoon and it's awesome. I get to sleep in every single day of my life It sounds so horrible to me, but I know you've always been this way I remember when you first told me about home schooling In the middle of the night like 9 30 10 o'clock at night. I was like, oh, we would start Yeah, my brain couldn't even wrap around that and I remember telling Tom about this and He he didn't argue with me about it, but every time we talked about it. He'd be like, yeah, but it's really late I'm like, but it's not for Maria It's like started her day. He's like, yeah, but it's it's much later over there. Yeah, but it's still not for me Yeah Your head around. Yeah, you really are a night owl I really truly yeah, like my best friend and I we used to go on run starting at 2 3 in the morning and it was She was like my perfect best friend because she was a night owl and then For me this schedule is like Perfect, I love it Well, I I'm looking forward to hearing that Maria you brought us today five the five top things that uh vas um The people hire VAs for and mostly you're talking about in our industry, right residential cleaning Is that right or do you work in other industries too? We work in other industries. We have Uh Here come have Okay, brought on the dog walker. There's a little glitch there. Um, let's see we have A real estate couple of real estate agents that we're working with so really, I mean we can work for any industry but for the main service um industry specifically Um, the new trend and and this is so cool to me and really super interesting But the the number one right now hot reason that people hire a VA are start-up companies Um people that have just started their company. They're out. They're working just learning how to clean How to um, you know command they're While they're uh Uh oh Well, we have a little bit of a problem Maria You are frozen more than you're are you are unfrozen right now It just happened here just within the last couple of minutes and you are hard But if it makes you feel any better You do not freeze like I freeze because when I freeze It is always some scary face that Tom likes even take snaps of me and sometimes How bad I look But you on the other hand have frozen at least five times Maria and you've always looked Perfectly respectable in every single one of them We might do we might do an entire show of like our frozen faces One one really bad thing about being really animated when you talk is a lot of times you get pictures like this Or Well, I don't remember what I was doing in the one. I think it's taking my teeth Tom coffee and while we are waiting for Maria Oh, oh Leslie Leslie, I'm sorry Yeah, I heard I mean I didn't hear the details But like the governor's kind of kind of clamping down again. I guess there's so many new cases of covid So does that mean that you have to close your cleaning business down because of what the governor's doing Well, can't answer. Hey Maria. Are you back? Oh, no, she's frozen again Well, look everybody's saying the same thing you freeze. Well, I think I'm back. Yeah, you guys were frozen I like that. You think we were frozen Maria. Yeah, I think I'm freezing Is that her? We're not Messed up Maria Yeah, no, you're not number. Okay. Well, hopefully this is better. Let's see Okay, no, let's give it a go. We'll try Whoops. So the number one thing is startups. You said we'll try Yeah So startups. Mm-hmm. So startups people that are just starting their company and they are out in the field They're just starting the training process and they need help. They need people to answer the phone So that's that's a hot trend The other People are just office managers like people that don't have an office manager for for whatever reason So, I mean just so many different scenarios with that. It's people that have an office manager But they just their office manager is overwhelmed with the day to day. They need backup They need support they Phones are too busy. So that's that's really really common You know a lot of times when you guys have an office manager You know that they don't just answer the phones. They're you know, they're The teams as they come in for the day You know as they come back from at the end of the of the afternoon so A lot of times those phones don't always get answered So having a VA to back to be the backup when the office manager can't answer the phone is is super common All right. So that could look Go ahead and phone. So that could be one of Do I No, yeah, so that could be one Yeah, so that could be one of two things that could be you know a scenario where The phone rings and it's going to ring to both the office manager and the VA Or it could be where if the office manager doesn't answer that call. They're not able to get to that call They might be busy doing an interview or they might have had a walk in Then it goes to the VA and the VA can grab the call and do the sale and book the job All right, so that would be the number two reason So it's not just answering the phones then they also do sales So they can do sales on the phone. So How do they I I guess that is the tricky part. How do they Know how to sell for all of the different individual companies. Do they have to be trained to do that or What what's that all about? Yeah, so we do a lot of internal training just task away as the organization just does a lot of internal training We have we work on scripts if if a company doesn't have scripts. We'll provide them with a really really good script that works Um, and then the company does training as well. So the company is going to do more training Just on the the inner, you know, the ins and outs of the particular company, you know, what's included in a make ready the the pricing Um, you know how we're handling all the covet of this stuff Just all of the the details the company trains on but on our side the task away side. We train on sales okay So you think about answering the phone you think about answering service basically they're just taking a message But your people are actually doing something with that phone call Oh, yeah, they're they're booking. They're doing the scheduling. I mean, obviously, they're giving the quote They're doing the sale what's included in the cleaning They are following up, you know with questions to the owner or the office manager if it's an office manager support role Um, and a lot of cases they're even doing the schedule So for example, one of the clients that we have they're it's already monday And they're they're getting really really full for the week And so they have to keep a really really close eye on the schedule to make sure that You know, nobody overbooks on on mass cleanings So the va does everything start to finish. It's it really is just like having an office manager They just happen to work from home. They happen to work remote But as far as I've taken complaints all of that they can do all of that So how much training typically does a business have to put into Like hiring of va it doesn't just depend on what they're going to have them doing if they're going to hire for them to answer phones Is there like a typical amount of training or? Yeah, we do like an hour Interdirectory call with the maid service owner. Um, actually we do more than that actually we do an introductory call We help set them up We get all of their documentation and all their training and all their All the training all the employee handbooks and all that good stuff and the va just has to memorize All of that and then really just like hiring an office manager. It goes with time. I mean, you know, the first couple of calls might be rough and Hey, you know, we didn't really talk about, you know, could we use a client's vacuum in a home? And the first time, you know, the answer is no, we actually can't or what we do But they have to sign a waiver then the next time the va takes a call that says, hey Can you guys use my vacuum? Then we already know what that answer is and we actually our va is actually document that too for the business owner So that when it's time for another va to step in or an office manager Then we can literally hand them everything that our va learned for them. So we help document that as well So do you have like a a list of basic questions that You have to be able to tell them how much you charge whether or not use vacuums How do you handle pets? Is there like a that's the first stage is to fill out the spreadsheet? or something it's yeah It's a it's a long so it's actually a really really involved long form And then then we have a one-on-one training with the va and the company and that's another set of I don't know maybe like 30 40 questions. So 30 40 questions on a form of another easily 30 40 questions on on just training You know, there's so many things like if you were just to do it written There's probably going to be things that you just don't remember to say and then when you know when you've got a training call Then you can start to go You know just brainstorm and ideas come out and oh I need to tell you about this and I need to tell you about that and You know in this situation you would do this and and you know that situation you would do that and part of the training call too is They'll the maid service will actually teach us how to read their schedule So on any given day we can look and we can go. Yeah, we can't book anymore for Thursday because we're full So you work with all the different scheduling programs and do you have any parameters around that? I know that you do make central but do you And zen made no problem because you worked for zen made for a while. Right. So how about other programs? We do we pretty much I think bamboo Is it bamboo? No booking koala booking koala is probably the Only booking koala and service fusion. I think of the only two that we we don't currently use but launch 27 Super popular. So our vAs are automatically trained on that Of course, he said zen made customer factor job or we we have to learn all of those made easy Even what what about service autopilot? That's a service autopilot. Yeah, that's a huge one. Yep. Yep He's a huge one. Yep absolutely Basically you have probably vAs that are really good at Knowing maybe two or three of these then you don't each vA doesn't work in all the different things, right? Okay, this person specializes in service autopilot Something like that Yeah, exactly and because our vA is work one-on-one with the made service owner So that's once you're assigned to a company you get one vA and that's that's your person So they'll already come, you know train. There's there's times that Especially like like maybe jobber would be a good would good be a good example where it's not a super super popular You know software platform So we the vA might need a little bit additional training than what task away provides but All the other ones we it's we train on that So we've got we got five reasons we've hit start up. We've hit backup for overflow Yeah Okay And then there's a few other scenarios where you're working with big companies and you know, those bigger companies you can easily get You know gosh 20 34 even 50 60 calls a day and one person just can't handle all of those calls, right? So we have a couple of companies where we have a team of vAs that actually take calls And so what that looks like is the office manager or actually even just the vA is no office managers Because we are their sales office managers. So the call will be routed and if vA one is on the phone Not available it might ring to two other vAs or it might just ring, you know Person one person two person three Where there's a whole team on all of the incoming calls and that's super popular with You know with the bigger companies that way none of their calls get missed. I mean To have none of their calls get missed a little bit strut, you know, it's We want to we want to close to an a rating on answering those incoming calls And so a lot of times just having a team where it really works wonders So it's basically the same thing as the overflow just more people working that same job Just more people working that same job and yeah, and so and like I said, it's it's like a team one person Is that for the day then you know, you've got two other people that can handle it Um, it's kind of neat because especially for a bigger company They all train one another too, which is kind of awesome And there's just a lot of support going on when when there's a team being paired with a bigger company Yeah, I can see that we see that Yeah, and the nice thing too when you have you know one office manager again, it's so easy for that one person To get burnt out, right? I mean they're doing so many tasks. They're doing the emails They're tanneling the complaint calls. They're dealing with the broken vacuums and the lockouts and the employee issues So really having a VA to help alleviate, you know, whether it be emails or phones Is super helpful to just be able to free, you know time and brain space for that main office manager To be able to work on things like oh, you know, the I've noticed that the teams are They're feeling really down lately. They're all coming back bum. You know, what do we need to do to kind of lift everybody's spirit? Maybe we should do a You know employee appreciation week and then the office manager is getting all that together So a VA can really help like free up time and space So this is what I heard go ahead Tom. No, I'm just wondering where does that put us on our list of five? Yeah, I feel confused right now It's okay. I think that was number four number four So we have startup. Yeah, it's okay. We have startup and slower companies. I have to read my notes Oh, yeah, I missed one office manager Back up in support multiple for larger companies multiple sales people Another one that I did not mention is you know how many people don't have offices these days They don't have a workspace. They don't have an office. They want to work from home That was even pre co vid But if you're working from home, you can't hire an office manager So there it is you you're hiring a VA So that's another reason we have a couple of companies That don't have an office space So they pretty much But whatever you hire them for you can have it for any reason because you're a small company a big company You're busy. You're not too busy, but they're always going to do the same thing. It sounds like it's not like It's Yeah Of course now It's the emails. Are we freezing again? Is that better? Yeah, okay. All right. Awesome. This is what I get for not being in my home by the way I decided to do one of these in a quiet space, right? And then the internet goes out We're done I have somebody maria in our mma group that he works in his office and he has people there So periodically he's a big company too, which is funny. He's like Quite a bit over a million dollars. He's a very large company and he's one of multiple companies And he has to go hide in his uniform closet He'll be making calls all the uniforms and he'll be freezing out like that I'm like, oh my gosh This big company guy, right? That's hilarious. I know I love it. All right. Go ahead. So so there's lots of different reasons why they might hire but I think you're you were trying to say that they will do different tasks also It's not just answering phones and handling sales calls It's not just no it's project-based too. It's answering the yelp the yelp leads and Falling up on the angies list. Oh my gosh. The review component is so huge So you guys know I I love quality driven And so what a lot of our vAs do is, you know, call back the non-responders calling back the four stars to say Hey, we noticed, you know that your cleaning was good, which is you know a four star and Unless you're working on a you know four star scale, but it was good. What can we do to get a five? So that's another thing that a va, you know calls every day and just hey Or if they get a five if they give the company a five star Hey, we're so glad that you liked your cleaning. Could we you know, can we get a yelp and google review? So that's that's another function that a va could do Okay, so so far I have soft sales incoming sales and then I have Do we handling the quality driven component? Which is Mainly for the the customers calling and so that'd be outbound calls, right? Outbound calls quality control Outbound sales They can do outbound sales. So that yeah, I mean on the outbound sales. They can follow up on sales leads or they could Do cold calling That's something that we can do as well So that's what I'm gonna be hiring you for right is so I'm calling calling cold leads and to more Yeah, yeah That's super popular. So as far as function What else could they do and then dealing with the teams? so dealing with the lockouts and the broken vacuums and Hey today mrs. Smith's um, you know, we couldn't clean the bathtub because she put her kitty litter in there and You know somebody that we need that can you call her just to let her know that everything else looks good We just couldn't do the inside of her tub today or whatever. So just those daily tasks incoming team calls Say it again, Tom. The old kitty litter in the bathtub. Yeah So incoming team I know incoming team calls Would it be easier to maybe ask the question from the other angle? Are there things that va's typically don't do or wouldn't do it sounds like You know anything short of cleaning a house a va might be doing it for you I mean really seriously there I think the only thing that task away does not do is um Posting on social media, right? We do some of that but it's it's Not our thing And then web work Like you know dealing with websites, but It really the best way to picture a va is just picture an office manager What your operations manager might do what your office manager might do and a virtual assistant can do that They just do it from their homes in their quiet space All right, so I need to have a party planned Can va do that easy We've totally done that before yeah Okay, give them the budget And then there are we in fact we actually helped with the wedding And that's exactly what we did the guy gave the um, you know the va a budget and The va got the spaces and you know interviewed the caterers and Did the cakes and basically just said okay? These are my top three on each of these categories that I want you to interview I really liked them and these were their top points and And easy peasy yep and gave the company a spreadsheet a really beautiful It was actually a really beautiful spreadsheet of all the work that was done and Why you know this company favorite that one and reviews they even said these are the reviews on google So yeah, any any task you guys How about employee reviews or evaluations? Oh, what? All right So not yet so right now um all of our vias are subcontractors, but We're really excited about this um as of this week. They've all turned employees So we're gonna have a lot more control on I know they're all employees now so we're gonna have a lot more control on quality and Even scripts and you know what they're allowed to say what they're not allowed to say and things like that So we're really really actually really super excited about that We have a great. Yeah, we have a really great culture, but I think we're about to even have a better one So we're all really excited about that Congratulations Thank you. Isn't it really unique in the industry? I mean Nobody I mean I mean there's a lot of options for vias, but they're pretty much all ic's right I think so. Oh, yeah, and and I think um, you know quite honestly when I first started Maria as a person got so busy That I just started hiring people But I did realize at a certain point that if I can find a way to duplicate who I am And the level of commitment And quality that I would bring to to any project that I'm working on that's kind of what I want I want an extension of me because I know what I bring and and I want my people to bring that to so I would want that I'm just saying the va that's gonna work for me. I want I want them to be an extension of you You're the ideal Yeah, thank you All right, I I do love what I do honestly And let's have a question here. She wants to know what are the va skillset requirements? Yeah, I'm not sure why she's asking though because she said her phones aren't ringing because cove It's got everybody scared, but maybe she's just planning ahead knowing that the phones will ring one day in the future And well, maybe it's something out of them foreign phones. Tom. Maybe she wants someone to reach out to all of our customers and and Comfort now let them know all the proper safety precautions we're doing to make sure that And I'll get that's a good point Yeah, you're you're ahead of it. So what What are the requirements to be a va? What are you looking for? Well, number one, they have to have a clean background period We're really strict on that because you're dealing with credit cards, right and you're dealing with Sensitive information You're dealing. It's a trust thing. So you just have to have a clean background You They are required to have admin work in the past So interestingly enough as a subcontractor Well, one of the things now I should say one of the now that they're going to be employees is they're going to be going through a skills test where they have to answer emails And they have to make sure that you know, they're techie and they know all the different You know, they know what a google drive is and they know how to access documents and You know things like google drive and being able to use trello. So we're really really excited about that And that's actually something that we're developing right now So but yeah, they have to have experience. They have to have a really great phone voice. That's really really important Um They have to be able to sell that's they have to be able to close Um, what else do they have to do? They have to they have to be able to walk people off of the ledge And so what that means because you guys know that you know, we're all perfect None of us get complaints in our maid services But you know once a year it's only once a year We might have somebody that wasn't exactly happy with their cleaning So the va has to be able to you know, calm somebody down walk them off the ledge Get gather all the information on what didn't go so well with their cleaning and then effectively communicate that to the Owner or the office manager in order to get it fixed So being able to just um deal with customer complaints is is is a requirement. We do test for that You can I can see that would be a big one too because if they're taking incoming calls You don't know who's on the other end of that line. You have to be ready to handle anything that comes through Yeah, yeah for sure. And you know because we are working from our homes a quiet background is is required Oh, yeah And I guess Stuff that You know they have to have all the technology, right? They have to they have to have the technology. They have to be able to have You know a certain speed on the laptop. They have to you know, if they're using a desktop They've got to be able to work from home. So a lot of times va's think oh, I can Like If you Like like maria if you were interviewing as a va candidate with the internet connection you have right now you probably Would hire yourself We would not hire. Nope. Nope. Nope. We wouldn't and it's a shame too. Like they're like, gosh, we've had some Oh, no It's okay. I wouldn't hire me. Um, no, there's no there's There's so many times you guys that great candidates have come in and next thing, you know You've got a screaming baby in the background of the dog starts barking. We're like, god, they were so good But then they blew it because we told them, you know, what's expected and so yeah, we kind of have to be strict Yeah, I that I can see that that would be really critical That you can't have the yeah, it's critical What one of the main reasons why I would have really loved to have had a va back in the day when You know, it was possible was because I had a small baby And I didn't want to have this crying baby in the background and I felt embarrassed and I felt like a bad mom locking the baby in a closet Okay We have discussions in my household because One of my kids will point out saying well, you can't do such and such and I'll say well You're not supposed to do Such and such There's a difference between what you can't do what you're not supposed to do. Yeah, absolutely. I agree Melinda actually has a good did you did you tell us most of of the do you think you told us the Most part of the skill set Yeah, as far as the skill set. Yeah, I think so That was your first and then just see that That was your first That was not as attractive You're lucky I'll get a picture next time Very short. It was the first one. So I wouldn't worry about it if I were you It wasn't your best one All right All right, Linda's got a good question. I love this too. All right Okay, you may have already touched on or you may have touched on this already is that possible to receive recordings via email of the phone conversation with the va and the caller so Yes, but that depends on your phone system So if you're using jive or ring central that records calls then yes, absolutely You've got the calls available to you and we actually really highly recommend that you record them so that we So that we can review them with the va Right, so it's about our phone system Not not about the va's phone system. Why you can do that, right? No If your va is doing sales calls and they're taking credit cards, you'd want to stop the recording While they're capturing the credit card, right? Right It's a good idea. Yeah It's a good idea. You should be doing that in your own companies too. Just Business move y'all Yeah, it's a good idea. I don't think Yeah, it's a really good idea Yeah And legally it's a requirement It's more than an idea. It's it's a it's a requirement. Yeah, okay We'll have to make sure that all of our companies that are recording because I can think of Sure to go. Hey, make sure that you're stopping the recording During the uh, during when the credit card is given over the phone And there is some there are some parameters too about not being able to write it physically write it down on paper So probably want to look into that too Or if you do you have to eat the paper Yeah, that's a good job. That's why you need the dog Yes Yeah, yeah Uh, yes, David. I'm with you quiet. It's a business call, right? So I think any of us that that did work out of our home with our kids Can completely relate to like all the tips and tricks for how to get your kids to be quiet But gosh, if you're a va And that's your job. It's I think it's probably a little bit more imperative that you yeah I guess you wouldn't really be able to be caring for an infant Or a small child No, and it's you know, no, and it's it's a stigma too when you think about it I mean when you think about hiring a va the first thing you think, you know Who works out of their home the first thing you think about is the barking dog and and the baby The crying baby in the background and it's It's difficult. I mean Tom will tell you that when we're on a call I'm muted all the time because I've got you know kids and and I have to meet myself and so that's actually why I personally cannot work and won't work with the company because There there it would just be no way. So we're looking for very specific people that um, you know, I can't say oh, you you can't have kids but You know just they have a quiet background and they have an office and they're not, you know Busy moms who just happen to want to do this va thing. It's it's very specific. They're they're professionals And how do how do you charge Maria? Um, I I know a little bit about how you charge, but I don't I don't know the whole story Yeah, so that's actually kind of neat So we charge by the minute so what so and actually that was actually my top five reasons of Why people will hire a VA? That's so we charge by the minute. Did it freeze? Yeah, I just Go ahead Just freeze nice, doesn't she? Oh, okay. Okay. So we charge by the minute I like freeze. Um, so we charge by the minute. Um, and so what that means is Literally the va is basically on call for you So you don't actually pay the va to sit and wait for that incoming call or the email to be sent or the the yelp inquiry We charge when the va actually works. So by the end of the day If they've been on call eight to five You might if you're a smaller company, you might only have You know an hour and a half worth of work and that's totally okay We have to do a lot of internal things to make sure we keep people But we manage it Yeah Are there questions if if if someone's never used a va before What question should they be asking just? Not knowing well, you know a lot of times if you've never done something before you don't even know what questions You should be asking. So if i'm thinking about getting a va what what question is that I need to ask before making that decision? Good question. So I would ask what the background is going to be like, right? I would ask, um, they're Um, let them for sale make sure that they are very good with sales make sure that they are very good with people make sure that You know, they can handle a customer complaint That's just imperative if If a customer complaint comes in and you know, you hire the type of personality that would say Oh, I'm so sorry for your inconvenience. Like what is that? That's not going to prevent somebody from going on your company and yell google and giving you a horrible review So you do need a va that has empathy Um, that just likes people and can relate with them and walking, you know can walk somebody off the cliff so to speak Um, I mean, I'm really good at figuring that stuff out But for people who maybe don't have that gift How how do they go about doing that? I'm being very sarcastic. By the way, I forgive me How do you how do you find somebody with these qualities? How do you know when you're talking to them? How do you know if they have these qualities or not We we test them. We have a like task away has a four step interview. So Before I even get anybody anybody's name on my desk. They've already been through three different interviews. So You know, I might not know somebody with those skills if you know, it hit me up beside the head But I'll have to worry about that because if I'm using Your organization I can be confident that they do because you guys figure all that out for me We'll figure all of that out all right I got two questions maria um, and my first question is Have you had to implement any special training in these unprecedented times that were living through right now? Yes, yes Good question We have You know, it's mainly we've all had to learn with each of our different companies that we're managing We've each had to learn what special types of cleaning our maid service owners are offering. We've had to learn Um the precautions who's wearing masks who's you know, one vehicle to a car Two vehicles to a car, but you know one front seat one back seat all of those the little nuances. We we've all had to learn them So yes Okay, so mostly around our internal processes Etc, but you haven't had to do any Any like training across the board with like teach all of your people how to be Um more empathetic to the psychological Fallout or anything like that. It's more internal stuff individual companies. Is that right? It's individual companies. Yeah, I don't think we've really had I'm trying to think of anything that might have come up I don't think we've had anything where we had to have conversations or discussions around Um doing internal training. We do a lot of internal training a lot of internal training, but And it's Well, Susan has a question. I also have an I also have another question too. Um, I'll ask my question after susan's We've got four minutes So Do you know Where clients input their own Number in Prior to the first time clean Okay, I'm trying to understand the question Does anyone use a credit card system where the client inputs their own number into it prior to the first time? Software You can do I mean you can do that in launch I believe I know that you can do that and made central both through Like an online booking or after the fact there's a portal that they can go back and enter their their email There may be more. That's just something you've looked in your software platform, but launch 27 and made central both do it for sure I'm pretty sure service autopilot does too Okay. All right. My question Maria is How much management of the va is required on the business owner's part or on the Office manager's part. Do we have to do we have Tracking that we have to do do you do all that do you give us tools to do that? How does that work? Yeah, um, so you don't have to track their time. Will the va will track their time and the va will track their activity um, we do some quality control Oh, and then like every company's different some companies want like an end of the day before At the end of the day that va is writing every single thing down that was dead day, but I would say All right, so Maria Maria is coming back and gonna share just a couple of quick things with you um The phc client is up and running um Updated the site a little bit if you want to get a sneak peek you've got a carousel with a bunch of videos in it here that you can Watch if you're curious what it's about. I've encouraged you to do that um fleshed out some fa cues More information here on phc and you get there just by going moderncleaning.com and click on This button over here where it says phc, but I'll drop this in the chat And cleaning business today if you haven't subscribed put your email first name last name really easy And the coronavirus download most recent things that we have here are The back links to craig shipper's website that will allow you to get His bonus program or to download his seo for beginners both Very useful documents. You'll want to make that trip if you haven't done that And real quick maria brian wants to know can they do invoicing and process credit cards? Oh, she's frozen. Well, I know they can go ahead That is something that we Brian yes Can you hear me okay? No, maria. Sorry. No We can only We got the yes still on there. So yes, brian All right, sorry y'all that it was a little glitchy today, but um, I feel like the meat of the program we got out there so Yay, and we will also tomorrow for rj patel If you don't know rj, you're not going to want to miss this call he's one of the movers and shakers in the industry And boy, he just is A really nice person to look into You feel better after you after you speak with rj. Everybody does. Would you agree tom? Oh, absolutely rj is a giver He's uh, Donates a lot of his time to a lot of different organizations very active in arcsy a past president Um, he's an awesome guy. You really you wouldn't need to to hear what he has to say tomorrow Yeah, I promise you'll feel better after a call with him So I guess we're Thank you for joining us today maria Thanks so much maria. I'm sorry that this entity got a little choppy, but I think we got really good It's okay You know, we had two people back to back that make you feel good maria is like I feel a good person too. It's kind of hard to be depressed and talk to maria and not feel better about things. You know, she's Positive spin on on on life. I appreciate that Yeah, very much so me too. She used to turn walking walking people off the cliff. She's good at that So you guys be safe and we'll see you tomorrow at five o'clock eastern. Bye. Bye