What Stays The Same

This morning I was reading the news about a “Gigafactory” that the auto company Tesla will be building by 2020. This is being designed to reduce the costs of the batteries in electric cars. If you’re interested, you can find out more about this in the “Related Articles” section. Earlier this week there was an announcement about the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute in Chicago (on Goose Island).

We see the huge changes happening in technology in our time (I mean seriously, a refrigerator-sized 3D printer – how cool is that?) We’re looking at these changes on spaceship Earth, traveling at 108,000 km/h. It can, at times, make it seem a little hard to keep up.

Today I’d like to spend a few minutes talking about the things that don’t change.

Personal Relationships. This might sound odd coming from a “virtual” assistant. People like to do business with people that they know, like, and trust. Even in today’s fast-paced digital environment, there is still a preference for someone you know, the person you can look in the eye and shake hands with. If a business owner is giving out the login and passwords for social media accounts or if a person is giving someone all their personal information to prepare a tax return, the person using that information needs to be able to exercise discretion, while also being reliable and trustworty.

Customer Service. It doesn’t matter if you’re a virtual assistant working with the latest technology, a tax preparer keeping up with the changes that the IRS comes out with, or a Yoga instructor working with systems that are 2,000 years old, there will be times that things go wrong. How you work through “bumps in the road” with a client will have a great effect on how much repeat business you receive from the client.

Appreciation. Whether your clients have found you through networking or referrals or doing a web search, they have choices. Remember to appreciate all of your clients for choosing you.

Plautus

In the meantime, here in 2014, I’m currently assistant director for the spring show for my community theater group, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. This show is based on the works of Titus Maccius Plautus (254BC-184BC). As we were holding auditions, we sat together laughing hysterically at jokes that were over 2,000 years old. It seems the old adage is true. “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Related articles