Set Yourself Apart from the Competition

I decided that I needed to hire a virtual assistant. I am at a point where there are some things I just can’t do anymore and a friend of mine once told me “delegate everything but your genius.”  So – I was off to find a virtual assistant.

The first project – transcribe a one hour speech from an audio file. I’m familiar with Elance but a colleague who had a similar project told me that she’d had great success with oDesk - so that’s where I started.

It was simple to set up the account and post the job and before long I had 40 people apply for the job. Each had a resume, test scores of the tests they’d volunteered to take to show their abilities and each provided a cover letter and their hourly rate.

Hourly rates ranged from $2 and change to over $46.  Candidates were from around the world.  So throwing out the high and the low, I started to look for people to interview.  Here’s what I discovered:

• Some had experience and testimonials – that was a bonus. However, I kept thinking, how can they get experience if someone doesn’t hire them so I didn’t eliminate all without experience on oDesk….at first.
• I thought I would prefer someone from the United States and Canada but I soon learned that they were the highest cost and not all had experience.
• The cover letters were of varying degrees – some addressed me as Sir/Madam or To Whom It May Concern while some called me by name.
• Most cover letters stated that English was their first language or that they had experience with transcribing English
• Some listed their experience in audio transcription

I narrowed it down to a few – prices ranging from just under $4/hour to $16/hour. I started to look at their test scores.

• Some took more tests than others
• Some did better on the tests than others

I now had it narrowed down to a gentleman from India and a woman from Bolivia.  I sent emailed interview questions. Shriram responded within minutes. His record had the most experience and the highest number of testimonials and the highest test scores for English grammar and vocabulary (higher than the United States candidates).

His responses anticipated my questions – he offered a website, an easy way to upload my audio file and a clear cut amount of time I could expect the job would take.

He has a Mac and I have a PC – he sent me a Word document as a test so I could be assured that I’d be able to open his files.

Shriram joined my team.

Within an hour of his receiving the audio file – he sent me an email with the first four minutes transcribed and saved in FOUR DIFFERENT FORMATS. He gave me options.

At the end of the day he sent me an updated email – he kept me in the loop.

The following day – I discovered that he’d subscribed to my blog and commented here on my award receipt. Within 48 hours  1/2 of the project was complete.

He has kept me informed, showed that he wants to know more about my business and be actively involved, the quality of his work is impeccable and as a customer, I feel valued and supported.

Wow!

Needless to say he will be receiving more work from me going forward.

I set out with an expectation that I only wanted to hire someone from a country I was familiar with and yet it was someone from a different country that has more closely met my needs and treated me like a valued customer – even before he secured the job.

How do you set yourself apart from the competition? If your services were stacked up against the competition, like the candidates at oDesk, how would you compare? Have you taken the extra step of additional testing or certifications or memberships? Do you have testimonials? Do you take the time to address the prospect by name rather than a generic form letter? Do you anticipate their needs and offer them options?

And oDesk has been a great resource. They provide reports that show hours worked and random screen shots of Shriram’s computer so that I can see he’s working on my project during the hours he says he is.  Cool beans.

So how do you set yourself apart?