Virtual Assistant Service for Law Firm
- $10,000 to $49,999
- Oct. 2020 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 4.5
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"The work we send to Vserve is done in a timely fashion, and we’re satisfied with the results."
- Legal
- Chicago, Illinois
- 11-50 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Vserve Ebusiness Solutions has been brought on by a law firm to handle tasks to free the time of their senior team members. They provide an offshore assistant to work on assigned projects.
Although the client hasn’t been able to fully take advantage of their services, Vserve Ebusiness Solutions provides satisfactory results with a great cost and value proposition. Their deliveries have been done in a timely manner, and they’ve been responsive and friendly in their communication.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the managing partner and founder of a law firm. We currently have nine attorneys and two people on staff, and we’re based in Chicago. Our practice areas are primarily focused on financial services and some extent of entertainment.
We do ancillary services such as general intellectual property outside entertainment, litigation when things go wrong for our various clients, and general business and corporate work, like contract negotiation, business formation, merger and acquisition, and so on. Due to the financial services, we naturally extend over blockchain, which is a big growth area.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Vserve Ebusiness Solutions?
Some of the senior team members were spending way too much time on administrative details when they could’ve been servicing or bringing in clients. Thus, our challenge was to hand off more of those tasks to someone else and free up the time of the senior team members.
Then, the question was how we would do that. We could hire someone full-time, go for the gig economy and reach out to Fiverr, TaskRabbit, or something similar, pull someone in who would be dedicated to us so they can get to know our business and we don’t have to train someone all the time, or do this in a more time and cost-efficient way than having someone physically on site. That’s what led us to Vserve Ebusiness Solutions (Vserve).
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
Early on, we spoke with an outside consultant. She interviewed me, and we put together a list of proposed tasks for a Vserve representative. However, that list wasn’t ideal since there was a little disconnect between my inexperience with Vserve and offshore assistance in general, and the consultant’s inexperience with our firm. The list was suboptimal because some things weren’t written correctly, some were left out, no one at the firm was excited about working on this project, and I didn't necessarily know what kinds of things could be handed off.
After that, we spoke with one of the senior representatives over Vserve, who proposed three possible assistants for us. We interviewed them, chose one, and worked with him for a few weeks. He worked on two projects. One of them went very well but we never actually used it, and the other one was sort of a no-win situation.
We were in the process of pouring information over one project management system into another. However, that was a difficult task because he probably hadn’t used either of the project management systems or knew what any of those projects meant. Plus, everyone at the firm was just getting to know the new system, so we hadn’t come up with standard ways of using it. He pulled over loads of files and did good, efficient work on both projects, but we haven’t done a good job at using that work efficiently.
Right after those two projects were finished, our Vserve assistant had some family issues and had to take time off, so Vserve assigned us a new person. We hadn’t interviewed or spoken to this person before; he was working primarily with our outside consultant.
Now, with those two initial projects completed, we’ve been struggling to find more things to send to the new representative. There’s just one biweekly assignment that goes over, and it covers just a few hours a month when we’re paying 40 hours a week, so we’re not using even half the time.
However, it’s on us to figure out better ways to hand off tasks. People in our office are risk-averse and bad at delegating. They’re just used to their own way of doing things, so they’re unwilling to train other people. We also have a little bit of friction with working from a distance. Thus, there’s been a bit of frustration, but not because of any failings by Vserve. Our struggles have been structural; just born of the distance, plan from the get-go, and recalcitrance by our team’s hesitation to adopt a new system.
What is the team composition?
We’ve had two dedicated assistants working directly with us. There have been other representatives, and we’ve spoken with them once in a while about primarily billing matters and a little about contract and onboarding.
How did you come to work with Vserve Ebusiness Solutions?
We had an outside consultant, and she was the one who knew about Vserve. We outsourced the decision to her, and she convinced us that they were a good solution.
How much have you invested with them?
We have a $1,500 monthly fee.
What is the status of this engagement?
We officially signed with them in October 2020, and the relationship is ongoing.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’ve had two projects up front and then one standing project. The first project went very well, but it just wasn’t used. I was happy with the results of the second one, but again, it was a no-win situation. I think there were automated solutions for it, so it took longer than it should have, but given the job and price, I don't have any complaints about it.
On the other hand, the third project has gone very well. It’s not a pretty complicated thing, but we’re satisfied with the results. There are usually a few edits each couple of weeks, but they’re minor, and our representative is always quick to deal with them.
Our only concern now is that we’re not sending nearly enough work. We’re just not making good use of their services given the flat rate and the little material we’re sending away. However, the work we send to Vserve is done in a timely fashion, and we’re satisfied with the results.
How did Vserve Ebusiness Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?
They’re always very friendly and responsive when I have questions, so that’s all good. Most of our communication is mediated through our consultant, which is an extra level of indirection and perhaps not ideal.
For the first two tasks, it was a little hard to know when they’d be finished. They seemed to drag on a little bit, but those were one-time tasks, and they’re done. Since then, we’ve been happy with the timeliness of the deliverables on the third project we’ve sent their way.
As far as other project management, they seem to be one-person tasks, so we haven’t seen any kind of team issues. In terms of the assignments we send to them, they’ve been timely and productive, so we’re happy with that.
What did you find most impressive about them?
I guess it’s their work output per unit cost. We had national and international options, but the amount of work they’re able to do compared to the dollars per hour is just a great ROI.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Their communication could be better. We’ve never spoken to them on the phone, seen our assistant’s face, done calls on Zoom, or anything. We just send deliverables over to our representative or one of our internal colleagues.
Also, there are just some challenges given the physical distance, time zone difference, and the fact that our communication has been mediated through the consultant who found them for us. We don’t chat with our assistant on a day-to-day basis, and I don’t know what it would take to see him more often and make him more front-of-mind. He has sort of receded in the background, and we’ve served along with him. It’s easy to lose track of his presence until we receive a bill.
Ultimately, if they could spend a little time shadowing what we do and monitoring our processes to see what else they could handle, that would be useful. It’s understandable that they sit back and say that the ball is in our court, but if they were a little more proactive at pulling tasks, instead of just waiting for things to be thrown over the wall, that would make their service a better value proposition.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Think in advance about what kind of services you want to send to them. Convince your team that it’s a good thing because of course there’s value in handing things off, but sometimes people are reluctant to hand over their tasks because they want to ensure their jobs. If you convince people that they’re not out of their job if they hand this off, then your team members can be redeployed to other activities with higher value, but it’s a cultural thing.
Beyond that, as with any kind of outsourcing, give precise instructions, pay dividends, and expect some iteration period toward a goal. The first handoff will reveal the shortcomings of the initial instructions, and so there’ll be some course corrections, but if you ensure that, it will definitely pay off.
RATINGS
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Quality
4.5Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
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Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
"I hesitate because we’ve failed at optimally using their services, but when I look at what they can do, it’s a five."
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Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
