virtual assistant
Growing a small consulting firm
Many small consulting companies struggle with building capacity and finding technical solutions that will serve their needs and make them more productive while keeping costs at a manageable level.
Member Profile
Cordoba Consulting is a two-person enterprise in the transportation industry. The company is steadily growing and occasionally contracts subconsultants for larger projects.
Background
Handling and managing administrative tasks take time and resources. Much of the daily billable work for small consulting companies revolves around client meetings, appointment scheduling, and project management. Even on an extended workday, very little time is left for tasks such as updating recurring reports, invoicing, booking travel, and dealing with technical issues. In addition, while consultants are either meeting with a client or working on a job, calls are inevitably left unanswered. The obvious solution would be to hire an administrative assistant and an IT consultant, but for most small companies, this solution is just not an option – it’s simply too expensive. So, Cordoba Consulting sought to find a cost-effective solution, which they found with Prialto.
Solution
Prialto developed a human resource and technology infrastructure that supported the company’s business. A remote personal assistant was assigned to handle administrative tasks such as answering inbound calls, coordinating meetings, and managing consultants’ calendars. In addition, a technology solution was put in place to seamlessly manage communication between clients and consultants. Prialto Collaboration Suite, an enterprise-class collaboration platform, was implemented. This service includes email (plus push email), contact information, calendar, and online file storage. Prialto also took on the management of the company’s domain registration and DNS.
Conclusion
With the Prialto solution, the staff at Cordoba Consulting are now able to focus on their core business. The company has effectively added an executive assistant and IT support at less than half the cost of hiring two additional employees. Gone are missed opportunities due to unanswered calls, so are the hours spent on administrative tasks. In its place is an affordable, efficient solution that provides the human touch lacking in an increasingly automated world, and a technology system and support that is scalable, robust and dependable.
The art of appointment scheduling: Even making a dental appointment can create a Wow! moment
Finding a dentist in a specific location that uses nitrous oxide and accepts a member’s insurance seemed like an ordinary request, which it was, until one finds out the amount of work that went into it.
A Prialto member put it this way: “I gave Eddie (a Prialto personal assistant) an easy first task that I thought he could over deliver on, just as I would a new employee, but he found a way to artfully over deliver!
What was so impressive with how Eddie executed the task? After he narrowed down the search to a dental office that met all three requirements (location, nitrous, insurance) based on reviews he found on Yelp and other review sites, he did not stop there; he did not just pass on the information to the member and called it a day. Instead, he went further by checking the member’s calendar and picked a date and time when the member would be free. He then called the doctor’s office to make the appointment. He was told that new patients could only be scheduled after certain information has been submitted. Eddie then asked the receptionist what they needed, called the member and wrote down the information, and confirmed with the date and time of the appointment with the member. Eddie proceeded to call the receptionist, gave her the requested information, and firmed up the appointment.
Pretty thorough, huh? Well, not for Eddie. After confirming the appointment, he also took it upon himself to research parking garages in the area, their rates, and the availability of metered parking. He sent this information to the member’s email and iPhone, along with directions (with a link to a map) to the clinic.
All this was done while the member was going through his day at work, which enabled him to focus on his business instead of spending an hour or so performing the task.
Wow moment? Our member thought so.