Comment by qeorge | Hacker News Reader

Comment by qeorge | Hacker News Reader

I like the concept. We're just starting to use VAs effectively, and it would be nice to have a utility-billed VA service instead of having to go to fiverr or oDesk.

I don't like the pricing model. I was hoping for an a la carte VA service; I don't want to pick a plan!

But if you stick with plans, I have 2 small suggestions for the sales page:

1) "Starting at $6/hour" threw me off. That's the price of the biggest plan, which is 40/hours a week! If I have 40/week of VA work, I'll just hire a VA from oDesk!

Instead I would list the price you expect me to pay (with the most popular plan). It looks like that's $10/hour here. Otherwise I've anchored at $6/hour and its going to be an uphill battle to sell me on a 2x increase.

2) Make one of the plans the "default"! The pricing table has 4 options, but none are highlighted as the most popular/suggested/default. The little flag actually makes Ultra look like the default at first glance, which I don't think is the intention.

Hope that helps! It looks like a very compelling service.

Thanks. This is really helpful.

>"Starting at $6/hour" threw me off. That's the price of the biggest plan, which is 40/hours a week! If I have 40/week of VA work, I'll just hire a VA from oDesk!

We think it is better to use Premier than using a dedicated VA. Since you get assigned a team of staffers. This means that Premier is on 24/7. If you need to temporarily increase the size of the team you can do it by just sending an email. Also there are no weekends since the team rotates. You can also have the most suited person in the team do your project (a person who is an expert at Powerpoint will create your presentation while another person who is great at qualifying leads would handle your leads).

The big advantages of a dedicated VA are trust and communcation. In other words, after a dedicated VA and a customer have worked together for a few months, it is more likely that they will have achieved high levels of mutual trust and high levels of the "common reference frame" essential for effective communication than if the dedicated VA were replaced with a team that is also serving other customers.

Disclaimer: I have not actually used a VA.

>The big advantages of a dedicated VA are trust and communcation

Thats a great point. From what we have seen with Premier, some users start referring the project to the team member that has been taking care of their projects. So instead of saying,

Premier,

Please take care of 'x' for me.

They will write:

Joane,

Please do 'x' like it was done last time.

And then Joane will then make sure that the project is done perfectly. In this case, it becomes Joane's responsibility that the work is done perfectly.

The big advantage of a rotating cast of competent VAs is forcing you to learn to write a good spec. :)

Getting good at writing specs is a great way to multiply your effectiveness. Outsourcing is a cheap and excellent way to learn.

He's right, "starting at $6/hour" threw me off as well. I initially thought $6/hour gets me an average person and $30/hour gets me an expert. The "starter" plan starts at $15/hr, so that's really where it "starts".

It should say something more honest, like "Costs $10/hour, or even less in bulk".

This is super helpful feedback on pricing. Thanks!

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