With a background spanning retail, hospitality and highly regulated corporate environments, Daniel Fallon brings a people-first, operationally rigorous approach to client service at SmartPA. As Corporate Service Delivery Team Lead, he ensures SmartPA’s support remains tailored, consistent and built around genuine client needs.
In the second of our meet-the-team Q&As, we spoke to Daniel about client service, best practice and what operational excellence really looks like.
Daniel: My role sits within the Corporate Service Delivery team. I act as the link between our clients and our PA teams, making sure our people are supported to do their jobs well, while also ensuring clients receive the level of service they expect.
That includes quality assurance, client communication and making sure our support aligns with both SmartPA best practice and individual client requirements.
Having previously led large teams in highly KPI-driven environments, I’m very focused on consistency and standards but always with a human approach.
Daniel: Working in retail and hospitality early in my career taught me a lot about customer care, communication and handling pressure. Later roles in more regulated, corporate environments added structure, accountability and the importance of getting things right first time.
That combination really shapes how I approach client service today. I think that it’s important to balance empathy with process, and flexibility with reliability.
Daniel: Because no two clients work in the same way. Even within the same sector, priorities, pressures and preferences can be completely different.
If you don’t take the time to properly understand how a client operates, you risk delivering something that’s technically correct but not genuinely helpful. At SmartPA, we start by listening to how people work, what frustrates them, what takes up their time, and then tailor support and build a service that genuinely makes a difference, rather than just delivering tasks.
Daniel: We have strong core processes which give us consistency and quality, but how we apply them is always tailored. Some clients want very structured support; others need flexibility as their business grows.
Our job is to look at what is already in place and make recommendations based on the client’s key objectives. A great place to start is usually by evaluating the processes that are currently being used within the business and exploring ways in which certain areas can be automated, or tech enhanced, in order to increase efficiency.
Whatever approach we land on, it’s important to recognise that each client’s needs will evolve over time and that we will need to revisit our approach and adapt while maintaining high standards.
Daniel: This is where strong operational foundations really matter and it’s one of our biggest strengths. We document everything — stakeholder preferences, processes, communication styles — so knowledge is never held by just one person.
That means if one of our Virtual PA’s is on leave or unavailable, we have another PA ready to step in seamlessly. Clients don’t experience disruption, and they don’t need to start from scratch.
Daniel: Experience matters, but mindset is just as important. From my experience managing teams, skills can be taught but drive, commitment, and attention to detail are harder to instil.
We look for people who genuinely care about doing things properly, who take pride in their work and who want to support clients effectively. That combination is what leads to long-term, trusted relationships.
Daniel: Transparency builds trust, particularly in a virtual environment. Our reporting gives clients clear visibility over how their support is being used, helping them make informed decisions.
The reporting is not about oversight, it’s about providing important insight; real-time data that allows clients to plan ahead, scale support, and feel confident in the service they’re receiving.
Daniel: A common mistake is applying a blanket approach or moving too quickly without fully understanding the challenge they are trying to solve.
At SmartPA, we take a considered approach by listening first, asking the right questions, making thoughtful recommendations and building trust gradually. Often, clients don’t realise what support would help most until they talk it through.
Daniel: For me, it’s about reducing stress and giving people back their time and focus. When clients tell us they don’t know how they managed without our support before, that’s when we know we’re doing our job properly and it’s an incredibly rewarding feeling.
SmartPA is a leading provider of transformative business support services, disrupting the industry with our highly skilled teams and proprietary methodology, which is enabled by technology and supported by Generative AI.
We help organisations simplify admin and scale faster by combining process optimisation, simplification and cutting-edge technology.
We deliver measurable ROI and unlock potential by removing administrative burden, allowing our clients to focus on top-line growth while we deliver bottom-line impact through data-led decisions.
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