Working With Clients As A Freelancer
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As a freelancer, customers are often considered the necessary evil of the job. They have to be there or you don’t have work to do. But they can often hinder the work process, make your life difficult and stress you out. Even if you have somehow managed to acquire only non-needy clients that you genuinely like, you still have to spend some time working with them. Since many freelancers treasure the fact that they get to work at home - ALONE - working with customers can be a difficult part of the job even when it’s easy.
Here are some tips to make working with customers easier so that your freelance business can run smoothly:
- Choose your customers wisely. It’s true; there are just some customers that aren’t worth your time. They may have great jobs and great opportunities but if they stress they cause you is unbearable, it’s not worth it. Don’t be so picky that you don’t have any customers but be okay with sometimes admitting that a certain customer isn’t right for you. It’s best if you can identify this early on, of course, so that you aren’t ruining standing relationships. Go with your gut.
- Let the customer be right. Even when the customer is wrong, the customer is right. This doesn’t mean that you let him or her walk all over you but that you’re polite and understanding. A bad reputation can do more damage to your freelance career than you can imagine so you want to make it easy for the customer to like you. If you determine it’s time to let a customer go, do what you can to do so nicely and to present the situation as one which is beneficial to both of you.
- Set appropriate boundaries. The customer might be right but that doesn’t mean they get to control you. Set certain work hours for email and answering phone calls and let your customers know that you’ll be working with them only during those times.
- Be solution-oriented. Don’t make the customer the problem. Figure out what aspect of any situation is the problem and then find a solution. Assume that there is one; there’s always a solution. Work with the customer as much as possible to choose a solution that makes sense for both of you.
- Be creative. Often what causes difficulties in relating with customer is the fact that many people are stuck in the same old model of customer-contractor relations. Break out of the mold, be yourself and be genuinely interested in forming creative relationships.
- Get to know your customers. You don’t need to mix business and pleasure but knowing a little bit about your customers can help you to feel more comfortable interacting with them. You’ll like your job more and they’ll like you more.
Working with customers shouldn’t be seen as an evil aspect of the freelancer’s job. Sure, sometimes it’s not ideal, but it’s something that you’re going to have to be doing for the rest of your freelance career so you should take a positive approach to it. View the customer as an ally who can provide you with opportunities and you’ll soon find that working with them isn’t as hard as you once thought.
[tags]clients, customers, working with customers, working with clients, client relationshiops, small business, consulting, freelance, freelancing[/tags]
6 Comments
Good article for a newbie to the business like me.
Glad I found this site!
Thank you for that, nice to be refreshed with such helpful information. I especially like “Be Creative” I really believe this is the way forward for freelancers. Trying to build a relationship with your client where you can work together as a partnership is like gold.
This would be good for clients to read as well. Many people do not understand the concept of being a needy customer. A small article like this could put the shoe on there other foot per se. You should setup an RSS feed so I could put this on my site.
Though we all are well-versed with these basics from the time we started freelancing, but the role of such articles is to reinforce these basics and encourage us to play safe and sound time-after-time. To implement the ideas demonstrated in the ‘Choose your customers wisely’ and ‘Get to know your customers’ sections, try using services like skype (www.skype.com) so that you can communicate with your client - online and for free. This will not only help you better understand and verify client’s requirements but also build personal rapport with your new client. Communication is an integral tool in ensuring that your freelance projects start and complete with a happy note.
This site is surely stunning! All the information you have here are very helpful to freelancers and clients. If we can all stand togethar like this helping each other we all could surely become millionairs not only as freelancers. Thank you!
Very informative and useful. I have to try this soon.
Thanks