Freelancing has many benefits, such as freedom and flexibility—control over the trajectory of your career, the work you do, and (best of all) no cap on earning like in a traditional 9-5 job.
Not to say freelancing is right for everyone. You have to have a high tolerance for risk and the capacity to endure the inevitable highs and lows that come with running your own business, in addition to dealing with taxes and prospecting.
Speaking of prospecting, it’s something that needs to be a part of your marketing toolkit but what about once you have a client? Well, now retention comes into play. Happy clients return/retain, and refer you to others.
4 easy ways to keep your clients happy
Easy, right? Keep your clients happy and you’ll have a successful freelance business. But of course it’s not that simple. People get busy. Misunderstandings happen. Budgets get cut. Those are things (mostly) out of your control. But there are best practices you can follow to keep your clients happy. Here are four suggestions to get you started.
Practice clear communication
Even if you’re a pretty good communicator, this is a skill that always needs refining and training. We deal with so much every day and it’s easy to take something the wrong way or assume bad faith.
You can reduce your chances of miscommunicating by having a good communication practice, whatever that looks like for you. Depending on the client or job, this could look like weekly check-ins, regular briefings, a shared document with updates, etc.
We tend to shy away from communicating because we worry about bothering the other person. But when you work remote it’s pretty tough to overcommunicate. If your client is too busy to respond to your check-in that’s on them. You’ve done your part by keeping them updated and that goes a long way to keeping your clients happy—even if you don’t hear back from them much.
By the way, do you have a target response time? How long does it take you to get back to clients/prospects?
You aren’t an employee and in most cases, you’re not obligated to answer client emails/calls/texts/DMs immediately. However, you should have some sort of standardized response time that you operate by (even better if you communicate that to clients!). When you’re busy with client work it’s easy to let messages sit. And that’s fine, as long as you have a timeline to respond (and you actually do).
Hot take
Do your best to use the communication channel your client prefers, rather than insisting they conform to your preferred communication channels. I know many freelancers who disagree with this tip, but as long as it’s not a hardship to you—why not be accommodating?
I know it can get ridiculous, being added to everyone’s Teams and Slack accounts…I know. But for me, this is one area I’m willing to flex in. It will be a lot easier to communicate with clients if you’re reaching out on a platform they already use and are comfortable with. For example, if they like email, use email. If they like SMS, use SMS. If they like Whatsapp, use Whatsapp. Etcetera.
Once you have clear communication established you’ll find clients are far more understanding when something comes up and you have to request more time on a project, or you suddenly require a few days away due to personal matters or illness.
Deliver quality work
This should go without saying, but I’ve worked with a lot of freelancers over the years and, well, it’s worth repeating. What does “quality” work mean? It starts by ensuring you understand what the expectations are before the project begins. Ask questions, get clarifications, hold out for the creative brief.
Define what quality means to your client, and while you’re at it define what finished looks like as well. The more you can get in writing the better. This is going to be your best bet at getting and staying on the same page through the project.
Oftentimes, the scope of the project changes (or creeps) as it goes. Sometimes your client’s definition of “quality” changes. When this happens, go back to the original project brief and touch base. Get back on the same page.
Meet deadlines
It’s super important to meet deadlines. However, your ability to meet deadlines depends a lot on how organized you are, and how much you have on the go. And yes, it’s harder than it seems.
Hitting your deadlines is one of the best ways you can stand out amongst other freelancers. It’s that rare.
In order to you meet deadlines, first ensure you have capacity to take on the work. Is the timeline you’re establishing realistic? What else is on your plate? How can you break down the work to make sure it’s ready to go in time?
I use project management software to keep track of my due dates—both for clients and myself (here’s an example of how I manage my blogging deadlines). This helps me visualize what I have going on and also reminds me of when to work on things and when to hand them in. If it doesn’t make it onto this list? It becomes a distant memory.
If you’re using some sort of system to track deadlines and workloads, then you’ll know well in advance if you’re not going to be able to hit your dates for some reason. As soon as possible, communicate this to your client and see if you can make adjustments. Things happen. The more you can get ahead of it and pivot, the better.
Provide excellent customer service
Freelancers do it all—prospecting, onboarding, the actual client work, and offboarding. And how you do each of these steps adds up to a customer experience, which is positive, negative, or neutral.
So how do you provide a positive experience?
It’s a culmination of everything we’ve talked about already: delivering high quality work on deadline and clearly communicating the entire time.
That said, this doesn’t mean you have to be accessible all the time. In fact, you shouldn’t be. Once you have a solid framework in place for serving clients, then it’s time to implement automations and systems to help you improve these processes.
Systems are the repeatable processes you develop to give excellent customer service. Automations are ways you can streamline your systems to elevate the experience. This could be through email funnels, invoice reminders, or even by investing in a chatbot company to answer frequently asked questions.
None of these tips to keep clients happy is rocket science. And likely you’re doing most of these steps already. The more you can develop consistency around these four areas, the better your business will run. Because running a business really does always come down to maintaining good relationships.
