Freelancing Means Customer Service
May 28, 2008 by John Hewitt
OK, Freelancing doesn’t mean customer service, but if you want to be a successful freelancer, you’d better be prepared to provide great customer service. This is day two of my discussion of, Write for the Web! A Beginner’s Guide to Writing on the Internet. This e-book was created by the men behind Men With Pens. They wanted me to take a look at it and give them my thoughts, so I am sharing my thoughts with you.
The Pen Men list eight keys to great customer service:
- Be courteous — professionally and socially
- Be responsive
- Be friendly
- Be confident
- Be an expert
- Be realistic
- Be calm and collected
- Be there
All those items are good advice. They all represent a key principal that is true for almost any job. Be Easy To Work With! It is good advice everywhere, but it is crucial in the freelance world, in which another freelancer is always just an Internet search away.
To me the key to being easy to work with (and I’ll be the first to admit I don’t always measure up to this) is to have empathy. This is true whether you are working with a freelance client, your manager at work or with with another writer. The questions you should ask yourself are:
- What do they WANT from me?
- What do they NEED from me?
- What DON’T they need or want from me?
If you can give them the first two and keep the third to yourself, you’re going to do well when it comes to customer service.
I used to do some freelance writing and web work for a private detective. This guy was seriously nuts. Some of his requests were downright strange and he he was frequently annoying. I never once complained to him and I gave him what he needed (after eliminating the more insane parts of what he wanted). Why did I put up with him? He gave me a lot of business (right up until he disappeared) and he always paid upfront in cash. To me, that made him a valuable client.
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John,
I love the photos you use with your blog! Where do you find them?
I would add to the 8 keys: express appreciation and accept responsibility.
Morgans last blog post..My Cousin the Cerulean Corvus
@ Morgan
Those are good additions to the list.
I make a few of the graphics on my own, but most of the good ones (including today’s) come from istockphotos.com
Seriously? I bet the “why” behind that disappearance makes a great story, if you ever find it out (or make it up).
Yeah, John, I have to go with Turbonerd. You’ve mentioned that guy before and I always wonder. Sometime you’ll have to tell that story with more detail. What kind of writing would a private detective want?
@ Joni and Turbonerd,
The central project I worked on was a web site promoting his skip-tracing / background searches and other services. I also worked on two or three other web sites and parked some domains for him. He had a business scheme that seemed to involve tracking down people who had not paid court-ordered debts and getting them to pay their debts, or him, I’m not sure which. I did some research for this. I also created some business form templates for him. He liked to have official looking documents on hand.
His final scheme involved a deal with the Mexican government to run a power company. The details of this, and what it had to do with the rest of his business are as confusing to me as they probably sound to you. He wanted to bring me in on this deal and promised me a bunch of money. I’m not sure what I was supposed to do, and I never found out because he missed his next meeting. I tried calling him several times, but there was no answer. He didn’t respond to emails either. Eventually, all of his site contracts expired and all the sites are gone now. I have no idea what happened to him.
If he lived in Quebec, most likely a very large cement block and a rope tied to his ankle…
James -Men with Penss last blog post..Enter the Capturing Fantasy Launch Contest
@ James
I figure whatever he was looking for in Mexico, found him.
You must make ‘Raving Fans’ out of your customers. You must give them 100 percent plus one. This will keep them coming back for more of your services and create loyalty. Great article!