Business
Freelancers: How To Achieve Repeat Clients
Freelancing career has indeed pave way for people to have better choices of employment right in the comforts of their homes. In fact most of the freelancers I know have made this career as their main source of income. But, before you can fully rely on the earnings you might get from doing any freelance work, it requires a lot of hard work, dedication and proof (by means of certification or experience) that you are really a competitive freelancer with superb skills.
As you start your freelance career, there are two types of clients you will deal with, a one-time client or a repeat client who could turn out to be your long-term employer if everything goes well between the two of you. How do you achieve a good list of repeat clients?
Well, here are some helpful steps to take into consideration before you can acquire this freelance goal—increase the number of repeat or long-term employers:
1. Possess excellent communication skills
Sometimes, communication becomes a barrier in satisfying clients. If you want to enter a freelance career, be sure to foster excellent communication skills both verbal and written to make sure that you and your employer will have a better chance of understanding about the project that needs to be done. Remember, most freelance work is completed virtually, meaning you don’t have the opportunity to meet the employer physically and work under his/her supervision, especially if you are from the other side of the globe, so your mode of communications are mostly emails when relaying messages.
2. Be sincere
Repeat clients are achieved not only from top quality work submitted by the freelancer, but it can rely as well to the overall sincerity of the hired worker. Be sure to keep to your promises. For example, if you have agreed to do the articles by the hour, log-in only what is required from you. Never charge your employer for idle hours you didn’t really work. By doing this, you are showing your client that you can be trusted. Always meet deadlines and as much as possible avoid delays. If there is an instance where you cannot meet a due date, tell you client right away. Keep in mind that even though you and your employer are miles apart, the way you construct your email messages already projects the sincerity of the sender. Give the client the assurance that every single cent charged on his/her account will be commensurate to the quality work you will produce.
3. Practice professionalism
Treat each client with enough courtesy and practice professionalism. Don’t feel too comfortable just because you can address your client by his/her first name. Maintain the employer to worker relationship and observe proper email etiquette when sending out messages. In the event you are having problems or misunderstanding on the project, be open to cite your disagreements, but in a polite manner. Don’t just proceed with the project by ignoring your client’s emails.
4. Provide incentives
To achieve repeat clients, be willing to provide incentives, especially to those employers who constantly do business with you. Giving the old clients some discounts would encourage them to do repeat projects. Make an extra mile effort in your services like offering revisions to some changes needed on the work without charging extra fees, so that the client feel that he/she can depend on you. Keep in mind how many revisions will you do as part of the package that won’t affect your other projects.
Top advice:
I, myself have been very lucky with the way things are going on right now in my freelance career wherein most of my clients are either repeat or long-term employers. I think aside from the superb skills that you must possess that sets you apart from the rest, making your employer feel your sincerity and concern for the success of their company would provide the impression that you are the perfect choice for the project. Always treat each client with respect, honesty and for sure you have a long way to go in the freelance market. Keep going.
Tagged business, Business Services, Career, client, clients, communication, Employment, freelancer, Project
TashWordOctober 2, 2012 at 4:44 pm
I disagree with giving long term clients lots of discounts. For one thing, they are already willing to pay you that amount – if you’ve done your job well they probably understand the value they are getting.
If you start discounting, they will wonder why they had to ‘over pay’ initially and possibly resent that. And be less happy to pay more on later projects.
The prices will come down a little over time by default as you won’t need to charge for as much research/preparation time. So what may be a 5 hour project for a new client will only take you 4 hours once you know them.
You can value add rather than reduce prices and put effort into building relationships.
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jogrixOctober 4, 2012 at 3:26 am
I think it might be more that you are willing to do a little extra for someone who keeps coming back. That way the thought is that you go above and beyond, not that you’re “overcharging” them for a job.
I’d say the hardest part for a freelancer would be to get someone to take a chance on you in the first place rather than get them to come back. Once you’ve shown what you can do, if they have more they want done, they’ll remember you for the job.
Joe WellsOctober 5, 2012 at 2:07 am
Interesting post. You can apply a lot of this information to different types of work environments. I think possessing excellent communication skills is at the top of the list when it comes to keeping business relationships. Although I agree with you that providing incentives for clients to come back to you (such as discounts) is a good way to go , I also agree with Tashword that you shouldn’t go overboard with it. You could eventually hurt your bottom line and create a heavy work load for yourself.
cleo409October 6, 2012 at 2:47 pm
I don’t think this article is suggesting you shoot yourself in the foot by giving huge discounts to clients you already do business with. But a break every so often goes a long way towards improving the relationship and encouraging the client to choose you in the future.
I have several clients that I do this with. When my schedule allows, I will do a little extra work, or extra revisions for free. They are very appreciative. But because of the other factors mentioned in this article, like being professioanl and communicating with my clients, I have a steady stream of repeat clients and I feel like repeat business is worth a little reward.
johnthomas1433October 8, 2012 at 1:10 pm
I do provide freelance work like website design, seo, and smo, and I have seen that its easy getting repeat customers, is you follow certain rules.
1) Keep an informal relationship with the clients
I was under the impression that you shall need a formal relationship with the clients, until I was amazed to see that almost all the clients wish for an informal relationship
2) Make them think that they are paying you less
People are familiar with the concept of discounts. What the business people do is to raise the prices, and they sell it at a lower rate, stating it as a discount. The same concept can be applied here. Raise your prices, and then sell it to your customers for less.
3) Creating value for your customers
Your clients are paying you for the service that you provide. So see that you provide them with top notch service, good support, and see that you have good communication skills. Also see that you provide good after-sales support.
Lloyd L.October 18, 2012 at 8:34 pm
Great post,
I had some minor good work on odesk but it was only 1 time thing. Right now im searching again but most people are saying im too expensive but we’ll see. Maybe you can do a post on how to get jobs on odesk compared to people who bid a lot lower than you.
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PurpleRoseOctober 20, 2012 at 3:15 pm
Freelancing is a wonderful opportunity. In the beginning, you can offer very competitve pricing on your services. As you grow and gain a following, you can increase your rates. Once people see how well you provide quality, they will be more willing to pay more.
PaladinOctober 28, 2012 at 4:16 am
I have several clients that I do this with. When my schedule allows, I will do a little extra work, or extra revisions for free. They are very appreciative. But because of the other factors mentioned in this article, like being professional and communicating with my clients, I have a steady stream of repeat clients and I feel like repeat business is worth a little reward.
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DazOctober 29, 2012 at 7:50 am
I think Paladin’s comment above is very true, one of the best ways to get repeat business is to ensure that the customer is happy. A simple way to do this is to try and be as welcoming and flexible as possible, if they just want a small revision done and you do it for free it’s something the customer will remember and appreciate.
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KennyKNovember 4, 2012 at 12:49 am
It’s absolutely vital to be professional and care big time about customer satisfaction. If you go out of your way to give your client what he wants, and you do more than what you’re paid for, then they’ll remember that for sure. If they have used other freelancers before who just do the basic things that they are paid for, then they’ll probably pick you for the next job, if you delivered a quality product/service and really showed you care.
Having a good reputation is important, and once you have a few happy clients it can go really far and your business can get a big boost. Word of mouth is very powerful.
PubDNovember 4, 2012 at 11:05 am
I won’t give discounts to regular clients, but they do know that I’ll bend over backwards to give them the work when they need it, even if it means working over a weekend or holiday. If they’re loyal to me, I’m loyal to them.
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gregc24November 5, 2012 at 11:47 am
Good communication skills are especially important. It’s not as easily calculable, but if it were, the amount of business one could lose due to poor communication would be significant.
McColloughNovember 6, 2012 at 8:56 am
These are very good recommendations, and I have to admit that I’ve been guilty of neglecting one or two of these in the past. One more tip that I’d like to add, would be to over-deliver to your clients from time to time. They have been known to send extra work and additional clients your way as a result.
cheaNovember 9, 2012 at 2:53 am
I want to be a freelance writer in my spare time. I don’t really know how to get my foot in the door yet, though. But I’ll definitely take all this advice to consideration once i actually get some clients. It seems to me that building a client base is difficult but keeping clients can also be a challenge.
majikstoneNovember 9, 2012 at 6:02 am
The hardest part, as I found out, is actually getting the first few projects. Once you get past that phase, once you’ve received some reviews, it’s not that difficult to find jobs, so the advantages of repeat clients are only in the fact that you spend less time negotiating.
One advice I could give is to start with small jobs, and don’t look at the money (at first). If it doesn’t take a lot of time, you might as well finish the project and provide it with your application. You’ll save time in the long time.
majikstoneNovember 9, 2012 at 6:04 am
*long run
wameyoNovember 13, 2012 at 6:21 am
Very useful information for an aspiring full-time freelancer like me. My problem for now is actually landing the first client on these bidding sites like freelancer and Odesk. Once I get a few projects I will definitely apply the mentioned useful tips.
akanbiNovember 29, 2012 at 6:23 pm
I can relate to what most people are commenting about on this post. I have had some issues with one time customers, but I think that as long as you go where customers are looking for you, you will eventually have nothing but repeat clients.
OverAchieverDecember 24, 2012 at 1:55 pm
The best thing you can do as a freelancer is to decide on a value for your time and work and then stick to it. Instead of competing with the low budget end of the market, target the market that knows the value you bring to the table and doesn’t mind paying for that value.
Those customers are already successful and know how to use what you provide to build upon that success. They’ll be long term clients as long as your work proves of use to them.
The low budget end of the market hasn’t seen any success and won’t know how to use your work to propel them forward. That’s why they try to nickel and dime you to death. These people rarely become long term customers because they end up going out of business.
KaylaMarch 17, 2013 at 8:36 am
Like so many things in the business world I found that the hardest thing was getting started, getting the first few business clients was the tricky part for me, once I had some businesses (more reliable and more likely to repeat than a individual client) the struggle was getting some repeat businesses but once I managed a handful I didnt have the pressure to get more and once I got to that stage things just stated to flow
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