How To Provide Excellent Customer Service

Find Freelance Jobs  |  Internet Marketing  |  Project Management

Providing excellent customer service as a freelancer is essential if you want to succeed. One thing that freelancers can offer over big design firms is personalized customer service. We should take pride in extent of support for our clients. It can set us apart from the crowd and be the one single aspect of our business that pushes us to the top of the food chain. Take care of your clients and they will take care of you!

How do you really provide great customer service? By understanding what your client wants and needs and keeping them updated and in tune to your work on their projects. Here are some tips and advice that should help you if you are having a little trouble in the customer service department.

Set Your Business Hours

Sure, you work from home and you might not have a set time for when you’re “at work” and when you’re not. No matter what, you need to set a time when you are “open” and when you are “closed.” You can be open from 9:00AM to 5:00PM or from 8:00AM to 8:00PM but either way you need to set this time in stone and communicate this with your clients. During this time you need to be open to every email coming your way and every phone call coming your way as well. This assures your clients that they can always get a hold of you during that time.

To offer greater customer service you may allow one important client to have your personal phone number in which you can answer to even during off hours. This is a great way to land bigger clients when they are still in their decision making process. Communicate to the client that, if they choose you, you will offer your cell phone number and be willing and able to answer any question at any hour of the day for that specific client. Of course I wouldn’t offer this to any and every client, but for the big fish this may be a good idea.

Tell Your Clients What They Want

Most of the time your clients have no idea what they really want nor need out of the project they just threw at you. Lets face it, many of our clients make bad decisions and we’re very aware of it. Most of the time we choose to ignore it. Whether its a bad sense of design or just a horrible idea for a website, we never speak up! Sometimes it pays to let them know (in a nice way of course!).

Try to guide your clients into making the right decisions for their projects. They will appreciate this to a great extent most of the time. It shows you actually care about their project and when they see the results of your input, they will most likely be very pleased! This will surely get you more leads (if the client is capable of providing leads).

Take Care of Your Email First

Every day when I wake up, I head straight for my emails. I reply to every email I’ve received overnight before I begin on any real work. When you start dealing with many clients at once, email can be a big time waster. I sometimes find myself spending more time replying to emails then doing actual project work. What I get out of this however, is clients trust. When you reply to emails as quickly or as promptly as you can, clients will always be very grateful!

Use Your Phone!

Instead of just replying to that next email, pick up the phone and give your client a ring! If you not only reply to their e-mails but follow up with a phone call or voice-message, your clients will be amazed by your sense of ambition to handle their questions, problems, concerns and so forth.

Follow Up

Even through the project is finished, follow up with each client periodically! Ask them how their new project is doing and if they need any further assistance. This many times will land further billable work with the client and it will show that you actually care! Keep track of not only your current projects but your past projects as well to keep up. This is one of the most important things you can do to go beyond average customer service, and it may just land you a bit more work!

Conclusion

Have another idea to provide excellent customer service? Leave a comment below and let us know!