If you want to approach a freelancer for your website development and design as a cost-effective alternative to hiring a team, there are a few things you need to know to get benefitted out of it. Freelancers do have more skills and can offer cheaper services compared to agencies, but there are some common mistakes freelancers tend to make while dealing with clients.
Being aware of these flaws, you will be able to deal better with freelancers and avoid those to ensure your freelance projects’ better speed and productivity. This article also aims at orienting freelancers about some of the mistakes they knowingly or unknowingly make while dealing with their clients, avoiding which they can ensure better client relationships and succeed in their freelancing career.
A word to freelancers
While all freelancer web developers and designers hope to be on top of the competition, no one can escape from occasional negative reviews about their services. However, negative reviews become disconcerting to someone if you blindly believe what you offer are the best in the market. But most of the time, these negative reviews may result from poor client management or flaws of ineffective communication.
If it is done properly, better client relations can strengthen the engagement and help build an emotional bond and loyalty of the customers. What differentiates freelancer services in the marketplace, which is thriving with an abundance of offerings, is the effectiveness of how it is being delivered and the positive vibe a freelancer can create through engaging client communications.
Even though it is important to learn how to deal with the clients effectively, it is crucial to avoid some common pitfalls to ensure a strong relationship. Here are some freelancing mistakes which the services providers and the customers should be avoided to better manage your freelance web development and design projects. For better administration of your projects, you may consult reliable providers like Flosum to entrust your web projects.
Freelancer mistakes to be aware of
#1: Unable to actualize what the client desires
When an entrepreneur plans to build a business website, there may be some unique concepts and desires they have about their websites’ look, feel, and functionality. However, most of the time, non-tech savvy businessmen may not explain it in the exact technical terms to the freelancers, which in turn ends up in a mishap. Most of the time, gaps in communication or incompetent requirement analysis are one major flaw freelancers make, and in turn, the desires of the clients are never satisfied. This will finally lead to dissatisfaction and disagreement between the parties.
So, while dealing with freelancers for your website design/development projects, it is ideal to have all your writing requirements at the first point. Meet the freelancer in person or through video conferencing multiple times to explain your wants and needs in the best possible manner. It is also recommendable to have some rough drawings or reference materials to show them and explain things to their fullest understanding. More importantly, while your project is being undertaken, try to establish an open-channel, frequent communication with the freelancer to check your work’s progress and give suggestions, if any, in between.
#2: Lack of Enthusiasm
As we know, effective customer service is maintaining good interpersonal relationships. Even if B2C or B2B management is primarily about two or more members communicating with each other effectively.Humans have an innate desire to be heard, acknowledged, and respected. So, ensure that you deal with a freelancer with the desired level of communication skills and enthusiasm to get positively engaged with the clients while dealing with their projects.
In the case of freelancers, a lack of enthusiasm is always a deal-breaker. If freelancers are less responsive to clients, they are less likely to move up in their careers even if they are talented. When the clients need to get something done, a freelancer needs to put in their best effort to meet their expectations. For web design work, getting something “Good” is not just enough, so one should always strive to go that extra mile wherever possible.
#3: Slow response
Few things demonstrate the enthusiasm of a freelancer than ensuring a quick response to client queries. If you find a freelancer not responding to calls or messages on time, it is better to look somewhere else for your service. The reason for the delayed response is either they are too busy to attend to you, or they just do not care. A study shows that the business decision-makers expect a response within or less than 6 hours of a mail or message, and if they do not get a response for 2 to 3 consecutive calls for urgent communication, the deal is done!
The last thing a freelancer can tell the client is that they fail to attend the call as being busy with another customer. Every client wants to be the No.1 priority, so the freelancers need to strike a fine balance between caring for their clients while dealing with multiple projects at a time.
#4: Lack of needed tools and skillset
For web design and development projects, the freelancers need to have the desired skill set and software tools to actualize their clients’ projects. So, when you are exploring a freelancer for your web development project, ensure that they possess the needed skills and tools to do it properly. For web development projects, one should have specific programming skills like PHP, Java, backend database knowledge, etc. In contrast, a web designer needs to be an expert in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.
So, always ensure that the freelancer you consider possesses knowledge of the desired skills. It is also important to ensure that they have needed software with them. To do design projects, it is necessary to have a licensed version of software like Photoshop and Illustrator.
Along with these, you need to also consider the ability to meet deadlines, excessive usage of scripting, loyalty, fixation on money-making, inability to handle creative criticism, overtly using technical jargon, etc., while dealing with freelancers to assess their capabilities to entrust your projects.
GAG Staff