Customer service. It sounds like something that only employees of large companies have to worry themselves with. The fact is though, us freelancers provide customer service every single time we interact with our clients. Lets take a look at customer service, how it effects our businesses and how you can shine like a freakin’ rock star in the eyes of your clients.
Differentiation
More than anything else, customer service will make or break your business and set you apart from your competition. Yep, even more than your design work. Many clients aren’t sure about what constitutes poor design work but you can be sure most of them know what poor customer services feels like. The good news is this: it’s way easier to consistently provide rock star customer service than it is to provide rock star design.
Providing killer customer service is easier than you think and has tons of benefits like:
- Helping you win new clients
- Your current clients refer you to others
- Protect you from having your clients poached by competitors
- Keep your clients coming back for more of your services
I mean, chances are most of your potential clients have bought services from other designers before and that experience is their benchmark. Clients will only put up with poor communication, lateness and rudeness for so long before they go their own sweet way looking for someone else … no matter how good the design work is.
Trust
The most valuable commodity you poses as a freelancer is trust. If your clients feel like they can rely on you then your chances of getting work from them go up and it makes it harder for a competitor to steal that client from you. The best way to build trust is in consistently being polite, reliable and if you can; fast.
More...
- 30 second customer service pays dividends
- Client satisfaction & farts in the wind
- Freelancing during economic recession
- Freelancing, LinkedIn & Trust
- Love & outsourcing for freelancers
About the author
Danno started freelancing in 1996. He is the co-founder and (ex) President of Graphics.net, owner of FeedIcons.com, EliteFreelancing.com, FastCharacters.com and SteelAndSnow.com. He digs wind, waves, guitars and circles. Follow Danno on Twitter.
September 16th, 2008
broke ass web designer, that caught my attention
September 16th, 2008
Heh. Thanks for the feedback Abe.
December 24th, 2009
Tell me about it.. I recently gained a lot of trust in a company that I bought a
bike chain bracelet from, and all it took was 5 mins on the phone and a courtesy adjustment for shipping one of the items a couple days later than expected. I felt relieved and believe they stand out for that reason, and I follow the same principles of happy customer becomes a repeat customer, which I now employ in my line of work.