Want Loyal Clients as a Freelancing Parent? These 5 Tips Can Help!
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It’s the typical morning rush: your kids seem to be running in circles (or trapped in slow gear) while you try desperately to get them up, dressed, fed, ready, and out the door to the bus or the car for school dropoff. You feel like you’ve already run a 5k race, but you’re in for a marathon before pickup because you have freelance work to do in those precious hours. Freelancing from home with kids running around, you already know how hard you work to keep the business going. The last thing you need is the extra work of starting over to find new clients, so creating loyalty among your freelance clients is especially important for your business.
Here’s what you can do to build client relationships that last.
Set Clear Expectations From Day One
When you bring on a new client, it’s a great idea to be sure they understand how your professional relationship will work.
Here are a few things to spell out right from the start:
- How you will communicate: You may be flexible and open to whatever works best for your client; have a few favorite methods for them to choose from; or you may have very specific platforms or methods you will or won’t use (I love Trello and Slack and intensely dislike the phone and Voxer, for example). If you’re working while your kids are home, you might want to aim more for text-based communication.
- What your turnaround times look like: If these are standard for specific projects (as in scoping, bookkeeping, or transcription), let your client know. If they’re variable based on the amount of work needed (for instance, when writing and doing research), give the client an idea and some way to know where you are in the project, so they’re not left hanging. Remember to build in buffer time, because life with kids often means everything takes longer than you expected.
- When you’re available. If you know you’ll be working between 10 am and 2 pm every weekday, let your clients know. If you don’t work Wednesdays because it’s full of extracurriculars, or you can’t respond to messages after 4 PM because that’s pickup time, say so upfront. Also, taking days off, having a sick time and vacation policy can spare you frustration and burnout.
- When and how they will be billed. No one likes a surprise bill or a fee higher than expected. Settle this from the start and send invoices as agreed, in the amounts agreed to. This might seem obvious, but it’s best to avoid the chance of misunderstandings.
Clients don’t resent boundaries, but they often resent surprises that slow down work or communication. When you tell them what to expect and follow through with your promises, they will come to trust you, which is the foundation of long-term loyalty.
To make this easier, you can set things up in advance, so they’ll be ready when you need them.
You can:
- Draw up a contract that includes this information. It’s easier to point to an agreement your client signed if an issue or question comes up. You can always amend it later if you need to (so make sure to set up a review period from time to time).
- Set up an onboarding system that lays out all the details. Especially if you’re flexible on things like communication and payment, this lets you send a questionnaire your client can use to express their preferences. You can include your contact information, too.
- Try snail-mail correspondence to welcome them aboard. This sets up a personal touch that they’re likely to remember. You can send a personalized letter or a high-quality professional card. These will help them be confident in the partnership and know they’re in good hands.
Taking the time to think about when you’re available for client contact can save your personal and professional quality of life. Imagine getting a call at your toddler’s bathtime or while you’re in the middle of a high-focus project. Set up a firm schedule for when you’ll check emails or respond to client messages rather than responding to every ping from every client whenever it happens.
Always Deliver Quality Work
Imagine this scenario: you have a choice of two stores for your grocery shopping. One is clean, has good customer service, and generally has what you want. You can get in and out quickly. The other is sometimes good, but not always. The prices might be high, the quality might be iffy, and you might feel ignored or that you’re an inconvenience to the staff.
Which store are you more likely to visit?
In the same way you do your shopping, freelance clients stick with freelancers they can count on. If you sometimes produce good work, but not always, you’re likely to lose clients.
Giving every project the same care and attention to detail as your first shows your client that you truly value them and their business. Not only will that keep them loyal, but they’re also much more likely to give you a recommendation or possibly even refer others to you – which makes finding new clients an easier process.
In order to protect the standard you set with your first project, build in buffer time before deadlines to account for the reality of life with kids at home. That way, you’ll avoid rushing out a subpar product and keep your clients more than satisfied.
If you’re not sure how to arrange your time around your family so you can deliver your best work and grow your business, this video has great practical tips for managing life as a freelancing parent.
Be Proactive With Your Communication
Your clients don’t like feeling like they need to chase you down to find out how things are going. So, even when you feel you’ve spent all week chasing after your kids, making sure you check in with your clients matters. If you wait for them to check in on you, they might look for a freelancer who doesn’t make them work for information.
Schedule regular time in your day or week to provide regular progress updates, using the communications form you’ve agreed on (my favorite for this is Trello, where I can easily tick things off a checklist, add documents, and send more detailed comments on longer-term projects. This makes it easy for clients to tell at a glance where I am with the work, and if they need to give any feedback along the way).
If you realize that a deadline is at risk, tell the client as soon as you can before the deadline arrives. That way, you can decide together how to approach the issue, rather than having an irate client demanding promised work you can’t deliver on time. I probably don’t need to tell you which of these is more likely to lead to loyalty and which to a canceled contract!
Proactive communication shows your freelance clients that you care about their projects, even when they’re not looking or things don’t go exactly as planned. And that lets them know that you’re there for them and will fix any problems before they become too big to handle.
If you have a problem with a client’s assignment or schedule, come to them with a potential solution or two. A good goal is to make as little work for your clients as possible, so offer them options they can choose between rather than simply telling them you can’t finish as expected or on time.
What Do Your Clients Actually Care About?
If you have more than one child, you know they have different likes and dislikes. One may love spinach while the other can’t stand the thought of putting it in their mouth. One might be very active while the other would rather read.
Not every client wants the same thing, either:
- Some want updates daily, or on every step of the project, while others are happier receiving updates at project milestones or just receiving the deliverable.
- You may have clients who want the fastest possible turnarounds (and will pay for them), while others are okay waiting for the best results.
- Some clients have very specific tone and formatting requirements, whereas others might give you full creative control.
- When a package contains many pieces, some clients will want everything at once when you finish the package while others prefer each piece as you finish it.
The best freelancers will adjust their processes to meet each client’s preferences. When your freelance clients feel like you get them, they don’t want to go through the process of training someone else who might never catch on.
You become the path of least resistance, in the best possible way. And that creates client loyalty – no spinach required!
Check out this video for specific tips for meeting your clients’ needs as a freelancer.
Add More Value Than Your Clients Ask For
A final tip for creating loyalty among your freelance clients is to keep your eyes open for small ways to go beyond what’s expected of you.
What’s that mean in practical terms? It might include:
- If you spot a broken link in their website copy while you’re editing, point it out.
- Could their email subject lines use a tweak? Mention it.
- Did you notice a post that could use updating while linking to it? Ask if they want you to add it to the schedule.
- Did you come across an article, idea, or technique that could benefit them? Share it with them.
You don’t have to do a ton of extra work for free. Just show that you’re paying attention to their business beyond your specific task. In other words, let them see that you care about their success and not only about doing what’s needed to collect your fee.
Clients remember freelancers who invest in their success in these small ways, and that memory can keep you top of mind when more work comes up. And that helps you to build a stable work-from-home career with a minimum of fuss.
If you get in the habit of keeping a list or making a note when you see something that can be improved, you’ll be able to point these things out to your clients quickly and efficiently. The goal is to make this a part of your process that doesn’t chew up your time and does benefit your clients.
Conclusion: Creating Client Loyalty As A Freelance Parent
Keeping your freelance clients is especially important when you’ve got a family depending on a steady income. While creating client loyalty may seem daunting while you’re juggling kids, laundry, and carpool duties, it’s really a matter of focusing on the right things that don’t take a lot of time.
The freelancers who are creating loyalty with their freelance clients communicate well, deliver consistently, make working with them easy, and care about their clients’ success. Learn to make these tips habits, and you can build a roster of people who actively want to send you more work.