As a freelancer, remarkable, high-quality work is vital to maintaining a long-term relationship with high-value clients. Your goal is to get regular work opportunities, which often come when your clients are impressed with your previous work.
In fact, client feedback is the best proof of your excellence at what you do. Various areas of the internet can be rife with criminals and fraudsters, so feedback from verified clients further boosts the credibility of your profile. Additionally, it helps you take the shortest time possible with each task, making required changes within a shorter timeframe. If you value your trade, client feedback will help you get better with each task and adapt quickly in a fast-changing market.
In the end, there are many reasons why client feedback is important. Read on for some ways of how to get and use feedback from your clients.
Set a Precedence to Encourage Clients to Provide Feedback
Some clients are nervous about providing feedback. They may fear ruining your relationship or appearing to insult your work. To overcome this hurdle, tell your clients in the first email or phone call that you are open to all kinds of suggestions and feedback. Remember to include that you will use criticism to implement the required tweaks and improve your work going forward.
Also, add that you truly value their feedback and emphasize that positive and negative comments are valuable for your working relationship. You may find them being more generous with positive remarks.
Create Short Survey Documents
Surveys are excellent tools for getting feedback. You’ll get plenty of information with a simple survey document that’s easy to read and to use. Short questions with scales of one to 10 can help evaluate your performance and show the areas you could have done better.
While preparing a short survey document, avoid lengthy or difficult questions as they may confuse the client. Questions that can yield a lot of information include:
- How satisfied are you with my work on a scale of one to 10?
- Is there any way I could have made your experience better?
- What could I have done differently?
Offer the option of anonymity to encourage as many clients as possible to complete your survey. If you are using a scale, interpret it for its users. As far as possible, use open-ended questions and add sufficient space so that they can truly voice their opinions.
A PDF editor is a great way to create an effective short survey. You can then share it along with your presentation or portfolio to potential clients.
Ask for LinkedIn Recommendations
Recommendations on LinkedIn are a valuable indication of your work’s quality. These also show that you are open to receiving feedback. Moreover, they’re highly credible since they link directly to your client’s profile.
Asking for LinkedIn recommendations can be awkward and delicate but it’s not impossible. Ensure you use a respectful but friendly tone to avoid sounding needy or pushy. Other valuable ways to get as many recommendations as possible include maintaining regular contact with your clients, accepting constructive criticism and expressing gratitude as soon as you get the recommendation. Again, since you want positive feedback on your LinkedIn, lean more towards clients that love your work.
Use Your Social Media Profile
While other social media sites are not as formal as LinkedIn, you can still mine plenty of client feedback on them. Social media is the place to find informal feedback in the form of comments on your profile or company’s social media posts.
A social media profile on sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is cost-effective and can work as a tool for marketing and obtaining client feedback.
Have an Honest Conversation with Your Clients
While emails and text messages are convenient business communication tools, they conceal the tones in messages and limit your ability to get finer details clarified. Actual face-to-face or via video call discussions will help the client offer more in-depth insight.
Consider having check-in meetings at various stages of project delivery to ensure you can make any corrections before going too far ahead. These conversations will help the client communicate whether deliverables are on track, if your methods are efficient, and point out any concerns or questions. After job delivery, you get to know what worked for them and what did not.
These interactions do not have to be formal. To get plenty of information, initiate a conversation rather than going directly into gathering information. This approach will help the client feel valued and more likely to contact you for more work or refer you to their networks. During these conversations, be ready with the points you would like clarified, but remember not to overwhelm them with questions.
Establish a Work Process That Includes Obtaining Client Feedback
A formal feedback process with any of the tools above will help you get feedback from as many jobs as possible. You can write down a simple pipeline involving any set of feedback-obtaining tools. For instance, you can start with a phone call to clarify all instructions and deliverables before you start working, include an update meeting or email when halfway through, then wrap things up with a survey or feedback conversation and request a LinkedIn recommendation.
Once you settle on a work process that works for you, share it with your old clients and prospective ones by sharing it on your social media, website, or LinkedIn. The easier the process is, the easier it will be for you to follow through and for clients to share feedback at every stage.
Use Feedback for Business Growth
The freelance world is incredibly competitive, and you can no longer afford to let any client go without getting some feedback. Reviews from the right companies can significantly boost your credibility and help you attract more or better clients. Whether positive or negative, client reviews are valuable both in the short and long run.
