Freelance Issues: Keeping Your Clients Informed
Telling clients about problems will help to manage expectations and minimize frustration
I'm convinced that a sustainable and successful freelance career is built on strong client relationships. And I think that those relationships thrive on clear, relevant, and proactive communication between freelancer and client. More often than not, that communication needs to be driven by the freelancer. Clients are busy, and may not think to ask questions or check how things are going. That's why it's our responsibility to keep clients informed and up-to-date.
But, many freelancers are afraid to tell clients if things are going wrong. Perhaps you're going to miss a deadline, or you don't quite understand what a client needs. You might need more time to do a good job, or life is getting in the way of meeting your commitments. This stuff happens. Don't let it become worse by letting it turn into a nasty surprise for your clients.
Own the issue. Tell them. Let them know how you'll sort it out. The chances are that they'll appreciate your honesty and might even help you solve the problem.
The types of freelance problems that you should inform your client about
Although there are lots of potential problems you can run into as a freelancer, most client problems are going to fall into one of the following categories:
Missing deadlines
Returning work of low quality
Getting your pricing wrong
Forgetting or mismanaging stuff
Let's dig into each.
Not returning freelance work on time or to the agreed deadline
You might have taken on too much other work, or you run into personal or family issues that demand your attention. Whatever the cause, you're not going to be able to return your content to the agreed deadline or turnaround time.
As soon as you know you're going to miss the deadline, contact your client and include the following information:
A description of the work that's going to be late
The originally agreed deadline that you were going to return the work by
A brief, high-level description of why you won't be able to return the work on time
A realistic date of when you expect to return the work
An apology
Continue doing the work, and see what the client says in response. Then, ensure you return the work by the new deadline that you proposed.
Needing more information so you can ensure your freelance work is of a high quality
Sometimes you may not have a strong understanding of exactly what a client needs. That could be because you didn't get the information from the client up front, or the work is more complicated than you initially thought. In these cases, the key is to ask your client questions so you can get a strong understanding of what's needed. I've written a complete guide to asking questions of your clients here.
This is also why it's important to review work before you start on it. You don't want to start a piece of work a day before it's due, realize that you need more information, and then be waiting on the client to provide it. I'd also advise against making assumptions about what's needed and turning in poor-quality work. Better to ask, and be sure, than to guess, and be wrong.
Getting your freelance pricing wrong
Sometimes it can be difficult to accurately price a project or deliverable. That could result in you undercharging for your work, because it takes longer than you think. In these cases, you have a couple of different options:
Tell your client that you misquoted and got your prices wrong, and ask if there's any wriggle room to increase your rates.
Suck it up and don't make the same mistake next time.
For what it's worth, I almost always choose option two. So long as I understand the scope of the work before I quote, I'm generally pretty careful to price as accurately as I can. If I don't, and it's down to me not understanding, I'll absorb the loss.
The approach you take will depend on your relationship with the client, and how valuable they could be to you over the long term. This is definitely a situation where it's a great idea to learn from your mistakes.
Forgetting or mismanaging things
Of course, there are lots of other issues where you'll need to inform clients. In almost every case, I would:
Figure out if you can solve the problem yourself without compromising the quality, cost, or speed of the work.
If you can't make that work, tell the client as soon as possible, even if you might be able to resolve things before they become a big problem.
Own up to the error, let the client know exactly what the issue is, and provide a brief overview of what caused it.
There's no need to get into lots of detail about the cause of the problem, unless the client asks.
Tell the client what you are going to do to solve the problem, and what the expected result will be.
Provide an honest apology and let them know what you will do to stop it happening again.
Ask them if they need anything further from you outside of the solution you've suggested.
Meet the promises you've just made.
That's it. Understand the problem, briefly explain why it happened, offer a solution, apologize, and follow through. Don't ever let it come as a surprise to the client.
Owning up to a mistake takes character, and clients recognize that
We all make mistakes—I wrote a whole guide about it. The thing is, once you identify it to a client and own up, that can mean they'll trust you more.
Keeping clients informed is vital, and can strengthen the relationships so essential to freelance work.