The way you respond to client feedback can really make or break your freelancing career. While it's easy to thank a client for positive feedback, you must be especially careful when responding to negative feedback.
You wouldn't want to come off as rude or dismissive since this could harm your professional reputation and future prospects. From responding in a generic way to avoiding follow-ups, here are some major mistakes to avoid when responding to negative client feedback as a freelancer.
1. Being Unresponsive
You should never leave a client’s bad review unaddressed. If you received this feedback on a private chat or email, your lack of response may leave your client flustered.
They'll think you don't care enough about their opinions to even elicit a response. As a result, you may lose their business. What's worse, they might share their negative experiences with others, further harming your market reputation.
On the other hand, if your client left this review on a public freelancing site, the lack of a response would signify that you're unwilling to address client issues. This will be off-putting to potential buyers who view your profile. So, it's best to address any negative feedback as soon as possible. A good rule of thumb is to never leave a client waiting for more than 24 hours.
If you're unable to get on your workstation within this time frame, consider sending a short message to your buyer regarding your unavailability, preferably with a reason. You can then use one of the best simple reminder apps to make sure you don't forget to send a detailed response that addresses their concerns when you get the time.
2. Using an Incorrect Communication Platform
It is vital that you use the correct communication platform when handling negative client feedback. If your buyer left a public review, be sure to respond publicly as well to control the optics.
But consider complimenting this with a detailed email that addresses the issues raised by the client and your proposed way forward. Always remember that professional apologies are best left to formal platforms, like email. So, consider steering clear away from instant messaging platforms unless feedback is given on them.
Even then, consider offering to set up a call where you both can discuss what went wrong, and how the two of you can come out of it. You can also offer to share your screen during this call and conduct live edits to the unsatisfactory delivery.
3. Giving a Generic Response
Sending a generic or AI-generated response to client feedback may seem time-efficient, but it can end up doing more harm than not responding at all. It's likely to give the impression that you aren't invested enough in your clients' experiences to type something up yourself.
So, make sure you send in a personalized response. Try to identify the pain points in your client's message, and specifically target them in your text. But you must remember that not everyone is good at communicating. Your client may not be able to specify their pain points, and may even get angry when you're unable to understand them.
It is here that you'll be in need of good communication skills. Try to strike up a conversation and ask as many questions as possible. If this is an old client who was initially happy with your submissions, consider presenting your recent deliveries alongside your old ones side-by-side, and try to work out the differences.
Once you’ve identified what went wrong, jot these points down somewhere. Next, type out a reply that not only empathizes with these points but also addresses them. Don’t forget to keep the focus on resolving these problems rather than justifying or explaining them.
4. Not Correcting Your Actions
Once you have found the root cause of the bad review, try to jointly come up with a course of action that'll help make things better. If a specific milestone you delivered was badly reviewed, this course of action will see you revise your delivery.
Depending on how big a blunder you made, you can either do this free of charge or request additional billable hours. Just be sure that you're both on the same page before you start working on edits.
The feedback can also pertain to something more broad, like your style of work. For example, your client may be dissatisfied with how your work is often missing the formatting guidelines that were agreed upon.
In this case, you can collectively come up with something like a checklist that contains all the formatting guidelines. It can be agreed that you tick off all these boxes before sending in any future submissions. You can even send in this ticked-off checklist with all your future deliveries to ensure quality.
5. Not Keeping a Record
Keeping a record of things is always a good idea, especially if you're looking to handle multiple projects effectively as a freelancer. You can utilize a note-taking app, like Notion or Evernote, to jot down the pain points of all your current clients.
Make sure you properly organize these notes, so you can easily review them before interacting with or submitting a delivery to the client in question. This will help ensure you don't repeat a mistake that has already been flagged by them.
A general record of all the negative feedback you've ever received will also be helpful for tracking your progress as a freelancer. You can go back and look for patterns that can be eliminated to improve your overall customer service.
6. Forgetting to Follow Up
Once you have responded to your client's negative feedback, you must follow up in the next few days to check if they're satisfied with your new course of action. Ask if you were successful in addressing their issue. And if their issue wasn't resolved, try working out a new solution.
Managing Negative Client Feedback Can Help in the Long Run
As a freelancer, you are bound to receive negative feedback at some point or another. But be sure to leverage it as an opportunity to learn and improve. Address negative feedback in the best way possible by always being polite and responding quickly.
Additionally, giving personalized responses and following up will help boost customer experience. But you must draw a line between negative feedback that is a result of your mistake and one that is simply toxic.
FAQ
Q: How Do I Get Clients as a Freelancer?
Getting clients as a freelancer can be challenging especially if you've just started out, and there's no single foolproof way of doing so. The best way to find clients as a freelancer is to use a variety of sources and platforms. For instance, you can search for clients on freelance platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork, social media, your LinkedIn network, referrals, WhatsApp communities, and more.
Q: What Is the Biggest Drawback of Freelancing?
Without a doubt, the biggest drawback of freelancing is the unstable income. As a freelancer, you are not guaranteed a steady stream of work. There will be times when you have a lot of work and times when you might struggle to make ends meet. In fact, even established freelancers struggle financially sometimes which makes it difficult to budget and plan for the future.