Are You Managing Your Email Or Ignoring Your Clients?
Posted March 15, 2008 in Uncategorized 21 Comments »
One of the first things you do when you start freelancing is set up ways for your clients to communicate with you. You might have a website with a contact form. You probably have an email (or five). A cell number? Sure, why not?
The work starts coming in. At first, it’s a trickle, then a steady stream and soon a flood. Now you’re into scheduling and planning, trying to fit everything in. You might use some productivity tips and get some gadgets to help manage your thriving business. Soon, some advice catches your eye. It suggests that scheduling email runs to read and reply to communication may boost your productivity.
And it does! You can work freely and focus on your project without distraction. Time flies when you’re having fun. The next thing you know, you look up and…Oops. The day’s almost gone. And you haven’t answered your emails.
When you don’t reply to people, be it via email, telephone or face-to-face conversation, you’re conveying a strong message to clients and potential customers. It sounds like this:
You don’t matter to me.
One of the most common phrases we hear from anyone who emails us is, “Wow, I didn’t expect you to reply so quickly!” It puzzles me. Why wouldn’t I reply? My clients are my financial lifeblood. Why would I ignore them if they have a question or a need?
But I’ve realized that many freelancers don’t share the values I place on good customer service. In fact, I’ve heard many people mention that lack of timely communication was the overall reason they stopped working with their freelancer.
This makes no sense. You want to work, don’t you?
There are a few ways to provide good customer service to clients without being chained to your desk. You can schedule check-in time to clean up your inbox, sure. Have at least three email sessions a day – morning, noon, and end of day – to deal with incoming email in a timely manner.
Another good way to reassure clients that you’re alive and not ignoring them is to set your email’s auto responder to “on” when you sit down to work. Type a nice little auto-response message for emails that says something like, “Thanks for your email. I’m in the middle of the world’s greatest creation but I expect to take a break within three hours. I’ll get back to you then.”
“Three hours!? James! Are you crazy? That makes no sense. Three hours is nothing!”
I disagree. It’s rather common for people to lose track of time when either working hard or when surfing online. Three hours, to your web-working client, might feel like three minutes. Ten hours feels like a week. A whole day?
Your client will begin to wonder if you’re even alive any more – and he’ll go somewhere else to work with someone who treats him better. Is that really what you want?
If you answered with a resounding, “Yes!” then we can’t help you. Sorry. If you answered, “Hell, no!” then get your butt over to James’ blog, Men with Pens. Pick up more great tips for better web business. Better yet, grab his feed by subscribing here. And of course share your thoughts in the comment section below!
James
About the author: If you want to learn more about improving your writing, blogging and web business, head on over to James' blog, Men With Pens, where you'll get more free advice to achieve strong success. Better yet, subscribe to his feed here.
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21 Comments
Ritu
March 15th, 2008 at 11:36 amGood reminder James. I usually reply to my clients inquiries within 24 hours, which I have stated on my contact form as well. This way they know what to expect in terms of time length to get a response. Most of the times I reply fairly quick ( before the 24 hours timline ) but since I have a day job at times it makes it quite hard to get back right away. Nonetheless, I have never failed to reply within 12-15 hours once I receive an email.
Of course I want to work and since these clients bring me the extra income, I need to show that I care about their business. Customer service in freelancing world is as important as it in the retail world or any other business. Without proper customer service no freelance business can thrive and same goes true for Freelancing as well.
Enjoyed the post and once again thanks for the reminder.
James Chartrand - Men with Pens
March 15th, 2008 at 12:24 pmHey Ritu – Yeah, day jobs put a bit of a screw in things, but I think if you’re clear on your site and have some catch net set up so that you don’t make people wonder where you went, you’re good.
Customer service is often *the* only deciding factor for many buyers. It has to be polite, professional, responsive, and present.
I’m constantly surprised at how many freelancers, from writers to designers to coders and everything in between, are consistently flaky with their customer service.
The good thing is for buyers is that there’s no shortage of hopeful workers. The bad thing for freelancers is that sometimes, you only get one chance.
Cheers!
rhodaandmary
March 15th, 2008 at 1:15 pmI have a tip that has worked for those times when I do have to leave my home office during the work week. (It isn’t always possible or even desirable to do every single thing online and never step foot outside till after hours.)
I pay around $6 per month more on my cell phone bill to be able to access the web browsing feature. This enables me to set up my home office’s e-mail account within my cell phone so that I can see if someone has e-mailed me. I can in theory e-mail them back using the cell phone’s keypad, but this is pretty cumbersome, so I usually call them back.
Many if not most of my clients contact me for work that needs to be sent out by them to a freelancer ASAP, because they have fast turnaround times. I have occasionally lost work because I literally didn’t call a client back within 5 minutes. Sometimes these clients send out mass e-mails to a bunch of freelancers and give the job to the first one who replies. I hate that they do that, but on occasion they have no choice since they are under the gun to get the projects out of their office and into that of a freelancer before the day is over. Rather than be chained to my home office, it is nice to know I can step outside when necessary and still be in touch via my cell phone. And it is a lot less expensive than a BlackBerry, and less cumbersome than carrying a laptop around and hoping I can find a hot spot where I can be connected.
To keep things simple, I also forward all incoming calls on my home office’s land line onto my cell phone, so that when I leave the office, I’ll always be able to receive a call. I think this is easier than burdening the client with a cell phone number to call in case they get my voice mail on my land line.
Ritu
March 15th, 2008 at 1:20 pmI agree 100% with you. A lot of times whether or not we get the project handed directly depends upon our email communication skills. I have seen email from freelancers to their clients which are sent in a very unprofessional way, such as
” Sure. I can get that done for you. I might be able to get it done within a week, but I have other commitments you know, like family and all that ;-). Anyways what’s you budget? Lemme know.
Peace”
I seriously doubt a client would hand their project to someone who sends an email with that tone. I think we need to show professionalism while communicating with clients. If you are very good friends with the client and have established a personal relationship, it’s fine. But I think most people lose projects because of their untimely response and the very unprofessional way of communication.
My 2 cents :-)
Lillie Ammann
March 15th, 2008 at 2:05 pmI agree, James. Advice to improve your productivity by checking e-mail only once a day makes me wonder how anyone can stay in business without being available to clients.
Zakman
March 16th, 2008 at 3:01 pmHi James,
You might be aware that I’m a fan of yours, though you make it difficult to disagree with you (most of the times.. hehe)
I’m not sure about what you have to say here, though. “Have at least three email sessions a day..”??? If I’m a freelancer, that’s just what I am. I chose to be to one because I don’t wanna be tied down to three email sessions per day. I’m not a 9-to-5, or even a 9-9 person.
Do I need clients? Probably yes. To pay my bills. But then I accepted the fact I might not have clients when I chose to be a freelancer. Well, it takes guts to be a freelancer, huh.
And totally disagree with Ritu here. Sorry! “I might be able to get it done within a week…” Clients always appreciate a timeline according to my experience…
and “anyways what’s you budget?”
Asking about the budget is the best of the greatest ideas! How many times have I dropped off a T-shirt or a pair of shoes at the mall just because there was no price tag on it?
Specifics never fail.
It took me exactly 35 minutes to write this comment.
James Chartrand - Men with Pens
March 16th, 2008 at 5:44 pm@ Zakman – Fans are always welcome.
Ritu was showing a case of poor customer service that, in fact, many freelancers display. It’s sad.
While you chose to be freelancer for the sake of freedom, make no mistake that freelancer is spelled b-u-s-i-n-e-s-s. If you can’t be bothered to answer your email promptly, then you’re telling your clients you can be bothered with them. Is that really what you want?
You don’t have to be a 9 to 5er or a 9 to 9er. My hours are 5 to 9, and Harry’s are different as well. But regardless, we are always responsive and ready to communicate with clients. When we can’t be, we cover each other’s back or put up an autoresponder.
Because that’s just business :)
@ Lillie – They don’t ever achieve the kind of business they usually sigh over, that’s for sure.
James Chartrand - Men with Pens
March 16th, 2008 at 5:44 pmOh… 2 minutes, 5 seconds. ;)
Tech Blog
March 18th, 2008 at 11:01 amEmail management is one of my major issues, I find myself spending half of my day making sure I don’t have no email and double checking the different accounts. Time to take action.
Cath Lawson
March 18th, 2008 at 5:23 pmGood point James – I am hopeless with email. It’s just wading through all the spam to find the real emails that sucks – i definitely need to improve that set up. And I’ll also set up a cool personal auto-responder like you suggested.
James Chartrand - Men with Pens
March 18th, 2008 at 5:26 pmA cool autoresponder makes all the difference :)
Funny that people have so much trouble with spam, actually. I hear that often. I have less than one spam a day through Gmail. Reroute your host server email to Gmail or Google Apps, and you’ve got it made.
Action. Fire, fire, fire…
Sudheer
March 24th, 2008 at 3:10 amVery nice article. Many freelancers are aware of this and still commit the same mistakes. Your post is inspiring to manage e-mail communication better.
Regards,
Sudheer
Stefanie
March 24th, 2008 at 2:14 pmAt first, I tried to answer e-mails right away, all the time. That eventually got distracting and I settled into a nice 2x a day pattern. I don’t work with a ton of people, though – I cleaned out my client list and only kept the really low maintenance people, which has been great.
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