Blog

For a freelancer, it’s not unusual to face tough clients. However, effective communication strategies can work as a ticket to add success to your freelancing career.

By implementing effective strategies, you can handle challenging client interactions and achieve positive outcomes that support your overall freelancing journey

What gets you in trouble in the first place?

Before we jump on to discussing the issues and tricks for managing difficult clients, we must know our side is safe to ensure we don’t commit such a mistake that causes us any trouble in the first place. Some behaviors might seem offensive to the client, so it is important to understand how to deal with all your clients.
Here are the things, you must be keen and concerned about before getting into a new agreement. 

•    Read the job post twice before placing your bid on it. Understand the project's goal and then evaluate your skills for the task you are going to bid on. Place your offer only if you feel you fulfill all the job requirements.
•    Once you get the response from a client, ask for clear directives and the project's purpose. This is the right time to discuss any relevant thing you have in your mind. 
•    You must understand the client’s perspective on the project. It’s important to know the client’s point of view before you start putting your efforts into the project. 
•    Align the budget, the deliverables, your understanding, and clients’ expectations. 
•    Make sure you have the right tools and setup to deliver your project on time and with efficiency. 

Remember, your clients and a professional relationship with them should be your priority as a freelancer. It is far better to discuss the project in a one-time discussion than bother your client again and again, yet come up with a poor deliverable. 
Even if you are a professional freelancer with proper setup and understanding, there is still a chance that you come across tricky clients.

For a freelancer, it’s not unusual to face tough clients but some effective communication tips can work as a ticket to add success to your overall freelancing journey

Essential Tips to Handle Difficult Clients

Here are some tips and tricks for handling difficult clients through effective communication. 

1- Keep the Communication Tone Professional

Unprofessional communication may be the most significant reason leading to such a situation where your client wants to end the contract even if you have good command over your skills. 
Some of the clients (especially those who are new to the freelance platforms) observe your communication style. If your communication is not professional enough, there is the highest chance that the client will be unhappy in response. So, keeping the communication tone professional is essential. 
Most beginner freelancers use unnecessary emojis and smileys during the chat while talking with freelance clients. It leaves a lousy impression on the freelance client. So, always have a professional tone when communicating with clients, especially during working hours or when communicating regarding the work. Here is an example that shows the comparison of unprofessional and professional communication:
Unprofessional:
Hi Dear, how are you? I would like to know about the feedback for the work I sent you. 😃
Professional:
Hi Mr. Jons! I hope you are doing well. As I sent you the work, I would like your original feedback and a review of the work I sent you. Please, let me know if you need any revisions or editions in work.  
Thank you!
(Your Name here)

Keep the Professional Communication Style and Convert Your New Freelance Clients into Long Term Clients

2- Preferring Calls Over Texting

Texting or simply chatting with the client to clarify the facts and figures is sometimes insufficient. You must have observed that a text is not enough to clear the issue or show your potential to resolve the matter, even when talking with friends or family members. And same is the case with freelance clients.
So, a video or an audio meeting via a direct Freelance platform (If you got a client through a freelance platform) or by using Zoom or Skype (if you are handling a direct or local client) is a good idea. In video or audio meetings, expressing your views and eliminating the issues is easy. 
It’s not only suitable for effective communication but also adds the trust of your client to you. 

3- Setting the Boundaries in Communication

Setting some communication boundaries is one of the practical ways to avoid getting into trouble with rude clients (who may report you because of the mistakes you made as a newbie).  The matter becomes more critical for beginner freelancers as they feel low confidence when they face such clients at the start of their freelance journey.
The first and most important thing is communicating with the clients only on the freelancer platform. The reason is, neither the freelance platforms allow communication with clients outside the platform nor do they provide support in case of any conflict. Any communication proof that happened outside the marketplace is useless so you must keep all your conversation within the marketplace. 
The essential tip is to listen to your client carefully and give him what he wants. Your disagreements are fine, but if you really offer him the work revision or carefully reply to his arguments in a professional way, he will know that you care about the work. The ultimate result would lead to completing or even ending the project well. Also, remember that ending a project is 100 times better than getting a bad review. 

4- Work Before Initiating a Project

One of the great ways to avoid such circumstances is to check out some of the critical points before initiating a contract with a client. Here are the essential points:
●    Check if the client is giving good reviews to all other freelancers
●    Check if the client is paying too little money
●    Observe if he is asking for extra work, he will likely lead to the difficult circumstances
You can check these points when communicating with a client before he hires you. 

5- Don’t Waste Your Energy on an Impossible Client 

It's okay if the client asks for the revision because of your mistakes as learning from the mistakes is good to make your freelancing journey peaceful and successful. So, stay calm even if you are correct and the client is unhappy. Just listen to them carefully and understand what they mean.

One or a few clients may have differing views on you and your work. And it’s also expected that a client asks for multiple revisions. 
What if a client does not satisfy with the final delivery no matter how much effort you are putting in? 
Worst case Scenario and the Possible Solution!

If you think your client is not convincing or getting happy with your work (which you completed by putting in your maximum effort), let the client go. Yes! This is bold but we suggest you do this as a last resort. Refrain from assuming that you are not able enough to do that specific work. One of the clients from every 100 clients may disagree with you. So, we recommend letting them go instead of convincing them and wasting your time handling that difficulty. This way, you will get mental peace after a short time of client loss worry. 
Again, remember that letting go of such clients is better than having a bad review on your profile.
 

Author: Shabana Khadim | Reviewed by: Zonaira Ali