Website Design Blog: discussion, Inspiration and More…

April 27, 2010 in Identity by Designussion

Again.

After dedicating your valuable time and effort into a project the last thing you want is for your hard work to be rejected or ties to be cut by a dissatisfied client. Unfortunately this can often happen and the blow can be disheartening.

Sometimes the stress of rejection becomes too much and emotions become hard to control. It would be somewhat fruitless for me to tell you to “stop feeling this way”, however there are ways to motivate yourself once more through analysing what went wrong in the first place so to avoid such situations reoccurring. Even some of the finest freelancers in the business find themselves becoming sceptical of their own ability after the crushing feeling of having all their time and efforts put to waste. However, the key is often in the basics. Think of it as a great novelist who makes spelling mistakes, or a chef who cooks brilliant food but doesn’t do so quickly enough. By ironing out these basic errors you’ll find yourself at the top of your game once more with clients queuing up for your services.

Dissatisfied clients

Whether a highly regarded client turns down your work or a customer ends a long lived connection, you need to get to the root of the problem and find out the reason why. As mentioned previously it is likely that basic and avoidable errors were key to your client relationship downfall, not your own ability. Something that may seem so insignificant such as timekeeping could in fact be the cause of your client’s dissatisfaction. It is vital that you look to remove these seemingly trivial issues in order to improve your service for the future.
If you fail to see the problem in order to fix it, a good idea is indeed to get in contact with the client and find out from them. The most effective way of doing so is to send them a quick questionnaire regarding your service. The key to getting the best answers is to focus the attention of the questions towards their discontent, be straight up and ask direct questions such as “What was your main issue with the service provided?”, furthermore ensure the options are both clear and realistic, such as ‘failure to meet deadlines” and “cheaper rates were found elsewhere”. Not only will this provide you with feedback allowing you to evaluate exactly where you went wrong, but it is much more effective than for example a phone call whereby the client is likely to be more reserved in their responses. By using a questionnaire you not only make things easier for yourself, but you may find yourself in the position to approach your former client with a solution to their problem, with luck on your side they will see your willingness to improve and may offer you a revised deal.

Rectifying problems

An important lesson to be learnt is that feedback is the key to improvement, by putting stubbornness aside and recognising where you went wrong, great benefits can come about.

Timekeeping can be one of the easiest problems to avoid. Firstly ensure that you know exactly when the deadline is, and what is required to meet it. This will allow you to break down the project into parts, block off adequate time to complete each part and prevent you from becoming bogged down and rushing. By breaking down the project into small pieces, you will also find it more manageable and the end result more thorough. If you are unsure of how long each piece will take to complete, break it down into smaller pieces until you are sure. It is fundamental that you agree the deadline before accepting it, there’s no use taking on a project you simply cannot meet the deadline for. In this case it may be necessary to negotiate the deadline, ensuring you leave yourself a buffer zone to rectify errors in case not everything goes to plan. By following these steps you should find projects far more manageable and eliminate the issue of timekeeping altogether, you’ll find yourself less stressed and in time develop a natural deadline meeting prowess.

Lack of qualifications can be an issue for some clients. If you find this is the case you may need to learn the new skills required. However this can be time consuming and costly, I advise you only take this route if you are finding this to be a continuous problem, this is as many clients don’t mind, as long as you get the job done to their standard.

Overpriced service. This is a less common complaint amongst clients in my experience. Although of course it is possible to overprice your services and alienate yourself from potential clients, from personal experience, I have found that the minority of clients that indeed complain about costs are usually in fact willing to pay the cost, yet are trying to take advantage of you, my advice is to hold firm with your price if you can justify it. If the client still asks for a reduction then ensure that you negotiate a deal which suits you both equally.

Unproffessionalism can be an issue for certain clients, simple things such as dressing smartly if meeting a client in person and ensuring emails or other communication forms are kept formal and professional. This gives the impression that you are proficient in what you are doing and will reflect upon this in your work.

Final advice

Think of any rejection of your work in a positive manner, rather than becoming disillusioned with thoughts of failure “what if’s”. Put yourself in the position to change for the better by using the negative experience to reassess what went wrong. This mindset will allow you to repair any flaws in your work and come back stronger than ever before.

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