Running a successful freelance design business is far more than just designing. You have to be both a designer and a project manager with seamless grace. In addition, you may also have to be a developer, source print quotes, deal with suppliers, etc. This list can go on and on and take up a huge amount of time. With such a large commitment, we sometimes manage our clients based on their perceived value. Sometimes, however, their true value may be hidden.
We All Prioritize
It can be tempting to class your clients in groups. More than likely, youʼll class them by the amount of work they give you. Big clients will be giving you lots of jobs every month and the small clients will deliver a small job only every now and then.
Its very easy to flag or leave until later the small requests from your smaller or more sporadic clients. Those little requests for small or low money jobs can sometimes get “lost” as they slip further down your inbox. Weʼve all been there at sometime or another, a day or so passes by and youʼll get a follow up email from your client asking if youʼre going to do that little job and when they can expect to see something.
Iʼve always tried as hard as possible to keep all my clients happy. Both big and small customers get equally the same quality treatment. If Iʼm buried in work, I reply to the email with a quick courtesy response, saying that Iʼm very busy at the moment and Iʼll sort their job as soon as I can. The job then goes on my to do list and gets done when I have a suitable gap to fit it in.
A Big Payoff
Recently this practice yielded a surprising yet very welcome reward for me. Weʼre all familiar with the power of the client referral in graphic design and the advantages of having one of your clients recommend you to another. In this case it turned out that my very first clientʼs sister was in fact married to the marketing director of a major UK wildlife charity who were on the search for a new agency after being let down too many times by their current agency. Suddenly, out of the blue, I get a wonderful phone call, have a brilliant meeting and thereʼs a ton of work coming my way and smiles all round.
It was the depth of service I had given to this client over our 5 year relationship that had set up this referral. Overall I hadn’t done much work for them–a brochure to start off with and then a simple website a couple of years down the line. Nevertheless, it was the service and attention that I had given them which paid huge dividends in the end.
How to Keep All Your Clients Happy
Follow these three tips to keep all your clients happy, regardless of size:
1. Always respond promptly to all emails. You’ll be amazed at how a quick courteous response will endear you to your clients. If you can’t attend to their query immediately, let them know and give them an indication as to when you’ll be able to deal with it.
2. If you miss a client call, try and return the call as quickly as possible. If you’re stuck and haven’t got the time, send a quick email and apologise for not being able to speak to them. In your email offer a possible alternative time when you will be able to call them back.
3. It goes without saying that you should avoid missing deadlines wherever possible but try and deliver jobs early if you can. A good practice is to do all the small jobs and amendments first thing in the morning. That way they will be cleared and out of the way, leaving your head clear to work on that big project for the rest of the day.
The moral of this tale… give all your clients the 5 star treatment, not just the high paying ones, you never know who they know!
Please Share Your Thoughts?
Do you have any stories of small clients paying off big. How do you prioritize your clients? Do you limit your intake of “small” clients? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Nice article! And very true.
Not only can small clients pay off big, but the work for small clients can also be very rewarding. Your work does not have to be approved by 10 people or more. So the work itself could be less of a compromise.
Not only can the small client pay off, but they pay off in word of mouth advertising
I find this to be true , take all opportunities untill you can choose.
its a wow post mate, this is so enlightening to us
Great article Nik. Especially in this crappo economy it’s so tempting to see clients and their potential billings long before we consider how both parties can greatly help the other.
I made this one of my three links for the day on my daily design blog Design Thought for the Day:
http://designthoughtfortheday.blogspot.com/2010/01/01-21-what-has-twitter-done-for-me.html
All the best, Ted
@Ted and @Daniel
I do find it sometimes hard to look past the dollar signs but if you can see the potential to add another follower that will shout out your brand, you never know how far that will go.
Thanks everyone for the kind words about the article. It’s good to know that it’s striking a chord with people and hopefully providing some kind of blueprint for those just starting out.
about a year and a half ago, i had a similar case, one of the smallest clients i had scored me a 10K project
it’s is a top priority to keep all of your clients 100% happy, it turns out they will send you endless referrals who would pay big bucks for your job.
i also think it’s always good to treat all your customers the same, and of curse small clients are much easier to deal with than the big clients