April 15, 2009 marked the beginning of my journey as an online freelancer.
As at the first publishing of this post, I have had the privilege to work on 66 different assignments and made slightly over US $10,000 freelancing part time.
Some of the clients have been repeat while others have just been one-off engagements.
Fortunately for me, all of them have left wonderful feedback and some have even referred their friends to me.
There is also a couple others with whom I have heard long-term commitments and I couldn’t be more grateful.
So today, I thought I’d share some tips on how to attract, connect and retain your clients: Four Painless Tips to Retain Your Upwork clients.
None of these are hot from the oven tips or revolutionary for that matter, but I bet you they will transform your client relationship.
Trust me on this one; your clients will stick around longer and when its time for them to leave, they will refer others to you.
What's Covered in This Article
1. Make friends with your clients
One advantage that an Upwork freelancer has is the opportunity to meet people from different walks of life. The platform allows employers from all over the world to post jobs and engage virtual workers. Do not let the opportunity pass you by. So how do you become friendly to your clients? A few tips below:
- Salute them using their names if known to you. On more than one occasion, I have received communication from freelancers that I have hired that are just entitled: “please find attached.” While some employers don’t really mind, it doesn’t harm to say ” Hello Eva, hope you had a wonderful weekend. Please find attached….”
- During the periods when you’re not actively engaged on any assignments with your client, send a quick note to check if there is any other service you could offer them.
- Follow up with your clients to find out how a concept or strategy you suggested is working or not, for them.
2. De-clutter your profile
Make your profile easier to navigate.
One way to solve the economic crunch in Greece is to make debt as difficult to access as it is to navigate some contractors’ profiles.
Just figuring out what they offering is a nightmare.
The advantage of having a “clean profile” is that it makes it easier for current or potential clients to figure out what services you’re able to offer.
And this includes your portfolio as well. For every task you claim to be an expert on, back it up with a sample.
So how do you make your Upwork profile easier to navigate? Here are a couple of ideas:
- Make your Upwork title descriptive of the services you offer
- Get a second opinion. As often as possible, re-fresh your profile and ask a trusted friend to give you their feedback on the feel
3. Communicate promptly
Here’s something that I’ve realized during my time freelancing at Upwork.
Communication is key.
But timing is everything.
If you’ve only played the role of a contractor on Upwork, you may not understand the magnitude of pressure an employer has to go through to identify the best candidate.
There is lots of them out there and very little time.
Please ensure that you can be reached and once reached, respond promptly.
There is nothing as depressing for an employer like having spent money on someone you have never seen, not sure if they’re even real, and then they don’t respond to you. Wow!
This is especially more important for that first time hire.
Take it as an honor when an employer initiates contact asking you to take up a job.
As freelancers we need to take our careers as seriously as car salesmen take there’s.
If the main reason an employer showed up on Upwork is to hire a contractor, make it happen today. Not tomorrow or next week.
Respond to their message today… and get the contract going today.
How can you create an obvious and easy opportunity for potential and current employers who want to contact you to do so?
- Check your inbox every so often. At least twice a day
- Be proactive. Communicate in advance any foreseen long periods of unavailability. Let employers know. For example, if you are already swamped with other tasks, it does no harm to indicate on your profile that you are not currently taking on additional task. Remember to also state your next date of availability
4. Do a great Job
Deliver quality work.
Every client that gets his or her footstep on my door has one guarantee: quality work delivered to their satisfaction. I also provide free unlimited revisions until they are satisfied.
The result?
A 5-star Upwork rating and feedback. Whenever you hand in an assignment to an employer or client, there is one question you need to ask yourself:
What did the client want to accomplish?
While more often than not a client may already know what they want in a task, its important to know what they would like to accomplish.
Remember you are the expert. So please, find out what their goal is — and DELIVER on it.
And make that deliverable a quality output.
So there you have it. share with us on the comments below how you are retaining your Upwork clients.
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