First posted on 10/06/2013
The freelance web designer market is highly competitive at the moment. In 2012, we conducted a survey of 500 web designers in which 79% thought prices were being forced down due to increased competition and 4/5 believed that work was either more difficult or just as difficult to find compared to the last 12 months. With this level of competition, it’s really important for freelance web designers to find ways to differentiate themselves from others. A great way to achieve this is to provide customer service that consistently exceeds expectations.
How going the extra mile can help you
Being known for excellent service is a hugely valuable way to make yourself stand out because people will be far more likely to return for future work and there’s a good chance that they will let others know how impressive their experience with you was. This can be a big help when trying to get new clients as the 2012 Freelance Industry Report confirms by stating that the most effective ways to find and land new clients according to freelancers were referrals (chosen by 27.4% of those surveyed) and word of mouth (chosen by 23.8% of those surveyed).It only takes a bit more effort to go the extra mile and over-delivering does not have to mean working many more hours on every project, it can be achieved simply by working smarter and thinking of ways to make life easier and to provide better results for your customers.
In this post, we’ll give you some ideas regarding what going the extra mile can do for your freelance web design business and how to go about it.
1. Adopt quick response times
Responding quickly to your customers can help to increase trust and your perceived reliability. To make sure you stay on top of all your tasks when dealing with multiple clients, it’s a good idea to use Customer Relationship Management software because anything from forgetting a scheduled phone call to not performing significant parts of contracted work can easily upset and annoy people. To make sure this doesn’t happen, there are some brilliant CRM software packages available that are ideal for web designer users. For instance, base and StudioCloud both have free package options and come with great features to help you streamline your work processes.2. Enable feedback and communication
When you start to work on projects for a customer, you could encourage them to engage in a dialogue with you either through email or social media so they can ask you any questions that come to them during the project. You can also use this line of communication to find out how you can help them more and, therefore, how you can make them so satisfied with your service that they never think to look elsewhere.
3. Exceed your promises
If you promise to build a website for a customer by a certain date and then miss this deadline, this can negatively impact your relationship with them. The best thing to do is to promise things that you can definitely provide and then exceed these expectations. This is an easy way to show customers that you will over-deliver for them and to give them a memorable experience of using you.4. Provide some extra service for free
After building a website for someone, why not finish off the package at no extra cost by setting up hosting for them, installing analytics and setting up their email addresses? These small jobs are quick and easy for you to complete and will make life easier for the customer. Offering these extras before starting to perform work for a customer can also help you to win the job in the first place by giving an excellent first impression.5. Support your customers
If one of your customers is having problems that aren’t directly related to your work with them, try to give them some good advice anyway or point them in the direction of someone you think can give them what they need. This can be achieved very quickly but will mean a great deal to the customer, especially if their issue is causing them worry or eating up large amounts of their time. Doing this will also make them remember you long after their problem has been fixed and will show that you are interested in helping them, rather than just looking for them to pay you.An example: Zappos
Zappos is a fantastic example of a company that consistently creates a ‘wow’ factor with their amazing customer service and they have achieved this through a range of different initiatives. For example, there is no limit to the length of customer service calls at Zappos, with the longest customer conversation to date lasting 10 hours. The company also gives you up to an entire year to return an item if you are not happy with it and their shipping is free and often done overnight. Zappos understands that high quality customer service involves developing a long term relationship; this is why they will search three different competitors’ websites and direct customers to those competitors if they do not have the requested item in stock. The benefits of this approach have been clear, with the company reaching $1 billion in sales after only eight years of trading and the fact that 75% of their customers are repeat customers.For more information about working in the freelance sector or if you would like to hire a freelance designer, please contact us.
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Credit: Robert Mathers
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