Credit: Robert Mathers
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.
Conquest UK
Web:
www.Conquest.uk.com
Email:
Advice@Europe.com
Tel: 0871 910 0002
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Credit: Robert Mathers
