Referral Marketing
It may be easy to say to yourself, “no big deal, so they won’t hire me for future projects” but before you do that, know this; people with a good experience will tell a few others about that good experience. But, bad experiences? Oh, well that’s another story. If they feel slighted or upset about the experience, they will tell anyone who will listen. Especially true if they don’t believe you did all you could to rectify the situation. One unsatisfied client has the potential to wreck havoc on your freelancing career.
Word of mouth advertising might possibly be the best form of marketing you can have. It is important to ensure this form of advertising paints you in a positive light. Make sure an unfavorable situation with a client doesn’t stay that way. You must do all that you can to be certain good things are being said about you. Just because you haven’t paid money out of pocket for this advertising, does not negate its unlimited value.
Last week I talked about the benefits of asking your client - how am I doing; a fabulous tool for keeping your clients happy and satisfied. What do you do when your client tells you they are totally unsatisfied with your work? Does it mean you have lost that client forever? Not necessarily.
When trying to work out a solution to the problem, keep your cool. It will be so very easy to slip into a defensive attitude. After all, you thought you had a good thing going as you worked on the assignment and here they are telling you it is all wrong. Understandable, but still, you must remain neutral with your frame of mind. Remember that old saying the customer is always right?
Well, maybe they aren’t always right, but it takes a certain kind of finesse to point that out to them. If you disagree with how they want something to be, offer a compromise that utilizes their thoughts along with what it is you think would amplify their general idea. Present your ideas as an accessory to their base plan. Be excited as you corroborate with them and your enthusiasm will help show them your eagerness to make things right.
Lastly, if all else fails and they just don’t want to hear anything you have to say, walk away with dignity. I mean that in both the literal and figurative sense. Know in your heart that you did your very best to turn the situation around. With face to face interaction, shake their hand, apologize, and take that one last opportunity to invite them to work with you again in the future. Over the telephone or thru computer communication, reiterate the same things as the face to face interaction, minus the hand shake of course, and always remain courteous and polite.
The positive steps you’ve taken to satisfy the client will be what remain in their mind, deflecting from the negative points of the ordeal. The integrity of your word of mouth marketing asset has been preserved, thus increasing your referral business. Then you can file the situation under ‘Valuable Learning Experience’.
Freelancing is my life. It's what I know, it's what I'm good at, and I can't imagine doing anything else. You can call me "Freddie the Freelancer"… because I'd prefer not to use my real name for reasons that I'll tell you about in a moment.
2 Comments
Referrals is indeed the most cost effective and the most reliable marketing source.
In case of an online business, the best thing to do is adopt software solutions for your word of mouth marketing fuctions.
http://www.nextbee.com provides such solutions for businesses of all kinds and size.
Don’t miss this link, the solutions provided by them are interesting and also as low as $10.
Prashant in your comment when talking about nextbee you said “them”, when you should have said “us”, considering that you work as their press officer as a paid employee of nextbee..