13 Things You Should Know About Your Freelance Business

You’ve already learned a lot about freelance customer service businesses. You know how to create a one-stop-shop for all of the services your customers need, and you know how to manage the needs of multiple clients at once. You’re able to take on new staff as your business grows and increase the number of clients you serve, too.

But what else do you know? A good business owner knows that there’s always more to learn. There are plenty of other things that can help you improve your business and keep it profitable for years to come, such as how to attract new customers, how to get referrals from existing customers, and how to deal with unhappy customers (and keep them happy).

This article will teach you everything you need to know about important aspects of running a successful freelance customer service business.

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Takeaways
1. Continual learning is essential for success in a freelance customer service business.
2. Building a strong support system can provide valuable guidance and resources.
3. Time management skills are crucial to maintain productivity and meet client expectations.
4. Effective communication is key in providing exceptional customer service as a freelancer.
5. Understanding your target audience and their needs helps tailor your services for better results.
6. Implementing tools and technology can streamline workflows and enhance efficiency.
7. Pricing your services appropriately ensures fair compensation for your expertise.
8. Building a professional online presence and marketing your services can attract more clients.
9. Balancing work-life responsibilities promotes overall well-being and avoids burnout.
10. Adapting to changes in the industry and staying updated with trends is crucial for growth.
11. Developing strong problem-solving skills helps address client issues effectively.
12. Seeking feedback and incorporating it into your work improves customer satisfaction.
13. Embracing a growth mindset and being open to learning from mistakes leads to continuous improvement.

Table of Contents

1. You Need To Build Good Relationships

As a freelancer, you’re not just providing services to your clients; you are also building a relationship with them. Building good relationships with your customers is important for many reasons. Perhaps the most obvious one is that if you have a good relationship with your customer, he or she will be more likely to use your services again and recommend you to others.

Also, when you have a long-term relationship with someone, he or she may feel compelled to give you more work than they would otherwise because they don’t want to see their money go to waste on some random person they found on Craigslist or Fiverr.

Finally, building relationships with people can help you learn about yourself and improve as a human being! When people know who you are and what type of work you do, they will be more likely to ask if there is anything else that needs doing around the house (e.g., taking out the trash) or at an office (e.g., cleaning up after an event).

This can help keep your business afloat during those slow months when clients aren’t reaching out for new projects as often!

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2. You Need To Set And Follow Deadlines For Your Job

You need to set and follow deadlines for your job. Some of the reasons why you must set deadlines are:

It’s essential to ensure that you stay on schedule with projects.
Deadlines help make sure that work is not left unfinished or neglected.
It helps when others depend on you for the completion of a particular project (like your clients).

It’s also important to follow the deadlines that you have set for yourself. If you don’t, it will become increasingly difficult to meet them in the future. So how do you stick with these all-important deadlines? Here are some tips:

Break down big projects into smaller chunks and assign a deadline for each chunk; this way, it won’t seem so overwhelming when working toward one overall goal.

Make sure there’s an actual reward at stake if you fail (or something unpleasant will happen), such as losing money from missed workdays due to illness caused by stress caused by neglecting your schedule! This might be harder than it sounds–in my experience, though, I found making up imaginary consequences tended not to work nearly as well as real ones did.

3. You Need To Know How To Provide Great Customer Service

This might seem obvious, but you should know how to provide great customer service. This is especially true if you’re going to be handling support inquiries on behalf of your clients. If it is not something that comes naturally or easily for you, then you may want to work with a partner who can handle the “people” side of things for your business.

Good customer service skills include being polite and courteous, having an outgoing personality and willingness to help others, and demonstrating empathy towards customers when they are frustrated or upset. It also includes basic troubleshooting skills like being able to follow a logical process for finding the solution to a problem and updating customers throughout the process.

Excellent customer service can make all the difference between success and failure in any business and it’s especially important as a freelancer who works from home because there’s no office environment full of coworkers around you to serve as an example or mentor for how to behave on the phone or via email with customers.

Good customer service will help ensure that your clients receive great value from doing business with you which increases the chances that they will repeat business with your company in the future (or refer their friends).

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4. You Need To Know What The Client Is Looking For

You have to understand the client’s needs and expectations. To do that, start by asking your clients questions. By doing so, you will get information about what they want from you as a freelancer.

These are some of the things you should know about your client:

What does the customer want in terms of the product? Do they need an app for their business or a website? Ask them to give you more details about it. This way, you’ll be able to deliver what they need.

What does the customer want in terms of the process? How do they expect you to work with them? Do they want regular progress reports? Or would they prefer not to be disturbed until their project is done? Before starting any work on your project, find out how your client wants things done so everyone will be satisfied at the end of every phase.

What does the customer expect from you in terms of relationship management? Is there someone else who is handling all communications on behalf of the company or do they just rely on emails and phone calls when it comes to communication with freelancers like yourself? Find out who is authorized to make decisions and ask questions so that there won’t be any miscommunication later on.

What does this customer really think about working with freelancers (if this is his first time)? The answer may surprise us — but it can also help us learn how we can serve future customers better!

For example: if he has had bad experiences before hiring someone like me then I know what not to do as well as where my strengths lie compared with others’ weaknesses so that I always stay ahead in every way possible no matter how small those differences may seem initially 🙂

This might seem like common sense but trust me – sometimes even simple things like these might slip through cracks because there isn’t enough emphasis placed upon them until later stages where issues crop up unexpectedly which could have been easily avoided beforehand if only proper attention had

5. You Can’t Be Everything To Everybody

Many entrepreneurs, especially newer ones, feel like they need to be willing to do anything and everything for a customer. After all, surely it’s better to have some work than none at all! But in fact, it’s often worth saying no. The reason is simple: if you try to be everything to everyone, you can end up being very little to anyone. Not only will this make your business more inefficient in the long run, but your expertise and reputation could also begin to suffer.

Instead of trying to be everything, focus on what makes you good at what you do. If there’s something that a customer wants that isn’t in your wheelhouse whether it’s another service or an entirely different market then don’t try and force yourself into it.

This can become even more common as businesses grow; if you add partners or employees with varying areas of expertise, it can become tempting for one person or department (like customer service) to start providing services outside of their realm of knowledge just because they are available resources who aren’t busy doing other things (a recipe for disaster!).

If a client asks for something outside of your expertise, either find someone else who has the skill set required or outsource that work temporarily. Say no if necessary; you’ll thank yourself later when your customers continue coming back and referring to new ones because they know that the quality of their interactions with your company is high enough not only to meet but exceed their expectations!

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6. You Don’t Need To Be A Master At Everything

As we move deeper into the 21st century, the idea that you need to be a master of everything is gradually fading away. In fact, with so many options and opportunities available to us, it’s now more likely that people will be able to find success by zeroing in on what they do best.

Whether you’re a jack of all trades or a specialist, there are plenty of benefits and drawbacks to each type of learner. Whatever your learning style may be, though, it’s important to know when you can reasonably handle something yourself and when it’s better for you (and for your business) to seek help from someone else.

For example: If you’re not particularly tech-savvy but decide to handle your own website development anyway because “it’ll save money,” then you might end up spending more than if you’d hired a professional web developer in the first place because that person would have finished the job faster, rather than taking valuable time out of your day as you try to learn to code on the fly.

This isn’t due to any fault in your abilities; without sufficient training or background knowledge in software development and design principles (which take years or decades of concentrated practice), no one could expect themselves to produce a good website overnight!

So remember: It’s okay not to know how every little thing works. When it comes down to crunch time, don’t sweat when things aren’t working out as planned you can always find someone who knows what they’re doing just as well as you do!

7. Your Past Clients Are And Will Continue To Be Your Greatest Assets

You may know that your past customers are a great source of new business, but you might not be doing enough to make the most out of that asset. This is a key opportunity: according to the Small Business Administration (SBA), some 70% of small businesses like many freelancers–get their customers from referrals.

Asking for referrals can feel awkward, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Here are some tips on how you can ask for referrals without feeling pushy or sales.

Past clients are the easiest people to get in contact with and get feedback from, because they will likely have had a good experience with you and therefore be more likely to respond favorably when contacted.
They’re also more likely than any other person to buy again from you, as long as your work was satisfactory.
The best thing about asking past clients for referrals is that if you did your job well, they’ll already want their friends and professional acquaintances to know about you so they can recommend your services too.

8. Your Service Or Product Is Your Baby, And You Know It Better Than Anyone

Your service or product is your baby, and you know it better than anyone but take the feedback from customers and use it to improve. A great review will give you a big ego boost; a bad review can put you in a terrible mood. But remember: reviews are all about your customer’s experience. Take the time to digest any feedback they give you, even if it’s negative.

Customer feedback is an opportunity for growth and expansion that’ll help you learn more about what people think of your business, how they experience it, and how you can always make it better. And if someone has had a bad experience with your business, don’t think of this as a one-star rating on Yelp; consider this an opportunity to change their mind.

You want all of your customers to be delighted by the value they receive from working with your small business and knowing what’s working (and where things could be improved) helps get them there.

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9. You’re Going To Make Mistakes, And That’s Okay

There’s a quote by Henry Ford that goes, “Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.” In your freelance custom service business (and in life), you’ll experience setbacks. You’ll make mistakes. You’ll get frustrated and self-doubt may creep into your thoughts.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that failure is a part of growing as a person, and as a business owner. If you’re experiencing failure, that doesn’t mean everything is lost: instead, it might indicate that there are things you need to learn before moving forward.

After all, some of the most successful people today have gone through failures before reaching their successes: Walt Disney was fired from his job at a newspaper because he “lacked imagination” and had no good ideas; Oprah Winfrey was publicly fired from her first television job; Steve Jobs was fired from Apple yes, the company he founded!

Even when they were succeeding at one thing, these people learned many things from their failures along the way. This knowledge will help you consider how to improve your business and press on with new solutions for success!

10. You Need To Be Able To Acknowledge When Something Isn’t Working

Whether it’s a problem with your product or service, your marketing strategy, the way you handle customers and clients, or the way you deal with success or failure in your business, it is up to you to be able to identify the issue before it gets out of hand. Then, find out why it’s happening and make any necessary changes. It’s your job as a business owner to spot problems as they crop up and then solve them.

It helps if you can be honest enough with yourself to know when something isn’t working even if that means being wrong about something that you thought was a good idea. The sooner you can address a malfunctioning part of your business, the less time and money (yours or those of others) will be wasted on trying to fix it when things have gotten completely out of control.

The longer something goes on without any attention paid to fixing it, the more damage will continue happening until there’s nothing left of what was once a good idea.

11. You’ll Probably Work Harder Than You Ever Have Before In Your Life

You’re probably thinking, “I can handle anything, I’m a go-getter!” That’s awesome, but this isn’t just a chance to show off your work ethic. You’ll be working for yourself and your customers. You’ll be working for your employees and contractors. You’ll be working for your business so that it can grow. And you’ll be working for your family and future family members (if those aren’t one and the same).

It’s not just about taking pride in what you do. It’s about being on the cutting edge of what you do and making sure that never stops by doing anything you possibly can to improve your performance. The costs of failure are simply too high when everything is on the line.

12. You Can’t Give Up Control, But You Can Delegate

Every business owner faces the same problem: There’s more to do in one day than there is time for. As a result, priorities have to be set and tasks have to be delegated. But as a business owner, you don’t have the option of not doing things yourself; your name is on the line with every project that goes out the door.

It may feel like you’re forced to choose between wearing too many hats and not wearing enough, but don’t panic! Here are some concepts to get you started with delegation without giving up control:

Effective Delegation: You need people who both trust and respect you in order to delegate effectively. While it may seem counterintuitive, this requires letting go of some measure of control over every task you assign and also accepting that things won’t always go exactly according to plan.

The right employee will not only do an excellent job but will also want your approval and respect when they complete the project (or tell them what needs to be changed). If someone doesn’t feel that their work was valued or respected by the end, it can feel like a slap in their face and may even lead them straight into your competitor’s arms!

What To Delegate: When deciding which tasks should be yours and which should belong to employees or freelancers, ask yourself if certain projects are repetitive or easily-learned processes that could be assigned at a reasonable pay rate.

Tasks such as researching keywords for backlinking or sending outbound emails are great examples of projects that can easily be delegated without sacrificing quality by training other people on how to do them correctly. A win/win situation!

When Not To Delegate: Of course, no matter how well someone else does their work on your behalf, there are still instances where only you can get involved. Projects like communicating with current customers or new clients-to-be require both expertise and personal touch; handling these

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13. Everything Is A Lesson Learned, Good Or Bad

No matter how things turn out, it’s a great idea to look back on every experience and ask yourself what you can learn from it.

Let’s say that you’re dealing with a client who seems unhappy or upset about your work. It may be tempting to write this off as a bad experience and move on, but if you ask yourself what happened and why it could provide an opportunity for growth. Giving an honest assessment of the situation can help you see where your weaknesses are and by recognizing them, you’ll have the chance to improve upon them in the future.

You may be receiving negative feedback even if the client isn’t telling you directly. For example, if they’re asking for more revisions than usual, or if they’ve requested another freelancer to work on their project instead of you, it can indicate problems with communication or quality control. By acknowledging these red flags and working to improve your approach before taking on new projects, you’ll give yourself a better chance at success later on.

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading this blog on how to run a freelance customer service business. I’m a big fan of writing and sharing my knowledge with others, and I hope my advice and tips were helpful, but don’t worry if there’s still more you’d like to learn about starting your own business!

There are many resources out there to help, including blogs from people just like me who are pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and making their own way in the world. So go out there, learn some new things, and good luck!

13 Things You Still Need To Learn About Your Freelance Customer Service Business