If you’re a freelancer, chances are you spend your days making things for clients. That can be a rewarding experience, but it’s also important to remember that your clients are paying you and therefore have every right to expect certain levels of service and professionalism.
The problem with many freelancers is that they forget this simple fact, and proceed to treat their clients like dirt. This isn’t ideal: your client provides money in exchange for services rendered (or products sold), so you should make sure that everything goes smoothly from beginning to end. But how can we do this without coming off as insincere jerks?
| Takeaways |
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| 1. Emphasize Active Listening: Listen attentively to your clients’ feedback, showing genuine interest in their thoughts and concerns. This fosters trust and ensures you understand their needs better. |
| 2. Show Appreciation: Express gratitude for the feedback received, demonstrating that you value your clients’ input. A simple “thank you” can go a long way in building positive relationships. |
| 3. Ask for Specific Feedback: Request specific and actionable feedback to gain valuable insights that can help you improve your services or products effectively. |
| 4. Be Open to Criticism: Avoid being defensive when receiving negative feedback. Instead, view it as an opportunity for growth and learning. Respond with grace and professionalism. |
| 5. Implement Feedback Wisely: Utilize the feedback you receive to make meaningful improvements. Let your clients know how their feedback has influenced positive changes in your offerings. |
| 6. Follow Up and Follow Through: Keep your clients informed about the actions you’ve taken based on their feedback. This demonstrates your commitment to their satisfaction and builds trust. |
| 7. Maintain Consistency: Continuously seek feedback to gauge client satisfaction and maintain an open channel for communication. Consistency in seeking feedback shows your dedication to improvement. |
| 8. Personalize Your Approach: Tailor your feedback requests to each client, making them feel valued as individuals. Personalization enhances the authenticity of your interactions. |
| 9. Be Professional and Courteous: Maintain a respectful tone and language throughout the feedback process. Professionalism ensures you come across as sincere and considerate of your clients’ opinions. |
| 10. Leverage Feedback for Growth: Embrace client feedback as an essential tool for growth and success. Use it as a catalyst to evolve your business and enhance the value you provide to your clients. |
1. Try To Create A History Of Trust-Building Before You Ask For Feedback
You need to build trust before your client will be willing to give you honest feedback. This may seem obvious, but a lot of people forget that trust is built over time. You can’t expect your clients to tell you the truth about how they feel about something after working with them for just one meeting or email exchange. It’s not going to happen!
Your job is quite easy: just keep being reliable, responsive, and honest with your clients.
- Be on time for meetings (and don’t cancel them!)
- Communicate clearly throughout the process and respond quickly when there’s an issue or question that needs addressing
- Tell the truth even if it’s not what the client wants to hear
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2. Ask For Feedback Often
One of the most important things you can do as a designer is to ask for feedback often. Not just once at the beginning of a project when you’re pitching a concept and at the end when everything’s done. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been working nonstop on something for months, or even years you should still be asking your client how they feel about it all along the way!
Don’t wait until:
- The project is finished; this is when you’ll get super-critical feedback because it’s too late now with nothing left to change
- Your client brings up an issue; their lack of communication may mean they don’t want to upset your ego by saying something negative
- They complain that something isn’t what they wanted; this might make them feel bad if they know how much time has already gone into making whatever needs fixing
3. Get The Conversation Started By Asking A Specific Question
Ask a question that will get good responses. Asking a vague question won’t get you anywhere. Instead, be specific about what you want to know: “How did the meeting go?” or “What was your favorite part of our session?” are both bad questions because they can receive confusing or incomplete answers.
Try something more like, “What were two things that were most helpful for you today?” or “Is there anything I could have done differently so that we didn’t run out of time?”
Ask more than one question at once if necessary. If it’s hard for your client to answer all three of these questions at once, don’t be afraid to ask them separately. You may find that your client has more insight into one area than another and would rather spend their time talking about it alone instead!
For example: ‘So based on what we’ve talked about today so far, what do you think would make this process easier/better?’
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4. Make Sure You’re Making It Easy For Clients To Give Feedback
There are a few things you can do to make it easy for clients to give you feedback. The first is to make yourself available, both in person and by phone. If they have questions about the project or would like clarification on anything, let them know that you’ll be there for them whenever they need it. Being responsive will also show that you value their opinions and concerns as well as your work product.
The second step toward making sure your client feels comfortable giving feedback is being clear about what you’re asking from them. Are you asking if they’ve seen the work? Are there any changes they want to be made? What’s working well?
This may sound obvious but if a client isn’t aware of what type of feedback or information is expected from them during this process (and after working with me), chances are good that their response will be less than helpful and might even come off as passive-aggressive!
Thirdly, make sure that when asking for feedback from clients, give them only one question at a time unless otherwise requested by your client (or if they ask another question while answering yours). This way nothing gets lost along the way and everyone ends up more informed than before: including yourself!
5. Create A More Positive Atmosphere For The Conversation
You can also create a more positive atmosphere for feedback by delivering some positive feedback as well. For example, you could praise your client’s work on a past project or ask them for their input on an issue that’s currently facing your business.
Explaining that you value their input and want to know how you can improve will go a long way in making them feel like their opinion matters.
6. Find A Way To Encourage Them To Open Up About What Isn’t Working So Well
It’s okay to tell them that you need their feedback, too. Even if they don’t feel comfortable giving it, let your client know that you want their input to make sure they are getting what they need from your services and that you will keep them in mind as you work on improving the experience.
For example: “We only have time for one more round of edits today before we submit these drafts to our client team. I was hoping we could go over anything else here or there where I could provide more support? Or maybe even some ideas about areas where our writing isn’t quite hitting the mark yet?”. Be specific and open about what isn’t working for you.
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7. Tell Clients That You Won’t Take It Personally If They Have Negative Feedback
You should never take criticism personally, no matter how harshly it’s delivered. That said, your clients may be hesitant to share negative feedback with you because they worry that it will make you feel bad or hurt your feelings.
If a client has this concern, let them know that honesty is important for an effective working relationship and reassure them that as long as their comments are constructive and respectful of your time and energy, you don’t mind hearing them.
Make sure to ask for as much detail about the situation as possible: Where did the problem occur? What went wrong? What could have been done differently? What actions would fix the issue in the future?
By using open-ended questions like these instead of closed ones like “Was everything great?” or “What can I do better next time?”, clients will feel more comfortable sharing their honest opinions without feeling like they’re being interrogated by a robot (which might cause them to clam up).
8. Assure Them That You’ll Take The Time To Reflect On Their Feedback
If you want to be a better consultant, you must take the time to reflect on what your clients are saying and make changes based on their feedback.
Don’t forget that clients will be more likely to continue being clients if they feel like they can trust you. If they feel like their opinions matter and that they’re being heard, it’ll help them trust you even more!
9. Make Sure You’re Taking Notes So That You Can Refer Back To Their Comments Later
Take notes of what the client says. You want to keep track of feedback so that you can refer back to it later, and also so that you don’t forget something important. It happens!
Review your notes for lessons learned or ways your performance could improve in the future. I’m a big fan of post-mortems (especially after meetings or presentations) because they help me reflect on what went well and what didn’t go as planned, which makes it easier for me to improve my skills in the future.
Set aside some time at least once per week (ideally on an evening) where you brainstorm ways that this meeting might have gone differently if certain things had been in place beforehand (more time spent preparing; more people involved; etc.). This way when something similar comes up again and I’m sure something will happen, you’ll have an action plan ready to go!
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10. Give Them An Action Plan For How They Can Help You Improve In The Future
One of the best ways to get feedback without coming off as an insincere jerk is to give your clients something they can do to help you improve. Don’t just tell them they did a good job, give them specific action plans that will allow them to see how their input has made a difference.
For example, if your client is unhappy with their website, ask them what could be improved and provide a list of suggestions for how you are going to improve it in the future. Then follow up with regular updates on your progress so that they can see how their feedback has made a difference!
11. Keep In Touch Regularly So They Don’t Feel Like They Were Heard, But Then Forgotten About
You can keep in touch regularly so they don’t feel like they were heard and then forgotten about. You could schedule regular meetings with clients, or send them a newsletter every month or two.
You could call them on the phone (I’ve done this to clients who are in different cities), send handwritten notes, or even surprise them with little gifts like stickers or a gift card to their favorite coffee shop (bonus points if you walk into their local shop). This person has given you their time and attention and now it’s your turn to give back.
12. Send A Summary Of What has been Discussed After Your Meeting Is Over
Send a summary of what was discussed after your meeting is over, just to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything important or missed any subtle cues. If multiple topics came up, it can be useful to include a timeline for actionable items and also include a note at the end of the email thanking them for their time.
Try to find a creative way to incorporate their feedback into your next meeting. For example: “I noticed that you mentioned that we need more structure in our marketing plan; I’m going to create an outline with specific goals and deadlines.”
13. Deliver On Your Promise To Use Their Feedback To Improve Yourself
Thank them; Without your clients, you wouldn’t have a business. Make sure they know you appreciate them by thanking them for their feedback and letting them know how you’re using it to improve yourself and your services. If they think that their opinion matters to you, they will be more likely to offer it in the future!
Suggest further improvements; It’s all well and good to say “Thank you!” but if your customer doesn’t feel like they are making a difference or helping their favorite service provider improve then there is no point in asking for feedback in the first place.
So once you have thanked your customer for their time and input, don’t just leave it at that; suggest what else could be improved upon in future iterations of the product or service so that everyone wins at this collaborative game of mutual improvement.
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Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for feedback, it’s important to keep in mind that the more often you ask for it, the more likely you are to receive quality feedback. If someone tells me they don’t have time for feedback or aren’t interested in helping other people improve their work, I can see why they would feel this way and respect their decision. But if someone says no because they want to avoid confrontation at all costs, I think that’s something worth changing.
If there is one thing that I’ve learned from talking with hundreds of designers over the years about how they ask for client feedback (and how they don’t), it’s this: there are no right ways or wrong ways to do things, it just depends on your personality type and what works best for you!
Since everyone has their unique style when asking clients questions about their experiences working together and how we might improve going forward (or even just our business practices generally), what works well for one person may not work as well for another person doing the same job functions under similar circumstances… but hopefully, this article has given some helpful tips regardless.
Further Reading
Negative Feedback: How to Handle It Positively: Learn strategies to deal with negative feedback constructively and turn it into an opportunity for growth.
The Power of Customer Feedback: Discover the importance of gathering customer feedback and how it can improve your business’s success.
Constructive Feedback: Building a Culture of Growth: Explore the significance of constructive feedback in fostering a culture of continuous improvement within organizations.
People Also Ask
What If I Just Ask My Clients For Feedback?
You could, and they might give it to you, but they’re probably not going to be as invested in your business as you are. You need them to be invested in your business and have a stake in it, otherwise, they won’t care about the results or the outcome.
How Can I Make My Clients Feel Like They Have A Stake In My Business?
The best way is to offer them something that makes their lives easier. If you’re an accountant, maybe offer them online tax filing or home accounting software so that it’s easier for them to do their taxes on their own time, rather than having to wait for you all year long.
If you sell pet food, maybe offer free delivery and pick-up services so that your customers don’t have to worry about finding parking at the store or lugging bags of dog food home on public transportation.
Is There Another Way?
Yes! You can also offer them something that gives them bragging rights, something that makes them want to tell all their friends about how awesome it is working with you (and hopefully get new clients from those referrals). Maybe give away free product samples or coupons for the next time they shop at your store.
How Do I Get Client Feedback?
You can ask your clients directly. Or, if you’re not comfortable with that yet, try sending them surveys or email templates. You can also set up automated emails to send at specific times of the day or week, for example, an email asking “How did my service perform?” every Monday at 9 AM.
What’s The Difference Between Asking Clients For Feedback And Setting Up Automated Emails?
Automated emails are great because they allow you to ask specific questions without having to worry about what those questions will be each time and they’ll make sure that your clients see your message on time every time. But some people don’t like being asked for feedback via email; others find it impersonal and prefer a more personal approach instead. So if one doesn’t work for you, try the other!
I am a content writer, and I love what I do! Writing makes me feel like the words are flowing through my fingers, and then onto the keyboard, like magic. My experience as a writer has taught me that writing makes me feel good, as well as helps others to feel better too!