25

May

5 Types of Clients and How to Handle Them

As your career with freelancing progresses, you will come across a few types of clients and you will have to learn how to deal with them. I have outlined them below.

The Critic

This one is never happy with anything you write. This customer wants constant rewrites, edits, and drafts. After the first few rounds, try to ask more specific questions as well as asking them to describe what they want to you. This may not totally alleviate the problem but it should be reduced.

The Vague One

With freelancing, if a customer is vague, this tends to make me feel I have poetic license, but that is not usually the case. If you receive vague instructions, ask the client things like, what they want to portray,any  keywords to be applied , tone of the writing etc. If you guide them along, they will be able to tell you more precisely what they want.

The Editor- Client

This client sounds like a bad one, but is actually a blessing in disguise. If the client offers you positive editing advice that helps you improve your writing, try to utilize this client as much as you can! They care about your writing and want to help you improve, the best advice I have for this type of client is to take their advice.

The No-show

This client gives you the assignment and you never hear anything again. You may receive payment and you may not. The best advice I can provide is if you receive payment and hear nothing else, move one. The same goes if you haven’t received a response after several tries.

The Perfect Client

This is the client that gives clear instructions, tells you when they want the piece, will help you edit and is available for questions or advice. We don’t always get this client, but plenty of them exist.

As you continue freelancing, you will be able to suss out what type of clients you have and how to deal with them.

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