Give Clients Time to Respond
Every freelance writing client is different. Some of them will be on top of things at all times, and others will be a bit lazier with their work. No matter what, you should be ready to deal with any situation that you face. It is important that you give clients time to respond to your inquiry. This holds true when waiting for a reply after sending a completed project, after asking a question, etc. Remember, not every client is sitting at their computer all day long.
There are times when you may need to give a client a bit of a nudge in order to receive a reply. For instance, if you usually hear back after a day or so and a client has been gone for a week, it is time to find out why. There is nothing wrong with sending another email to get to the bottom of the problem. In many cases your client may have missed your note for one reason or the next, or has been out of the office. Never jump to conclusions and assume that your client is avoiding you; this is probably not the case.
If you really need to speak with a freelance writing client and they are not responding to your email, there is nothing wrong with picking up the phone. I strongly believe in phone communication, even though many freelance writers disagree with me. In my opinion, calling somebody is quicker and more efficient than an email. That being said, I only use this option when I have to.
All in all, be courteous and give clients enough time to respond to your emails. Some will be quick, some will be slow, and some will be in between. Dealing with every type of client is part of being a freelance writer.
March 18th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Timely topic Chris! I’m not sure why, but I’ve been seeing loads of folks chatting about clients taking a while to respond lately. Maybe we’re getting into Spring fever mode or something. I try not to worry about it. In most cases they pay up front, so I’m not really waiting on anything. I only get anxious if we have deadlines for things on there end that would cause me to miss the deadlines on my end. That’s when I do most of my nudging.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I think there was a time when people preferred e-mail, but I get the feeling that’s changing.
With the hundreds of e-mails we get every day, sometimes it’s easier (for clients and for us) to just pick up the phone. And people do.
A lot of people wait far too long to call their client when things go wrong or to get clarifications and that usually causes more delays.
The phone is your friend!