For a new freelancer in the online job market or who just signed up on the best online work platforms, having repeat freelance clients is crucial to ensure the sustainability of your online work business. With repeat freelance clients, you are able to scale your business faster, grow your earnings faster, while putting in minimal effort. Doing that ensures you a consistent expected income that allows you to make better freelancing decisions, such as making new investments, hiring someone to join your team, etc. 

Interestingly, the majority of new online freelancers do not think about repeat freelance clients when they get started. In fact, the focus is on landing that first client, and once it’s done, finding another… and the next one… and the list goes on. No matter what your reasons to work online are, you need to think about sustainability and longevity. The beautiful truth is, from the time you land your first online job, you can turn that client into a repeat freelance client if you know how to approach it from the get go. And contrary to the popular false beliefs that people have about working online, the majority of online clients do not want to hire new freelancers all the time. Working with the same freelancer who is used to producing excellent work helps clients save time, cost and energy, and gives them the results that they want. 

With that being established, you want repeated freelance clients, and clients want to work with a repeated freelancer – so, how do we ensure that you are THE ONE for them? 

In this article, I will show you the key aspects of your client-freelancer relationships you should focus on to turn your existing clients into repeated buyers, and I will share my best, easy to implement tips for each category!

It all starts with…

Communication

Tip 1: Clarify and erase all doubts before starting 

The first week of your new relationship with your online client is the most critical: this is where you set the standards, the boundaries and expectations of how your freelance project is going to go. During that week, it is wise to go over the details of the project and clarify any area of doubt that you have, to ensure that you get the full idea of what the client wants to achieve and pinpoint what is the most important thing to them.

This will help you score bonus points by: showing that you are professional, you want to understand the breadth of the project and you actually care about the outcome (and not just the money). 

Tip 2: Communicate effectively throughout the project

While working with the client, you need to let them know how the project is going. Even if the client does not request updates, be proactive and share your progress. You can also ask them for insight and advice at this point, to make sure that you are on the same page. 

This will help you score bonus points by: showing the client that they don’t need to chase after you to get updates, and make them secure in knowing that if you encounter a roadblock, you will reach out to them. And in the long run, it will make them “unconsciously” feel like if you’re not reaching out, things are most likely going well.  

Tip 3: Update clients of potential delays

Online clients care a lot about delivery and deadlines. And for freelancers, missing a deadline can be scary. Worst than that, is not communicating about an impending missed deadline. A client will respect you more if you let them know that you anticipate a missed deadline, and tell them how you are planning to catch up and rectify it. Communication is critical to building and maintaining client relationships, and effective communication can even smoothe the blow of bad news. 

This will help you score bonus points by: showing clients that you are still an effective communicator even when things don’t go so well, and showing that you can take accountability for all your actions. 

Delivery of promises

Tip 4: Set up milestones and delivery checkpoints

For medium to large projects, I love working with project milestones because they help set a timeline of what a client should expect and when they should expect it. Creating milestones gives a client more clarity and peace of mind, because they know when to expect an update from you. Without milestones or checkpoints, your client might be constantly wondering about how the project is going, whether or not you will be able to deliver, etc. The worst thing you can allow is for a client to doubt your ability and capacity to deliver, and setting milestones and deliverables is a way to avoid that. 

This will help you score bonus points by: showing that you are professional, capable of respecting deadlines, and proactive in your work.

Tip 5: Aim at delivering 3-5 days prior to the deadline 

When I set up milestones and deadlines, I generally like to allocate 50%  more time to the timeline it would take to complete a project. This gives me ample buffer time to play with and work with in the event that I have an unforeseeable delay. And if I end up finishing the work before the timeline, then it gives the client more time to review it. 

This will help you score bonus points by: giving the client the impression that you are working faster, and keep you in mind for more urgent projects (which you charge more for!)

Tip 6: Give client enough time for review your work and provide feedback

In addition to the buffer time that you add to the project timeline, you also want to give the client more time to review your work. For instance, if a project deadline is 3 weeks from now, you can take one week to complete the project, 4-7 days as your buffer time, and one week for the client to review, share his feedback and allow you to make edits before your final delivery. 

This will help you score bonus points by: giving the client the impression that you act on feedback readily and are able to implement changes quickly. 

Tip 7: Underpromise, overdeliver! 

The old saying holds true, no matter the industry in which you are in! Think about creative ways in which you can go the extra mile for your client! Is it an additional logo/design? 1 more page of content for the article they asked you to create? 5 additional social media captions even if they only paid you for 10?

This will help you score bonus points by: showing that you care about the client’s satisfaction and want to continue the business relationship.

Feedback 

Tip 8: Inform the client that you will be requesting feedback when you start the project

A lot of freelancers are afraid of asking for feedback and leave it to chance only, because society has given “asking for feedback” a negative connotation and an opportunity for unwanted criticism. However, in the world of remote jobs and online work, asking for feedback is critical to your progress as a freelancer and a brand. You need to know what clients love about your work, so that you can do more of it. Similarly, you need to know what areas of your work you need to improve! To avoid the awkwardness of the feedback process, I usually tell my clients at the beginning that I would love to get their feedback on our collaborative project once we conclude it. 

This will help you score bonus points by: showing that you care about the quality of your work, you are not afraid of corrections (if they are needed), and you care about the opinion and satisfaction of your clients! 

Tip 9: Get the clients’ insights at the halfway mark

Although you are going to ask for feedback at the end of the project, I highly recommend asking feedback half way through the project, and here is why: the feedback that you are getting at the end is going to be useful for landing new clients, but the feedback that you are getting halfway is going to be useful for keeping this client! When you ask for feedback halfway, it actually gives you time to improve while you are still working with the client, and boosts your odds of getting positive feedback at the end even if things did not start off well. Moreover, it shows the client that you have a certain level of emotional and professional intelligence that most freelancers (new or old) don’t have…  And you’re welcome. I’m here to give you all the tips that you need to shine, land and keep all the clients you want!

This will help you score bonus points by: showing that you are proactive, dynamic and you really want the project to succeed. 

And any client would love that.

 Tip 10: Request specific feedback at the end of the project

As expected, ask the client for feedback on the project: what they liked working with you, and what they think you can improve. Asking for feedback can be hard because we often confuse people’s opinion of our work with their opinion of us. So, don’t do that. If a client shares positive feedback, use it to feed your ego and feel yourself! But if the feedback is not as good as you expect, don’t take it personal and use it as a way to improve. 

There you have it! I have personally used these 10 tips, and have taught them to 200+ students. Now it’s your turn to have them. I have no doubt that when used correctly, they can help you turn any client contract into a potential long term professional relationship.