How to Create a Great Client Experience as a Freelancer

Before becoming a SEO content writer and strategist, I spent 7 years as an account manager in our internal agency at my 9-5.

My team’s job was to make our brand partners happy—better yet, over-the-moon satisfied.

As an internal agency, we had a fun and creative vibe. The benefit was that we didn’t have to pitch for new business constantly. Our clients were the brands at the company where I worked. And they preferred us to the outside agencies when it came to understanding the business, knowing the legal limitations, and still delivering on the creative expectation for what was needed.

Now that I am building my own business, my time on the account side taught me valuable lessons about creating a great client experience that I still use today. You don’t just want to deliver high-quality work; you want to impress your clients.

Here are 7 different things impacting the customer journey you should pay attention to with your clients.

Table of Contents:

Make It All About Your Client!

Customer satisfaction can’t ever take a backseat. If it does, you risk losing the business. And, of course, you can’t afford to do that if you want to succeed as a freelancer.

It’s important to understand…

Immediate client needs
Client Goals
Client expectations
Communication preferences

These four items help you keep a pulse on what your client needs now for immediate satisfaction and what you should be looking into further to help them grow their business. It’s also about understanding how they best want to communicate. (For example, I have had some clients who prefer using Slack vs. email.)

Ask enough questions to understand the “why” behind their request for certain services. This is where you can use your strategic thinking skills to provide recommendations highlighting your expertise and experience in your field, whether that’s copywriting, SEO, design, etc.

Be helpful and show a sense of urgency. Your client must know you’ve heard and understood them and are moving swiftly to execute what is needed.

Develop a Genuine Relationship

This means going beyond talking ONLY about the work. You’re human, after all. You have a life outside of what you do. And so does your client!

Ask them questions. (People love talking about themselves.)

Are they parents?
Are they into DIY projects?
Do they love the beach or the mountains?

If you want to improve your time together, get to know them. Find ways to relate and connect.

Most of the time, you meet cool people or quickly understand whether a collaboration will be mutually beneficial.

You’ve heard the phrase, “People buy from people.” Well, it’s true.

People also enjoy the experience of working together more when they have other interests, hobbies, or experiences they can bond over.

Be Proactive with Recommendations

Don’t wait to be helpful.

From a client’s perspective, they don’t want to tell you what to do next. Instead, beat your client to the punch and come to them first with opportunities to help them meet their goals.

This goes back to my first point – making it all about your client.

You have to ask questions upfront to understand…

What are their immediate needs?
Where do they want to be in 30 days?
And where do they want to be by the end of 6 months?

This way, you understand clearly what’s expected of you, and as a result, you can proactively provide insights and resources that prompt the right action.

And don’t be afraid to revisit these questions as you continue to work with them. Goals can change course, or sometimes, you need to pivot.

Overcommunicate

This is said on repeat, but I guarantee it’s not done consistently. (I’m guilty of it as well.)

Don’t shy away from overcommunicating. This means repeating your message more than once or going into more detail about your work or processes.

But here’s what happens…

You get busy. Life happens. And you realize it’s time to check in.

That’s why a best practice to bake into your schedule is always sending a Monday or Friday project recap email. Depending on the client, I sometimes do both.

Sending an email on Monday lets the client see your focus for the week (and if they need you to alter it slightly).

Friday leaves them with a good feeling of what you accomplished, and you can even give a heads-up on what you will be starting on Monday morning.

This gets your name in their inbox in both cases (especially if you don’t have weekly meetings).

Always Provide Value

Clients hired you because…

A. They didn’t have expertise in the area…or

B. They didn’t have time to do the job themself

(And likely both A & B.)

So don’t let them reach a point where working with you becomes difficult, or the value doesn’t seem clear anymore.

I know a friend who’s a co-owner of a SEO agency, and he said they regularly send their clients reports on their SEO performance every month.

So I asked him, “Do your clients always look at these reports and understand what they mean?”

He responded, “Whether they read them or not, we want to consistently show them what we’re doing and be transparent about their online performance. What we don’t want them to do is guess what their investment is getting them. If they have questions, we always tell them to reach out for a conversation.”

You want to overdeliver when you can and do it consistently.

Set Clear Expectations

With your clients, you want to set clear expectations around your processes, including scope, deadlines, and work style.

It’s all about your client, but it’s important to realize when it’s not a good fit, and it’s in your best interest to move on.

The best client relationships are based on a foundation of mutual respect.

Set deadlines and be transparent when you need more time and why. Know your boundaries, communicate those boundaries clearly, and hold your client accountable.

If you don’t work on Fridays let them know. If you aren’t available for calls after 3 p.m. because you have your kids, don’t shy away from sharing that. As a freelancer, you get the pleasure of designing your work week the way you want.

Be open about how you want to work together, and don’t be afraid to remind your clients occasionally if necessary.

Ask for Feedback

You don’t improve the client experience if you never collect feedback on how you’re doing.

Sure, it can feel uncomfortable.

But I find it helps if you reframe your mindset from the perspective that you’re a bad partner if you DON’T ask for feedback.

Why would that be the case?

Because not asking could potentially be perceived as not caring. And you want your level of service to be differentiated from others. Feedback is a crucial part of that process and maintaining a client experience edge.

You never know how you’re doing if you ignore being direct with your client and asking.

Assuming isn’t the same thing as knowing.

Help yourself and your working relationship by proactively asking for feedback about how you’re doing.

Create a Customer Experience Tough to Forget

A quote from Maya Angelou has stuck with me for years.

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Of course, creating quality work matters. You can’t deliver sub-par work and expect clients to work with you for long periods.

But when you’re creating an experience for them to remember, it comes back to how you made them feel in the process. That is what they will recall most when looking back.

Years later, they could be talking to a friend needing similar services. Who do you think they’ll mention? They’ll recommend the person they enjoyed working with the most.

Make the experience about your client
Develop a genuine relationship
Be proactive with recommendations
Overcommunicate
Always provide value
Set clear expectations
Ask for feedback

These 7 things will help you create a client experience that is tough to forget.