The Ultimate Work-At-Home Nightmare: Losing a Client
I had landed a new client---and I anticipated a long-term steady stream of income. The timing was perfect; I was in a situation when a another income stream was much needed. The work was not really that hard, but it was demanding in terms of the time turn-around that the client required. My client, Susan (not her real name), needed quality work done, completed by pre-set and quite rigid deadlines, and she emphasized that I had to follow her very specific guidelines for the work that I was to perform. She was very clear about her demands, right up front, and I believed that I was up to the task. I took on the job and was looking forward to a long working relationship with Susan.
Sadly, that was not the case.
How It All Went Wrong
I learned very quickly that I was not prepared for either the quantity of work that would be delivered or how hard it was going to be to adhere to Susan’s inflexible deadlines. I had asked for a sample of the type of work that I was going to be doing, and Susan did, indeed, send a sample of the text documents that I was to proofread. I reviewed it and, prior to actually working on a “live job,” felt confident that I could do the work.
When Susan sent the first job, however, I was shocked at length of the job (in total number of pages). The sample that she’d given me prior to sending the first job was fairly short, and I made a very novice mistake: I assumed that all of the work would be of similar length and degree of difficulty. I never asked if the sample was representative of the actual jobs she’d been sending. It is a question that I have since learned to ask.
Lesson #1: Always ask if the sample is really what the actual work will be like, in length, degree of difficulty, and any other job-specific parameters.
For that first job, due the next day, I was still working past midnight, bleary-eyed and brain-numbed. I kept telling myself that I’d get over the “hump” of the extra time it was taking me to acclimate to and assimilate the seemingly endless guidelines for the job. The next job has to go a little better, I thought. I’m sure it will go a quicker. I sent the finished job, but I was not all that confident about it. There were so many rules---and even more exceptions to the rules. I realized that I had not spent enough time reviewing the guidelines that she’d sent before beginning the job.
Lesson #2: If the client has job-specific guidelines, then allow sufficient quality time to review them and continue to review them until you are confident that you understand all of them. Do not hesitate to ask questions before you accept your first assignment.
It Was No Surprise
It didn’t take Susan very long to send me an email that detailed the countless mistakes that I’d made on that first job. I was appalled at my performance, but the overall tone of Susan’s email was that she’d expected the my first effort to “be a mess” and her feedback was more along the lines of being "mentoring" feedback than it was an accusation of having done lousy work. At the end of the email was a general statement that she expected that I would make the necessary adjustments and do better next time. I breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn't canned me outright, and of course swore to myself that I would most certainly "do better" on my next assignment. However, I did not spend enough time in thoroughly reviewing all of the feedback.. I did not spend any quality time going back through the guidelines or actually absorbing the multitude of revisions that she'd made to the file that I'd sent her, which she sent back to me in its final corrected form.
Lesson #3: When a client sends back a copy of your work showing corrections, changes, or other adjustments made to it, thoroughly review that file. If you don't understand a correction/change, then ask why it was made.
Déjà Vu
Later that same day, Susan sent me my next job. This document was longer than the first one, and the deadline was just as impossible (or at least I thought so). Nevertheless, I accepted the assignment, and my acceptance, in turn, implied that I would complete it by the deadline.
Lesson #4: It is your perception of how doable it is to complete an assignment, not your client's, that should govern whether you accept or decline the job.
I worked diligently, again into the early morning hours, going back and forth between the job, her guidelines, and her feedback email, trying frantically to figure out how she was interpreting the guidelines (which, in many instances was not how I was interpreting them). I was determined to learn when something needed to be corrected and when it was correct as it was. I kept on plowing through the pages until finally the last page was done. It was very late, and I was very tired, but it was done. I attached to an email and sent it to her, without doing a final review.
Lesson #5: Never send off a job that you haven't checked, and then checked again.
I got "the email" from her about noon the next day. This second file contained just as many mistakes as the first one, and I'd make mistakes in this second file that I hadn't made in the first one. The tone of this email was not "mentoring" and it definitely wasn't "feedback." It was my termination notice. There was nothing about it that I could have possibly misinterpreted. She made it painfully obvious that the quality of my work was not up to her standards, based on her expectations, and because my second attempt was worse than my first attempt, she wasn't going to waste any more or her time by sending me additional work. She said that she'd pay the invoice for the first file that I'd done, but that---and I quote---"You don't deserve to be paid for this one. You really aren't much of a proofreader after all."
Ashamed, and Not Afraid to Admit It
Let's face it---I screwed up. I'd made unforgivable mistakes. I'd assumed, based on a mere sample, that the work was something that I was able to accommodate. I'd acknowledged that there were extremely specific (and unfamiliar) guidelines that needed to be followed. I failed to spend sufficient time in reviewing the guidelines prior to starting on my first assignment. I'd sent in an assignment for which I didn't have much confidence that I had completed accurately. When advised that the job was indeed unacceptable, I failed to thoroughly review the types of errors that I'd made, while comparing them to the guidelines that I'd either failed to follow or had misinterpreted. I struggled through a second assignment, felt less sure about it than I had the first assignment, and then I sent it to the client without having reviewed it for even obvious errors (of which there were many).
I was definitely ashamed of my performance...and I had no one to blame but me.
Know When to Say No to a Prospective Client
Regardless of what you do, working at home is all about getting work. If you don't attract clients or customers, then you don't get work, and you don't get paid. However, there are times when regardless of how badly you might need the work, the job itself isn't what you need to be doing. You have to be comfortable with telling a prospective client, "I appreciate your inquiry about my services, but I am not a good match for this type of job."
You will save yourself worlds of embarrassment and prevent the possibility that you create a bad reputation for yourself just by being honest, by turning away a prospective client rather than taking the work and hoping that you can do a good enough job.
Know When to Decline an Assignment
Don't let financial straits interfere with taking on work that you doubt you can finish on time or know that you cannot do well. Don't take on too many concurrent assignments, because you are then likely to jeopardize your deadlines for all of the assignments, not just one. Don't be afraid to tell either a prospective client or a standing client that your work schedule is completely filled and that you couldn't finish the offered job by the expected deadline. However, don't be afraid to ask, in the same email, if the client can wait. Provide the client with the date that you expect to be able to start it, and when you would expect to finish it. It has been my experience that every client wants his/her job finished by "yesterday" but sometimes they can actually wait until a week from Tuesday to get the completed job.
Know When to Admit that You Won't Finish by the Deadline
As soon as you know that a project you are working on is in jeopardy of not being done by the expected deadline, contact your client! Even if you are only going to be late by a few hours, if you had agreed to deliver it by noon, and you know at 9:00am that you can't possibly finish it until 2:00pm, then tell your client! You don't need to give your client all the details of the delay, just advise that there will be a delay. You may be tempted to explain that your 7-year-old was sick all night, and you'd finally grabbed two hours of sleep in morning, but honestly, your client may blow that off as just an "excuse" and won't really care.
Be professional and advise your client that you've "encountered an unavoidable situation that will delay the completion of your project until 2:00 today. I apologize for the inconvenience." The client will either acknowledge the delay and tell you to send it when it was done, or he/she may opt for you to send as much as you have completed by the original deadline and have you stop production at that point.
The Bottom Line: Be Honest with Your Clients
Whether you are dealing with prospective clients or standing clients, be honest but be professional about it---that is, be honest, but don't use long excuses that your client really doesn't need to know (and probably doesn't care about).
Turn down work that you can't do---or don't want to do:
-
"I appreciate your request about my services, but I do not believe I am right for this type of work."
-
"Thanks for inquiring about my services. However, the type of work you need is not my specialty."
If you want to do the work, but just don't have time to start it right away, ask if the client can wait:
-
"I am a good match for the work that you need to have done. However, my work schedule is booked solid for the next # OF WEEKS or DAYS. I can start on your project on DATE and I should be able to have it done by DATE. Will that be acceptable?"
Be sure to offer an exact start date, and be sure you allow for "unforeseen circumstances." That is, if you think I can start a job next Monday and have it done by Wednesday, then offer that you can start it Tuesday, at the latest, possibly Monday, and have it done by Thursday, possibly Wednesday. By doing so, if you can actually start it on Monday and deliver on Wednesday, you come out a winner!
When a job is more than you can handle, either in terms of job difficulty or job length, then don't even contemplate doing it. Advise your client:
-
"I appreciate the offer, but I am unable to take on this project at this time."
For the long-term, you will develop a reputation of doing quality work and delivering work on a timely basis for the jobs that you accept. Clients will come to appreciate your dependability and your honesty---and are likely to recommend you to their colleagues and/or business associates.
And what happens if you do actually lose a client? First, accept the fact that you've lost the client. Determine if or how you could have avoided it, and then learn from that. Adjust whatever you need to adjust in how you take on new clients, accept work, or decide if you can meet an expected deadline. It's OK to beat yourself up about losing that client, but don't let it consume you. Learn from your mistakes, resolve to avoid those same mistakes, and don't start second-guessing yourself.
Accept jobs that you know you can handle, either in job difficulty or job length. Do quality work and deliver the work timely. Communicate openly, honestly, regularly, and professionally with your client...and you'll be in business for a long time.
Jan K., The Proofer is a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. Visit Jan’s Portal (http://www.jansportal.com/) for more information about Jan's free crafts, recipes, tutorials, other resource sites, and free content articles, as well as Jan’s freelance proofreading business services. Be sure to visit Mom's Break (http://www.momsbreak.com/) for free printable crafts and projects. © Copyright 2005 to present. All rights reserved.