I was talking with a writer chum yesterday about some reno work she’s having done. The contractor doing the job suggested a trim board that he said would cover a problem area and look great. Then she saw the piece of trim.
Let’s just say the guy is better at repairing than planning.
It’s also indicative of a problem in freelancing that many writers struggle with. Too much emphasis on the writing part, and not enough emphasis on, well, anything else.
I can already hear the pushback: “I’m a writer — I write!”
Sure. But as contract writers, we also have to help our clients solve problems.
[bctt tweet=”If you’re just focused on writing, your #freelancewriting business will suffer.” username=”LoriWidmer”]
So what else are you supposed to do?
That’s the thing. So many writers go into a freelance writing career thinking that it’s all about delivering writing. That is a big part of the job, yes. But it’s also about these things:
Brainstorming with clients to find the right approach/topic/direction.
When your client says “I need you to write blog posts for me” and couples it with “We just aren’t getting the traffic we’d hoped”, your first question should be “Are blog posts on your website, or are they guest posts on other blogs?” But there are other questions you might want to ask too, including:
- What kind of traction are you looking to get from these?
- Why do you think blog posts are the way to go?
- Have you considered thought leadership pieces that tie to your blog topics?
- In what other ways are you promoting these ideas?
Learning the client’s business enough to help them avoid communication missteps.
Suppose your client is about to put out an e-book on how to use MySpace for promotion, and you’re tapped to write it. What would you do? You’d probably sit them down and explain why MySpace isn’t the best social media option to write about. That’s an obvious one. But suppose you’re working for a dry cleaning manufacturer, and their business is about to promote their services at a Save the Earth conference? Well, if that manufacturer uses eco-friendly materials, that could be a good match. However, if they’re part of the old-school, toxic chemical crowd, they could crash and burn, no matter what message they try to convey.
If you know their business from a more intimate level — like what chemicals they do/don’t use in their operations — you can warn them before they face a hostile audience. Or worse, create a hostile image of their operations.
Alerting them to potential issues with the content they’re about to release.
In one notable event a few years ago, the US president congratulated the people of Scotland for their Brexit win. However, the people of Scotland overwhelmingly voted against Brexit.
While that’s an extreme example, clients have been known to send out communications that hit the wrong note or show up at the worst times. Sending out an invitation to an event that will have happened a day before the invitations would have arrived, spelling errors on names and addresses, making a “joke” that is culturally insensitive or just plain awful …. clients often don’t see the problem until it’s too late. You, a writer who is sitting outside of that committee meeting room, can see what ten people were too busy talking to see — that the message has a problem.
It’s about being more than a freelance writer — it’s about you being a freelance artist in terms of communication, thinking ahead, and doing what’s right for your customer, not yourself.
Had my friend’s contractor done this, he wouldn’t have thought that a piece of wood that normally serves as part of a baseboard would work on her ceiling. And:
- He wouldn’t have left to go get a better piece, never to return with it.
- She wouldn’t have wondered if he was going to finish the job.
- Her opinion of him would have remained a good one.
Alas, that’s one contractor who hasn’t gotten the memo yet that serving a customer isn’t just about the initial job, but about the entire customer experience.
But not you. You, my friend, are a freelance writing artist. For you, it’s all about making that customer’s vision sing.
Writers, how do you go beyond the writing for your clients?
What result are you most proud of?
2 responses to “Freelance Artist or Just Freelance?”
Another thing that contractor wouldn’t have done if he were thinking about customer satisfaction? He wouldn’t have left eight long pieces of that trim on the clients’ front porch at noon Friday, say he’d be back in a couple hours to finish the job, not return, then leave the wood exposed to the elements well into the following week.
Yep. They’re still out there. We finally got rain and the ends have been rained on multiple times since Friday.
Oh, another thing: he wouldn’t have left the GINORMOUS plaster-dust-covered trash bag sitting right beside my front door. He either would have tossed it in his truck or the very least set it beside my trash cans, right?
Thank goodness the ceiling looks good. But that wasn’t the contractor’s doing – it’s due solely to his talented employee who put in three consecutive 10-hour days without a negative word. At the end of his third day, he cheerfully said, “It’s already 6:30? The day went by so fast!” In this case, the contractor’s employee saved the day while the contractor himself keeps dropping the ball.
But that ball is in my court. If he wants his final payment, he’ll caulk and paint the existing trim, then clean up after himself. As the business owner, he will ensure it gets done even if it means doing the work by himself if his employees are all tied up on other jobs.
Completing the job is the least a contractor/writer should do. We also need to communicate with our clients. If there is a delay, we need to let them know what’s going on and when they can expect us to wrap things up. We should never leave them hanging or wondering if or when we’ll be finished. One of the top rules for any independent contractor/writer should be: Never leave a client hanging.
Anyone want to take bets on how long that stack of wood trim will be sitting on the porch? Unless, of course, someone swipes it before the contractor returns.
Oh Paula, he really isn’t trying very hard, is he? What gets me — he thinks you’re “just” an insurance-related client. He doesn’t realize that you might need a contractor in the future, and that he’s trying out for THAT job, as well.
It’s like the car salesperson who acted all snippy and literally stormed off not to return when we couldn’t agree on a price. She lost not just that sale, but future sales because I told everyone I know not to buy from her (or that dealer, so they lost, too). Know what it was about? The $636 advertising fee. Yep, I said, rightly, that I didn’t have to pay that. She lost her cool right there.
There’s only one job I never completed by choice, and frankly, I’d completed it, literally, 14 times before I finally realized the problem was the editor, not me. That bridge was burned gladly.
“Never leave a client hanging.” — This. Again, you come up with a new t-shirt slogan!