5 tips to make your customers happy

I’m a freelancer in my free time.

I do some projects for fun to keep in touch with new technologies. I had the opportunity to work for clients living in US or Europe. And I tried to make great stuff to see them happy. Most of the times, I think I’ve succeded.

Here are a few tips I recommend (entirely from my experience).

1. Be honest

Yes, this is extremely important. Be honest about your skills. Be honest about what you know and what you don’t. Be honest about what you promise. Don’t say “I’m an expert” if you don’t are. I met so-called “experts” who wrote code which was very close to ruin the business of the client. It’s better to say “I’m not an expert” and write great code than to say “I’m an expert” and write poor code. Seriously.

2. Meet deadlines

Sometimes your client ask you for a time estimation. If you say 1 month, make sure you finish it a few days earlier. If you say one week, finish it after 5 days. Your client will really apreciate this.

3. Be available

Sometimes my clients have some urgent things to do. When I say urgent I don’t mean to add a feature which takes 12 days of work. I mean that my client found an ugly bug and wants to see it solved asap. Maybe you’re reading a programming book or play a game or just rest. But if you have the chance to hear skype/email buzz from one of your clients just answer them and be available. I promise you’ll get a great feedback when your project is done.

4. Communicate

I’ve seen a lof of complaints from clients who were dissapointed about their freelancers. In most of the situations, the biggest issue was communication. If you have a missunderstanding just ask your client. Don’t go on with the project spending client’s money on wrong direction and in the end tell “Sorry but I tought that…”. No! Just communicate. Ask. Answer.

5. Keep in touch

I’ve seen job postings like: “You need to keep in touch with me daily”. Do you know why this requests are there? Because that client met freelancers who was working 15 days on the product and sent to the client no mail about the progress. Please, don’t do this. Just keep him in touch with your progress. Your client will really apreciate this!.

Have fun and don’t forget: if you’re a great programmer, you will be first concerned about your client’s satisfaction and his product. Not money first. Not you first. Client first.

Happy programming.