Are You and Your Writing Clients Speaking the Same Language

FREELANCING | WRITING

Ever felt that you and your writing client weren’t on the same page?

Me too.

In fact, I reckon it happens every freelancer at some point. I’ve been thinking about the reasons why, and I’ve come up with three possible causes of clashes with clients:

1. The hidden brief

2. Too many cooks

3. Incompatible working styles

Let’s take a look at how these play out.

1. The Hidden Brief

The hidden brief is a plague on a freelancer’s working life. It’s where clients give guidelines and you think you’re following them to the letter. The trouble comes when you submit the work and it turns out to be not what your client’s looking for. That’s when you know that the hidden brief has messed up your day again.

You return to the original brief in puzzlement, check that you’ve ticked all the boxes (you have), then go back to the client, who digs his heels in. Then you spend time talking to the client to find out what’s needed to “fix” your perfectly good work.

Good luck with that, though, because sometimes clients can’t put it into words. They only know what they DON’T want, which can mean a lot of extra work for you, as the freelancer. You won’t earn any more, and you’ll feel pretty frustrated.

I’ll tell you how I avoid the hidden brief later in this article, but let’s move on to the second major client miscommunication issue.

2. Too Many Cooks

Another major freelancer annoyance is what I call the “too many cooks” syndrome. It’s where you’re working with a particular client and you suddenly find the work has to be approved by someone else. Like his boss. Or her sister who’s a marketing expert. Or her cousin who everyone says is a good writer. Or some “guru” you’ve never heard of.

This is a tough one because it means you’re producing work to be approved by someone you’ve never talked to when you have no idea what they want. Plus, each additional person that gets involved makes your job harder, because they all pick on different points, and the work can get kind of messy.

There are two things that often happen in this situation. Either the work ends up much worse than what you originally created. Or by the time everyone’s had their say, it’s almost back to the original you submitted, but after a heck of a lot of hassle for you.

There’s a solution to the “too many cooks” problem, too — and I’ll get to it soon. But first, let’s look at the third major client communication problem.

3. Incompatible Working Styles

Sometimes your clients have unrealistic expectations. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of interactions I’ve had with clients that proved to me that we weren’t a good fit:

• Clients on the other side of the world wanted to communicate by phone, even if all calls would be at unsociable hours for both of us

• Clients who never gave a full response when I sent email queries

• Clients who constantly wanted to video call when I wanted to spend time working on their writing job

• Clients who expected perfection in my writing(but ironically didn’t deliver perfection in their writing brief)

• Clients who were always in my inbox or messaging threads firing off conflicting demands, but didn’t allow me the time or space to do my job like the professional I was

• Clients where there were personality clashes — nuff said

My Worst Client Experience

The worst client interaction I’ve ever had was with a client who wrongfully accused me of using the work I was doing for him to promote my other clients. And locked me out of his writing system before giving me a chance to respond.

I had to send ten emails back and forth to get the details of what he was talking about, then send him a point by point rebuttal before he retracted unreservedly. Of course, we never worked together again because the relationship had been irretrievably damaged. Even now, seeing his name online makes me seethe.

Streamlining Communication with Writing Clients

So how do you avoid miscommunication issues and get to the point where you and your writing clients are on the same page? Apart from the last situation, here’s how I weed out some of the potential problems.

Let’s start right at the beginning.

• If I get a cold approach from someone who has seen my work, I reply with details of what I can do and a guide price. I also ask for details of what they want and may send my client questionnaire.

• If I get a cold approach from someone who has found me online but is non-specific about their services, I send my client questionnaire.

The questionnaire forces potential clients to focus on what writing services they want, the style of writing they prefer, and the audience and purpose for the writing. I also ask clients to identify the key person I’ll be communicating with for copy approval. The answers to these questions help solve the problem of the hidden brief and the too many cooks syndrome.

Note, and this is important, what they say here becomes the basis of any future agreement with them. I have a clause in my contract specifically to stop clients from getting too many people involved in the approval process. I don’t mind what they do internally, but I just want one person to deal with.

If a repeat client contacts me about a writing job, we will usually thrash out the details by email.

In all cases, I will confirm what we have agreed by email or contract email and get them to sign off on it and pay any necessary deposits before starting work. That eliminates 99% of the hassle over what we’ve agreed, who can approve work, communication expectations, and so on.

The other 1% (personality, poor communication, and stuff that’s out of left field like that last example I cited), you can’t do anything about except breathe deeply, gut it out and smile till you collect the check. After that you have no obligation to work with that person again.

If you get the client to spell out what they want, whether via a questionnaire or an email, then you have a reference point for discussing any future disagreement on delivery.

I have no problem asking questions till I understand what a client really wants. The more I understand about a writing job upfront, the less likely it is that there’ll be an issue later.

That’s why, in spite of having faced all the client situations I listed above, I have excellent and harmonious relationships with all my current clients.

How do you deal with client communication issues?

© Sharon Hurley Hall

Sharon Hurley Hall is an anti-racism writer, a professional B2B writer and blogger, and co-host of The Introvert Sisters podcast. This is a significantly revised version of an article originally published on getpaidtowriteonline.com