Freelancing is hard work, no secret there. On a daily or weekly basis you are faced with managing the business, managing your projects, marketing, improvement and last but certainly not least doing the work that will bring in that paycheck. Plus you would certainly like to continue to have a life outside of work, explore your hobbies, relax and make time for the family. It’s no easy task creating this balance of time.
So what does this have to do with setting client boundaries from the start? It’s all part of managing your projects, managing your clients and ultimately managing your business.
This article is meant to cover a few general boundaries for your business, the things I think should be covered up front in the initial contact stages. I am not going to delve into scope and detailed setting detailed project boundaries. These are just the basics to ensure that you are able to conduct business with your clients in a professional manner and hopefully avoid some awkward moments and frustrations that may occur in the absence of these boundaries.
Let’s have a look.
On thing I do up front and immediately upon first contact with a client is establish contact and correspondence time. I do so very politely and professionally. If a client would like to speak over the phone initially I respond to them by say something like I would be happy to speak with you by phone, my phone hours are 9 am – 4:30pm CST M – F, please let me know what works best for you. If they have given you a good idea of what will work best for them simply set a time and avoid back and forth email. Something like I will call you tomorrow morning at 9 am CST, if this conflicts with your schedule please let me know.
As a side-note, I will on occasion make exceptions to this rule. For instance you may have an inquiry from a client who currently holds a full time position while establishing the business which requires your expertise. Having once been in this position, I know how hard it can be to do this so I will on occasion make an exception to this rule but when doing so I set a hard time for communication.
What can happen if you don’t set this type of boundary up front? You will receive phone calls at 8pm as your are drifting off and you will receive phone calls on Saturday morning. Keep in mind this is not your clients fault, although it may seem rude to you, if they are used to dealing with their own clients during these hours then they will expect the same of you unless you establish times up front.
The second thing I want to look at ties into the first and that is how much phone time is required during the life of the project and how to set boundaries here as well. I always make myself available to clients via telephone if this is what they prefer but I will make no effort here to hide the fact that I would prefer in most cases to communicate via email. To me email is far more efficient if used properly.
To stay on track I will jump past my personal preferences or why I think email is more efficient and get right to the point. How much time you are going to be spending on the the phone is in my opinion extremely hard to account for because it is going to vary greatly from client to client. I have some clients whom I have not once had contact with over any other medium than email and they have been with me for months. On the other hand I have had clients who want to talk once or twice a week.
My first suggestion is figure out how you are going to budget for this and do so. You may be able to judge a project up front but if not then play it safe. Phone correspondence and consultation is part of project management, it is part of the service you are providing. Note: If you charge on an hourly basis then this is probably not an issue for you but I would be sure that your clients understand that phone time will be included in billable hours if you intend it to be.
The second part of this is managing client phone calls. I believe this takes practice and I am not so sure I am one to give advice here but… Managing a phone call can be hard, the last thing you want to do is come off as rude or make a client to feel like they are wasting your time. Ideally you would hope that a client understands why we need to keep our phone calls to the point but this is not always the case. The bottom line is every minute spent on the phone is a minute you are not working towards completing their project so discussion the project and hashing out issues that pertain to the project is a productive use of time. On the other hand steering of course, discussing what you did over the weekend or simply re-hashing issues that have already been solved in previous conversations via email, although sometimes enjoyable can eat into time better spent on the issues at hand. Again it’s a fine line between what is managing your phone time professionally and cutting a client off but I think it is something that comes with experience.
Please if you have any suggestions or experience in this area feel free to add it to the comments below.
The last and final thing I want to cover here is email. Now this is less of a boundary and more of a professional courtesy. My email is always open, a client can email me any time they would like, but I let them know up front what to expect as far as response time goes. This is very similar to setting up your phone hours in the beginning and will hopefully help you and your client to avoid frustration and confusion.
Yes I am always pretty on top my email during normal working hours, for the most part my clients are going to get a fairly quick response but there are times when I am buried knee deep in code or have to run out for a quick meeting. (I also take a lunch hour) Set reasonable expectations on return emails. I usually like to let my clients know that during normal working hours you can expect a reply within two hours. I also check my email once in the evening and in the case of a pressing issue I will respond at that time otherwise expect my reply first thing in the morning. Lastly I check my email at least once a day on weekends.
That’s it a few very basic guidelines that you can establish up front to ensure that you get your client relationship off on the right foot and avoid any frustrations that may arise from unclear communication. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas.