In the freelance world, a lot of focus is given to the important topics of attracting and retaining freelance clients. While we frequently cover these and other related areas on our business blog, the whole client experience should ideally be a positive and memorable one, including your freelancer client offboarding process.
Here are 4 things to consider including in your client offboarding process so that when a project ends, your clients are happy, satisfied with your excellent service, and more likely to hire you in the future and refer you to others.
1. Send a thank you note
They say ‘first impressions count’, but lasting impressions linger. Thanks to the recency bias effect, your clients will remember their most recent encounter with you – which, in this case, is the last one, so it pays to make sure it’s memorable in the right kind of way.
A simple thank you goes a long way, so consider sending a thank you note to your client. It doesn’t have to be anything lengthy, but something thoughtful, such as thanking your client for entrusting their business to you, can be a nice way to end a project.
Depending on your business, you could send a physical card in the mail, order one online, or simply send an email. The more you can enthuse your personal brand so it’s noteworthy, the better.
You could also consider sending a small gift – again, this works well if you can brand the gift or make it relevant to the project you’ve just successfully completed.
Thank you notes and sending small gifts are things you can automate to save you time, so it’s something that automatically happens, or you could make each thank you message bespoke and unique.
Either way, thank you messages and gifts can form part of your freelancer offboarding process, boost your personal brand and make for a pleasantly memorable experience for your clients.
2. Ask for a testimonial (and show them in the best light)
While the project is still fresh in your client’s mind, now is a great time to ask for a testimonial. Client testimonials are excellent social proof for your business and help attract other clients. You can also use them across various mediums, from publishing them on your website to adding them to your social media channels and including them in other communications material, such as written proposals.
Depending on the assignment, you could also consider creating a case study that can form part of your marketing assets. Case studies can highlight not only the transformation you provide but also show other potential clients what it’s like working with you and the results you can help them achieve.
The good thing for your clients is that testimonials and case studies can also act as good marketing material for them because when you say positive things about others, it also puts you in a favorable light.
So, don’t hold back from asking for testimonials because, at the end of the day, you can never have too many!
And remember to ask for a referral. Clients are happy to recommend good freelancers to their colleagues, as once again, it has a positive impact on their reputation, too.
3. Create a smooth transition
Depending on your business, you could consider creating a short email sequence that gets sent out automatically towards the end of a project.
As well as a thank you message and project overview and highlights, the sequence can include any other final tasks that need to be completed before the contract officially ends, such as ending data access to any online collaboration and project management tools you may have shared, and of course, payment of your final invoice.
You can make it easy for your clients to pay you with Invoice Ninja.
Invoice Ninja is a leading free invoicing software for small business invoicing, fast online payments, tracking expenses and billable tasks. It also includes attractive, professional invoice template designs you can customize with your logo and brand colors. You can customize client emails, too.
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4. Share and promote your client
You can add that little extra sweetener to the end of your client project by sharing your client experience on social media.
Assuming there are no Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) or similar in place that state you can’t disclose client information, a simple post about how great it was to work with your client, thanking them and including your wishes for their future success is a great promo opportunity for you both, and ends the project on a super positive note.
If you can share before/after images, a depiction of the results, or simply an image of you together, even better.
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For more small business and freelancer tips, check out our business blog.
