After Sales service after contract has been closed

[27659b49]

Hi! So I have a client who already accepted the file I submitted, paid me already, closed the job, and gave positive feedback. Problem is earlier today she made some changes with the file and messaged me if I can check the file again. So I checked the file and helped her and sent the file again. Now, she kept on asking me and even said she'll message me when she needs me (this is after the contract ended).

My questions are:

1. Can I just ignore her?

2. Will ignoring her affect her rating on me, like can she change her positive rating to a negative one?

Thank you.

Natalie

[prestonhunter]

Natalie:
In this post, I am not going to respond to your situation in any way.

However, I would like to point out this:
As a client, my projects are important to me.

I would never consider asking freelancers to work for free on my projects.

Because I don't have time and money to waste.

Asking freelancers to work for free on my important projects just seems like a recipe for disaster, or at the very least, a clear path to wasting time and money.

If I hired a freelancer to produce files, and then later I wanted that same freelancer to review changes, or make new changes, or do ANYTHING else, then when I contacted that freelancer, the very first thing I would say is:

"Can I hire you to do something else?"

I would MAKE IT CLEAR that I want to PAY the freelancer money in order to do something new.

No matter how small that task is.

If the freelancer tells me to not worry about charging them because the task is so small, then of course I will respect the freelancer's decision.

But obviously I'm not going to ask a freelancer to work for free on a closed contract. That makes no sense.

[prestonhunter]

re: "1. Can I just ignore her?"
Yes.

re: "2. Will ignoring her affect her rating on me, like can she change her positive rating to a negative one?"

No.

========================

Can you ignore her? Yes.
Should you ignore her?
I think you should endeavor to provide high-quality customer service. Most of the times, the client is interested in getting something done. The cost is not the most important factor. Your client will be well served if you reply by saying something like:
"Yes, I can work on this. You may pay me a $25 bonus now and then I will check the file, or you may set up a new hourly contract to do that."

[Keep in mind that a client may pay a bonus in any amount using a CLOSED contract. That is often a great way for a client to pay for relatively small after-contract services without creating a new contract.]

[petra_r]

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Natalie Diane C wrote:

1. Can I just ignore her?

2. Will ignoring her affect her rating on me, like can she change her positive rating to a negative one?

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1. You could, but why not just charge for the ongoing work instead? Tell the client you'll be happy to help but will have to be compensated. Name your price, tell the client to pay as a bonus on the closed contract.

2. No and No.