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sashasova
Community Member

Clients who use Upwork for a single contract.

Hi all.
I've been working on the site as a freelancer for a long time and have encountered the problem of clients who only use Upwork for one contract or use the site once a year.
These clients have no experience with freelancers and don't quite understand how much their feedback matters to my business. I closed two such contracts at the end of last year, and since then I've had contracts in my profile without a review, which makes the profile look much worse to new clients. This problem is not covered in any way, and although Upwork did a lot of good things for freelancers last year, I think it's worth discussing and suggesting solutions to such a problem.

 

We all know that two weeks after a contract is closed, a client who has not left feedback automatically loses that option and the contract is displayed as "No feedback given".

I suggest that both clients and freelancers should not be able to close a contract without feedback. That is, after pressing the "End contract" button the client should immediately be redirected to the page where he must leave feedback without the opportunity not to do so and the client must leave at least stars.

 

Regarding customers who use Upwork once a year - they should receive a weekly email newsletter in which Upwork should focus their attention on the fact that it's time to leave a review.

This will allow for more productive business for both clients and freelancers, in which case the Upwork site will only earn more.

 

I suggest we compromise and make this small change imperative and everyone will be happy.

What do you think about this, colleagues? Let me know.

 

Thanks for your consideration.

30 REPLIES 30
martina_plaschka
Community Member

I suggest that both clients and freelancers should not be able to close a contract without feedback. That is, after pressing the "End contract" button the client should immediately be redirected to the page where he must leave feedback without the opportunity not to do so and the client must leave at least stars.

 

Done and done! It works this way since forever. 

 

So why is there so many contracts without feedback? 

You mean on your profile? Because you end contracts yourself, which is not recommended. Always let the client do it soon after the work is delivered. 

What I propose is to make the feedback system imperative, with no "no feedback" option.
Did you read the whole thread, or just the one part taken out of context?

The party ending the contract has to leave feedback. That is why the client should do it. 

If that doesn't happen, reminding them constantly will only aggravate people, and aggravated people don't leave good feedback. 

So you propose the client is forced to leave feedback? How? Is his account disabled if he doesn't? What if he has an important job to post and wants to do feedback later? But now he is stuck or what?

You can't force people. It simply can't be done. 

It's not my job to decide these things, so my decisions may not be quite right. I merely highlighted the problem and wanted to make it known that it exists.

 

I understand the difficulties of resolving this issue, so I want to discuss the options.
The fact that I can understand perfectly well from a client's profile whether he will leave me feedback or not, it is not difficult at all, but should I refuse to work with a client just because he does not leave feedback? Perhaps, but in that case, if we all refuse to work with him, he will simply leave the site.

 

What I'm trying to say is that we need to do something about it, not argue about it, which is what we're doing now.

 

I don't want projects in the "Active" column that aren't really active.
I don't want "empty" projects after which I don't get feedback.
And I don't need it because it directly affects my future relationships with other clients. I've given my clients the opportunity to close contracts, I've asked, I've reminded every week and what's the bottom line?

I closed those contracts myself because new clients are questioning my availability because of eight open contracts.

After closing these projects on my part, clients question whether it's even worth working with a freelancer who has no reviews on contracts.

I hope I've made my point.

From my perspective: I have many more open contracts than you, and no client has ever asked or commented about it. No client has ever commented on no feedback contracts either, which I obviously try to avoid, but do happen from time to time. 

I've never found it a cause of concern in any way, so your client experience is very different from mine. Since it's not an issue for me, I would not want to see a change that would make the client experience more unpleasant. 


Alex P wrote:

 

What I'm trying to say is that we need to do something about it, not argue about it, which is what we're doing now.

 


We really don't.


Alex P wrote:

What I propose is to make the feedback system imperative, with no "no feedback" option.


There is no "no feedback iption" for the party who closes the contract.

If we're talking about my profile (which I don't really understand why lol), you'll know that I don't want inactive contracts after I'm done working on them, as that might discourage new clients from working with me.

moonraker
Community Member


Alex P wrote:

 

Regarding customers who use Upwork once a year - they should receive a weekly email newsletter in which Upwork should focus their attention on the fact that it's time to leave a review.

 


People tend not to like SPAM, and I don't see how it's worth hassling the people putting money into the system over the ocassional contract without feedback.

If a client wants to leave feedback then they will, and it's a bad idea to force them because they often choose to leave no feedback instead of poor feedback.

You won't have negative feedback if you do your job well 🙂


Alex P wrote:

You won't have negative feedback if you do your job well 🙂


I know how feedback works.

And my point stands. It's a bad idea to hassle clients into leaving feedback for the reasons mentioned.

Once again, it is not my job to decide such matters. I would like to discuss and listen to other opinions on this matter.

But you are proposing the status quo, so it's a bit confusing. 

feed_my_eyes
Community Member


Alex P wrote:

I suggest that both clients and freelancers should not be able to close a contract without feedback. That is, after pressing the "End contract" button the client should immediately be redirected to the page where he must leave feedback without the opportunity not to do so and the client must leave at least stars.


You've just described the exact process that already happens.  

 


Alex P wrote:

 

Regarding customers who use Upwork once a year - they should receive a weekly email newsletter in which Upwork should focus their attention on the fact that it's time to leave a review.


If the freelancer closes the contract, Upwork does send a notification to the client to leave feedback. But a weekly newsletter to remind them? That would just be annoying and people would send the messages straight to their junk mail, or opt out from hearing any further from Upwork.

 

Since everybody gets asked to leave reviews for absolutely every service and product that they buy these days, I think it's led to feedback fatigue (I know that I'm pretty tired of being asked constantly). You can't force people. And why do you think that having a few no-feedback contracts is hurting you anyway?

 

gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

Whoever closes a contract is required to leave feedback as part of the process. The other party is notified and invited to leave feedback and given 14 days to do so. They may or may not get around to it.

Weekly reminders to clients about leaving feedback is a hideous idea.

Managing the fb system to one's advantage (or minimally, to avoid disadvantage) is a nuisance but it's part of the platform. There has to be some kind of JSS system and although the one in place is imperfect, I've not seen in my 6+ years here, any meaningful suggestions about how it could be improved and still accomplish its main objectives for clients.

Stop closing contracts yourself. I've got idle contracts that have been sitting around for years. They mean nothing.

 

data_divas
Community Member

Sometimes you get feedback, sometimes you do.  I don't think any prospective clients really care if there are jobs without feedback unless this is your entire profile.

It's just how it works, really not a huge deal.

petra_r
Community Member


Alex P wrote:

I've been working on the site as a freelancer for a long time and have encountered the problem of clients who only use Upwork for one contract or use the site once a year.


This isn't "a problem".

 


Alex P wrote:

I suggest that both clients and freelancers should not be able to close a contract without feedback.


This is already the case.

 


Alex P wrote:

That is, after pressing the "End contract" button the client should immediately be redirected to the page where he must leave feedback without the opportunity not to do so and the client must leave at least stars.


This is exactly what happens and always has happened. The party who ends a contract has to leave feedback. The other party can, but doesn't have to.

 


Alex P wrote: Regarding customers who use Upwork once a year - they should receive a weekly email newsletter in which Upwork should focus their attention on the fact that it's time to leave a review.

Dreadful idea. At best, that's spam. 

 


Alex P wrote:

What do you think about this, colleagues?


I think it's fine as it is.

bilal1983
Community Member

I like what you are suggesting Alex.

 

I think what you mean to say is that when a client closes a contract, and when it prompts them to leave a feedback, it shouldn't be optional, and the client should not be able to proceed to closing out unless they leave a feedback.

 

This is quite easy to implement, and it does not take that long to give 5 stars and write a sentence or two, so the clients would not be too inconvenienced.

Upwork likes this process too, which is why they have implemented it years ago, in fact, it has always been this way. OP seems to not be aware of how it works. Leaving feedback when ending a contract is NOT optional, never was, never will be. The party ending the contract is forced to leave feedback, otherwise they can't end it. 


Bilal M wrote:

I like what you are suggesting Alex.


Did you actually read the thread?

 


Bilal M wrote: I think what you mean to say is that when a client closes a contract, and when it prompts them to leave a feedback, it shouldn't be optional,

It isn't optional.

 


Bilal M wrote:

... and the client should not be able to proceed to closing out unless they leave a feedback.


The client can't end the contract without leaving feedback.

 


Bilal M wrote: This is quite easy to implement

Why would you want to "implement" something that has been implemented for at least 10 years, probably longer? There is nothing to implement.

 

Did you actually read the thread? 


Alex P wrote:

Did you actually read the thread? 


I did. Every word of it.


Bilal M wrote:

I think what you mean to say is that when a client closes a contract, and when it prompts them to leave a feedback, it shouldn't be optional, and the client should not be able to proceed to closing out unless they leave a feedback.


Read the other responses - this is exactly what already happens. 

sashasova
Community Member

Hey guys, you're missing the point. 

 

Stop pointing out my misunderstanding of contract closings. After all of your messages I got it. 
All I was trying to say and convey is that clients who use the site once a year are not preferred for business because they don't leave a review in most cases.

 

Stop saying I don't need to close contracts myself.

If your business is not affected by this, then I hasten to surprise you: you are not alone on this site and your experience of using the site may be different from others!

 

This is my problem, because even with my knowledge of the language I was not able to convey my message accurately and correctly enough.

You, instead of trying to understand the subject, took out of context only what you can answer, forgetting about the rest of my message. If you have nothing to offer, then walk away.

 

I am trying to explain that contracts without a feedback are negatively affecting my business and most likely someone else's and I wanted to highlight the problem on the forum.

Stop "stacking" the number of responses for your profiles, none of you are interested in solving the problem.

Thanks. 

Well, nobody is interested in solving a problem that doesn't exist, that's definitely true. 

You have been advised of best practice used by experienced freelancers. Have you even read it? You have offered no solution that would improve the client's experience. 

There is nothing more to add. 

Nothing to be discussed with you for sure. 

Have a nice day. 


Alex P wrote:

because they don't leave a review in most cases.


So what? 

 


Alex P wrote:

I am trying to explain that contracts without a feedback are negatively affecting my business


What makes you think that "no feedback" contracts are negatively affecting your business?

 


Alex P wrote: If you have nothing to offer, then walk away.

I thought you wanted to discuss your idea? Are you saying you only want to hear from people who agree with you?

 


Alex P wrote: ... none of you are interested in solving the problem.

There is no problem that needs solving, least of all a problem that could be solved by aggressively spamming clients to the point where they leave the platform or leave damning feedback because of the relentless harassment they were subjected to.


Alex P wrote:

 

I am trying to explain that contracts without a feedback are negatively affecting my business and most likely someone else's and I wanted to highlight the problem on the forum.


Where is your evidence to support this claim?

You accuse us of missing the point, but it's YOU who doesn't seem to want to listen.

The ocassional contract closed without feedback is not a problem. It does not affect your business in any way and in the highly unlikley case that it does, it probably means you're doing something wrong.

And your suggestion of hassling clients into leaving feedback could seriously backfire becasue you could end up with clients leaving poor feedback when they'd rather leave none.

And it's easy for you to say you get good feedback if you do a good job, but almost daily we get people coming here complaining about poor feedback despite doing a great job (according to the freelancer). There's also the incerased risk of getting poor feedback from a client who feels as though they're being hassled.

There is no problem to solve. And your 'solution' to this non-existent problem could easilly end up creating new problems that did not exist.

Stop asccusing us of missing the point or not understanding. We get it, we just don't agree with you.

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