Feedback Question: Would you like to ask a client questions before sending a proposal?

Preston H · Jan 7, 2021 01:39:10 PM

It MIGHT be useful for clients who are... kind of clueless about writing job posts.

How many clients would benefit from this? I don't know.

When I post a job, I provide all the information necessary, and I would not want to be peppered from would-be freelancers.

Amanda L · Jan 7, 2021 02:31:15 PM

Preston H wrote:
It MIGHT be useful for clients who are... kind of clueless about writing job posts.

How many clients would benefit from this? I don't know.

When I post a job, I provide all the information necessary, and I would not want to be peppered from would-be freelancers.

I agree with Preston. As a client, when I post a job, I give the information the I deem necessary to give at the initial stage. I know freelancers will have questions, and I expect them to. But I only want to talk to the ones who submit a proposal that I feel like are worth my time to talk to.

Anna T · Jan 7, 2021 02:38:59 PM

Lena E wrote:
I want to hear your opinion and feedback. As a freelancer, would you like the ability to ask a question about a client's job, prior to submitting a proposal? Would you find this beneficial? Do you have any concerns?

Side note: In the past, freelancers had mentioned they're concerned that clients may be spammed in DMs if freelancers were able to message them before a contract had started. When addressing this question, we're thinking outside the box of direct messaging and perhaps including this in the product in such a way that would deter any spamming behavior. Likely, this would be a public type of Q&A, with questions about the job post and answers being public.

I would like to see something to remind a client that the reference file they say was uploaded was not uploaded. I see this a lot and it's an easy oversight. Perhaps a drop-down box of basic canned questions may work and once a question is sent it would be grayed out so it could not be selected and sent again.

Maria T · Jan 7, 2021 11:24:02 PM

Anna T wrote:
Lena E wrote:
I want to hear your opinion and feedback. As a freelancer, would you like the ability to ask a question about a client's job, prior to submitting a proposal? Would you find this beneficial? Do you have any concerns?

Side note: In the past, freelancers had mentioned they're concerned that clients may be spammed in DMs if freelancers were able to message them before a contract had started. When addressing this question, we're thinking outside the box of direct messaging and perhaps including this in the product in such a way that would deter any spamming behavior. Likely, this would be a public type of Q&A, with questions about the job post and answers being public.
I would like to see something to remind a client that the reference file they say was uploaded was not uploaded. I see this a lot and it's an easy oversight. Perhaps a drop-down box of basic canned questions may work and once a question is sent it would be grayed out so it could not be selected and sent again.

I agree with Anna. In the Graphic Design niche the phrase "look at the attachment" appears a lot, but the file is nowhere to be found.

Many times the job description is so vague: I need an animation, vectorize some images, I want a PDF, etc ..., that the proposal I submit consists of only questions.
I already mentioned it a long time ago, some way of telling the client that the file is not there, or that with so little information it is not possible to make a proper proposal.

Perhaps Preston and Amanda should teach some good job posting classes

Christine A · Jan 8, 2021 01:12:21 AM

Anna T wrote:
I would like to see something to remind a client that the reference file they say was uploaded was not uploaded. I see this a lot and it's an easy oversight. Perhaps a drop-down box of basic canned questions may work and once a question is sent it would be grayed out so it could not be selected and sent again.

A drop-down box of canned questions is a good idea, actually - and please include the question "How many pages are in your document?" on this list. I still don't think that I'd personally use this feature, though - I just skip vague job posts and move on. Upwork needs to do more to encourage clients to post detailed job descriptions in the first place. (Especially these days - I assume that one-sentence descriptions are fake jobs posted so that freelancers can interview themselves and get free connects.)

Renante V · Jan 7, 2021 04:51:53 PM

freelancer.com used to have it too.

People out of bids (connects) use it to send their proposal.

So, please NO.

Mikko R · Jan 7, 2021 07:23:51 PM

Lena E wrote:
I want to hear your opinion and feedback. As a freelancer, would you like the ability to ask a question about a client's job, prior to submitting a proposal? Would you find this beneficial? Do you have any concerns?

Lena, you could do what I do:

- Insert the top 3 questions, particularly those that define your budget on fixed-price deals, in the cover letter part of the proposal

- List the assumptions that your quotation is based on

- List what is not included in that price and would need more discussion

We should not have any public Q&A section for the reasons mentioned others earlier.

Petra R · Jan 7, 2021 10:00:33 PM

Mikko R wrote:
Lena, you could do what I do:
- Insert the top 3 questions...

Mikko, Lena isn't asking for advice how to apply, she is the nforum's community manager and an Upwork employee, who is asking our input about a possible new feature...

I don't want to see this either. The masses of "HIRE ME I BESTEST FREELLANCE" "questions" the clients would get would overwhelm them.

Douglas Michael M · Jan 9, 2021 02:36:17 PM

Mikko R wrote:
Lena, you could do what I do:
- Insert the top 3 questions, particularly those that define your budget on fixed-price deals, in the cover letter part of the proposal
- List the assumptions that your quotation is based on
- List what is not included in that price and would need more discussion

We should not have any public Q&A section for the reasons mentioned others earlier.

While possibly misdirected, the advice above is sound. Leading a proposal with the questions that are essential to responding to a posting or an invitation is an excellent way to establish that we know our business and mean business.

As a bonus, it sometimes yields the information we are seeking—and as suggested, obviates the need for any prior-to-proposal dialogue.

Phyllis G · Jan 9, 2021 03:04:25 PM

Douglas Michael M wrote:
Mikko R wrote:
Lena, you could do what I do:
- Insert the top 3 questions, particularly those that define your budget on fixed-price deals, in the cover letter part of the proposal
- List the assumptions that your quotation is based on
- List what is not included in that price and would need more discussion

We should not have any public Q&A section for the reasons mentioned others earlier.
While possibly misdirected, the advice above is sound. Leading a proposal with the questions that are essential to responding to a posting or an invitation is an excellent way to establish that we know our business and mean business.
As a bonus, it sometimes yields the information we are seeking—and as suggested, obviates the need for any prior-to-proposal dialogue.

Agree 100%. Contracting 101.