How do you deal with clients who messages you everyday

[tomzilla1]

How do you deal with clients who messages you everyday? (Unecessary messages/micromanaging).

[jr-translation]

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Tom Z wrote:

How do you deal with clients who messages you everyday? (Unecessary messages/micromanaging).

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Tell them to pay and close all fixed rated contracts and to create yn hourly contract so you can charge them for the time the occupy you.

[tlsanders]

I tell them that it seems we're not a good fit, and I'll wrap up (whatever is appropriate) to allow them time to find a freelancer who is a better match for their needs.

[Anonymous-User]

Is this related to your earlier post? If you have a contract, gather all their messages and read them carefully before responding. Send one message back clarifying everything they said wanted, etc., so there's no confusion for either of you and if there's a problem later, you have a great reference to point back to.

With no contract, then you answer questions relevant to the job to secure it, but if they seem to be picking your brain without intending to offer you the project, then give them an outline of what you will do, and when you can start once the project is fully funded. Let them decide what to do. 

I had a potential client that wanted to ramble for two weeks, talk on the phone, blahblah. They weren't interviewing anyone else, but they weren't sending an offer, either. I laid it on the table, no response for three weeks. Then I got a response yesterday...they'll send me everything in a week to ten days. I responded politely that their job post has expired and they'll have to send a new invite with an offer.  

[prestonhunter]

re: "How do you deal with clients who messages you everyday"

Hourly contract.

With manual time.

All time spent answering messages is logged.

It's not complicated.

It doesn't matter how "unnecessary" or how "micromanaging" the messages are. The client could be talking about how much fun she had walking her dog that morning. Doesn't matter. As long as I'm getting paid.

[tlsanders]

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Preston H wrote:

It doesn't matter how "unnecessary" or how "micromanaging" the messages are. The client could be talking about how much fun she had walking her dog that morning. Doesn't matter. As long as I'm getting paid.

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Maybe that's true if you just have the one client and no other priorities. Most of us aren't in that position and aren't really looking to bill a bunch of hours in tiny, disruptive increments at the cost of productivity in other projects (or just blocks of time away from work)

[prestonhunter]

re: "Maybe that's true if you just have the one client and no other priorities. Most of us aren't in that position and aren't really looking to bill a bunch of hours in tiny, disruptive increments at the cost of productivity in other projects (or just blocks of time away from work)"

Tiffany:

That's an excellent point.

I think for most clients, billing everything is enough to ensure that they DON'T micromanage and send unnecessary messages frequently.

But that doesn't work for everybody. There are clients who don't mind the billing at all and are happy to be able to chat a freelancer up at any time...

In that case, then a freelancer would need to decide if they mind that or not.

[msublette]

But then there are clients like the one who added up every minute a freelancer worked and complained she was overbilled.  The time tracker only allows for 10-minute increments.  If I spend 10 minutes over a day, but not at one time answer questions or sending messages, then the time tracker makes it look like I'm trying to cheat the system.  I guess I could just bill manually for the total time spent in a day, but that is not protected.  So what is a freelancer to do?  

[tomzilla1]

Exactly, the ones who hit you up daily or multiple times daily are just 5 or 10 minutes. You end up spending what, 30 minutes, in 3 different times of your day, it really becomes hard to manage and is it even worth it... definitely not worth it to me, chargin them half of an hourly rate to disrupt my flow. We need a snooze button...