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siddharthvij9
Community Member

How to curate clients

Hi guys, I recently joined Upwork and got an early success because of previous work experience.
I had more than 10 clients in my first month but two of which really left a bad mark on my JSS.

1. The client hired me for an ongoing job on a weekly basis, we decided to set a new milestone every week. I completed the work for week 1 and submitted that and was paid too. The client was unable to provide the assets for the second week, I helped him create those which was not in the original proposal and then he refused to pay me for the second week and left a 2.2-star review, which is really bad even though I complete all the tasks given to me and worked extra too.

Now I got a mail from him today that he can't find the assets that I created and is threatening me too send those back else he will report to Upwork. First of all, he left the bad review because according to him the work I provided was unsatisfactory. If my work was so unsatisfactory why does he need the assets now? What should I do now about it, as after the contract was closed I deleted all the files.

I don't usually delete the files but he left a bad review so I deleted those.

2. I was hired by an organization that promised me to pay 50$ per video I make for them, After two weeks of working with them without any milestone approved, No instructions were sent, the work was super delayed by their end. Two days before the deadline, they started emailing me about the changes. I spent more than 16 hours in a single day because they themselves were not clear about their requirements, I was up for 48 hours straight just so that we meet the deadline. We were not able to meet it because they kept ignoring my texts for hours, while I was working so hard. Then the same thing happened the next day too. I couldn't handle the amount of work they want for not even 50 bucks and I ended the contract and refunded the full amount to them.

Can someone suggest me ways now to maintain my JSS and how to curate clients.
7 REPLIES 7
robin_hyman
Community Member

You don't curate clients. You get clients. 

 

A new freelancer needs to read up on Upwork and through related posts in the community. The more you understand how freelancing works, the better you will be able to spot red flags. Your poor experiences are in the past and it's time to move forward. 

 

Don't overpromise - 100% satisfaction. That means I'll ask you for change after change until I am satisfied. Wait, I'll never be satisfied...

 

Make your profile stand out. 

 

Apply to jobs you can do really well. 

 

Customize every proposal. 

 

Soon enough clients will come back to you because you've done good work for them in the past. Repeat business = how you get clients. 

 

resultsassoc
Community Member

I reviewed your portfolio, the original job post for the 2.2, the reviews from other jobs. I'm not convinced there's anything you could have done. The red flag was a 2.34 rating for the client by multiple freelancers.

 

I don't know how to do your job. Obviously, neither did the client. The advice from Robin is pretty generic and, IMO, not applicable. I notice that you have agreed to several jobs for well under your standard rate. If it is coming across in interviews that you are desperate, or if your willingness to discount your rate appears desperate, that can account for some of it. Mostly, though, I think you just ran into a bad client. Sooner or later everyone does. Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug.

 

I had a similar situation when asked to analyze massive amounts of data to explain why a budget was increasing. The answer was very simple: it was a customer service center where costs were directly dependent on call volumes. Even as the center reduced its cost per call, volume was increasing faster than the center was able to reduce costs. It was doing a great job. Not Good Enough. They needed specific points extracted from the data, which was a problem. Data labels had multiple meanings, and the identical meaning was ascribed to separate labels. And, despite twice daily requests, the data wasn't delivered until ten hours before the final presenMtation was due.

 

My advice: press clients a little harder when interviewing. It's a negotiation between equals, not a master-slave relationship. Go wiith your gut and walk away if it doesn't seem like a good fit. You're still going to encounter clients who'll fool you before stabbing you in the back.

 

Take two beers and call me in the morning.

Now the first client is asking for a full refund, How can I report it and let the Upwork team decide who is wrong and who is right?

martina_plaschka
Community Member

If you sent the files through messenger or submit work, you will still have them there. 

tlbp
Community Member

1. If the client never paid for the asset, they do not have any claim of ownership so they cannot force you to resend the asset. If they report you to Upwork, point out that the client did not pay for the assets before closing the contract and it is no longer available. 
2. Don't work for low-paying clients. They don't appreciate your value and will not treat you well. 

 

Also, you might try exchanging more messages with the client before you accept a contract with them. Learn to look for signs that they are rude or demanding before you are committed. You can always choose to say no to an offer. 

In addition to the excellent advice you've been given above, you need to learn how to manage your time. If that first client had a hard deadline coming up, I would have sent a reminder a few days in advance saying that they needed to send me instructions by a certain date/time in order to avoid any delays. Your clients need to hold up their end of the project, too. (Before I even accept a fixed-price project, I tell the client that it'll take x number of working days to do a first draft and x amount of time to get revisions back to them. That lets them know that I won't work 16 straight hours due to delays at their end.)

siddharthvij9
Community Member

Now the first client is asking for a full refund, How can I report it and let the Upwork team decide who is wrong and who is right?

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