Unresponsive client palaver...

[ad3y3m1]

How do you handle unresponsive clients? They seem to put your profile at risk of being suspended due to not meeting the 5% hire requirements outlined by Upworks Job application to Job hire ratio. So many people post jobs, and never respond. And even when you check the statistics of the latter, it says 0 interviews, and it stays that way for a very long time. Some people are just here to waste other peoples connects, and put their profiles at risk. What is the solution around this?

[mobilyzz-sanjay]

I prefer working with experienced clients. I usually do not submit any proposal to a client who is new.

[petra_r]

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@Adeyemi I wrote:

1) How do you handle unresponsive clients?

2) They seem to put your profile at risk of being suspended due to not meeting the 5% hire requirements outlined by Upworks Job application to Job hire ratio.

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1) I don't. When I apply (which I haven't since December) I apply and forget about it.

2) The what? There is no such thing.

[ad3y3m1]

Thanks for the reply. The what? Actually exists. People get suspended if they dont get hired in a 5% ratio of their applications.

[petra_r]

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@Adeyemi I wrote:

Thanks for the reply. The what? Actually exists. People get suspended if they dont get hired in a 5% ratio of their applications.

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 Where did you get the 5% stuff from?

Yes, if people keep applying and nobody hires them (or they get paid outside the platform) then yes, they are removed.

There are too many freelancers on the platform as it is so why keep profiles which are not profitable?

I doubt it is a 5% rule though.

[ad3y3m1]

Yes, if people keep applying and nobody hires them then yes, they are removed.

Great answer! So now, we have established that ideally, they are removed. Good!

Now - with what strategy or arithmetic are they determined to be removed by the board?

🙂

It's the 5% my dear.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Adeyemi,

Can you share more details about what your referring to with the 5% comment?
Unfortunately I can`t share more details with you about this, thank you!

[ad3y3m1]

Thanks. I am trying to decide how to deal with unresponsive clients. I heard that you can get suspended due to lack to receiving quite a handful of gigs. Some clients post work, and never attend to it. I guess it counts for we freelancer's who apply or fall victim to such most of the time.

[barada00]

Adeyemi, can you share your source about the 5% please?

[g_vasilevski · Accepted solution]

Hi Adeyemi,

We have found only a small portion of our registered users are submitting many proposals but not winning any (or very few) contracts. In general, we suspend an account when a freelancer repeatedly applies to many jobs but fails to collect earnings or only earns a small amount. Thank you!

[petra_r]

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@Adeyemi I wrote:

It's the 5% my dear.

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 OK, so you know it's 5% HOW exactly? That would be 1-2 new jobs a month and that tends to not get people suspended.

So I think you either made it up or you read it somewhere on the Internet.

Written by someone who's not got a clue either.

[ad3y3m1]

I am sorry, is this a question? That would be 1-2 new jobs a month and that tends to not get people suspended.

[petra_r]

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@Adeyemi I wrote:

I am sorry, is this a question? That would be 1-2 new jobs a month and that tends to not get people suspended.

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 The question was where you got that 5% number from.

And whether you just made it up or read it on the Internet, written by someone else who just made it up.

As to how you handle unresponsive clients... You can't (obviously,) when they are not responsive, can you?

Maybe concentrate on clients who have a high hire rate and make sure your proposals are spot on and compelling.  You are in a very competitive field, so you need to stand out. Your profile needs work (proofreading it would be a great start to remove the mistakes which make your "English - Native or Bilingual" claim look doubtful, create pics for your portfolio items etc.

[ad3y3m1]

Your answers do not help unfortunately. I dont think you are responding to the question, rather you are trying to make judgements. I have gotten a very professional response from this gentle man: Goran V. 

[colettelewis]

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@Adeyemi I wrote:

Your answers do not help unfortunately. I dont think you are responding to the question, rather you are trying to make judgements. I have gotten a very professional response from this gentle man: Goran V. 

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 ______________________

Adeyemi,

Petra did respond to your questions. However, to add a few details to the picture:

1) Very few clients respond to proposals from freelancers they do not intend hiring. If a client is interested in your proposal you will get a reply. If you don't hear back, move on. Sometimes a client will contact you weeks after you send a proposal, but don't count on it.

2) Some clients are unresponsive even when you do get hired. This is something one has to get used to and cope with. 

We'd still like to know where you came up with the 5% though! 

[sharonliu]

You could try to stay with your current client (when you have found one). You could suggest a new contract to him. In this way, you would not need to spend time to find a new client. Good clients can only be realised after working with them. It is not just whether they hire or not. You would also need to look at the ease of work offered, the skills he demands, the ease of communication and so on.

You would definitely want to avoid the situation where you just submit proposals endlessly. If somebody interviews you or sends you an invite, you need to make it count, by being sufficiently prepared for the job itself. You may wish to cut down on your commitments, so you devote some time to improving your job chances in your chosen area every day. I can think of at least two grammatical corrections to your profile overview.

You could look at the hire history of clients, if you want to select those with a track record of hiring people. However, these contracts may be more competitive.

[petra_r]

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Sharon L wrote: I can think of at least two grammatical corrections to your profile overview.

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 There are 3 in the first line alone.

As the first line is the ONLY thing clients see in the preview window, that will lead to significantly fewer clients even looking at the whole profile.

Stuff like that is so easy to fix and can help a lot. When someone is just starting out they need to make sure they've optimized their profile in any way they can.

[ad3y3m1]

Quick to answer, good!. But how much time is taken to understand?

My question: So many people post jobs, and never respond. And even when you check the statistics of the latter, it says 0 interviews, and it stays that way for a very long time. ( These people do not respond to "ANYONE" ). It's not about me. It's about dis-regarding potential applicant's. That's why I said - How do you (Upwork) handle unresponsive clients?

Internet or not - A job application is to be treated as one. It's about the credibility of this platform. 

Your conclusion: Its your English, put a picture on your portfolio. 

I would rate such a very poor customer service, if you were one. 

[petra_r]

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@Adeyemi I wrote:

I would rate such a very poor customer service, if you were one. 

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 I was trying to help you get hired instead of becoming another statistic (by being removed or simply giving up because you have not been hired.

You can take the advice or carry on as you have been (with 0 hires, $ 0 earned)

The choice, as they say, is yours and yours alone.

[ad3y3m1]

(with 0 hires, $ 0 earned) Judgement's! Unprofessional remarks. 

I registered a while ago, but decided to try this thing out while I am on vacation. It's not an asset in my life, as it might seem to be for some people who might just not be good at handling client's in person.

I am not seeking help in getting hired. Its only been a week.

[craiggabriel]

1. Of course there's no foundation for the 5% figure. He heard that freelancers can get kicked out if they apply to a lot of jobs (especially with generic copy-and-paste or poor quality cover letters) and rarely if ever get hired, and he thought his post would seem more authoritative if he simply made up a number to go with it.

2. When he asked how "you" handle clients who don't respond to applications and never hire anyone, almost everyone interpreted "you" to be asking how "you, my fellow freelancers" handle it, and thus how he should handle it, and they answered accordingly. Actually he meant "you" in the sense of "you, Upwork" and he was asking how Upwork handles such clients. So he took the responses to be ad hominem attacks on him, presuming to criticize how he deals with clients and tell him what he ought to do instead, and not addressing his actual question about Upwork policy. (The short answer to his question is that for the most part Upwork doesn't "handle" such clients--in the sense of take action against them--at all. There is no requirement when you post a job here that you have to commit to hire someone, interview a certain minimum number of people, respond to those who apply, etc. If there were, far fewer clients would post jobs.)

3. Could people please stop pluralizing words by adding apostrophe-s before my head explodes? This became a thing some years ago, and it just gets increasingly common every year.

[ad3y3m1]

I gave you a Kukie, sorry I meant Kudo, or what that thing is called. 🙂

[craiggabriel]

Thanks. One can never have too many Kukies.

[tlsanders]

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@Craig G wrote:

3. Could people please stop pluralizing words by adding apostrophe-s before my head explodes? This became a thing some years ago, and it just gets increasingly common every year.

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 Craig, it's because we're all independent contractors. Dave Barry told us years ago that the apostrophe was used primarily by small business owners to signal that an "s" was forthcoming.

[jcullinan]

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@Craig G wrote:

3. Could people please stop pluralizing words by adding apostrophe-s before my head explodes? This became a thing some years ago, and it just gets increasingly common every year.

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It was actually a "thing" in English starting in the 1560s or so, and you can also blame it on the French. I've found it helps my blood pressure to assume that those "still" using the plural apostrophe are just charmingly retro. There's a marvelous newish book called Word by Word: the Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper that explains so many of these quirks with a historical and lexicographical perspective that you might enjoy. 🙂

[ad3y3m1]

I am grateful! Thanks a bunch.

[yitwail]

Adeyemi, I'm going to give you a little information. You described what Goran wrote as 'professional'. He works for Upwork; everyone else who responded to you is an ordinary Upwork freelancer. You can tell because Goran is a 'moderator', and Goran has a green Upwork icon like this after his name:  

Goran gets paid to answer questions in the community, so he has to be professional and nice. When ordinary contributors (freelancers and clients) answer, it's because they want to, and usually it's either to help, or ask questions in your case because you mentioned a 5% rule and no one except you had ever heard of a 5% rule. So next time you post in the community, keep in mind the difference between moderators and regular contributors. I don't know exactly how many moderators there are, but I'm pretty sure it's fewer than 20, so most of the time, a contributor will answer a question before a moderator does.