How To Build Professional Relationships With Your Clients

It’s a fact too obvious that your professional relationship plays a significant role when it comes to client interaction and optimizing the work process. Let's just say, healthy work relationships are a two-way affair: the client benefits from your skills and you, in turn, receive appraisals, remuneration, and referrals. The understanding between the recruiter and the worker is the glue that binds the project and leads to the required results. 90% of your clients will want to work with you again if you have curate a formidable professional relationship. This article is on how to build, improvise and work towards a better relationship with your clients, especially as a freelancer.

The need for healthy work relationships

As a freelancer, it is necessary (not to mention beneficial) to build healthy relationships with your clients since your existence depends on networking and client interaction. A good relationship can also lead to recommendations and great feedback, helping you land another freelancing gig.

How you can build and improve your work relationships

For most freelancers, building a positive work relationship is a key part of the business. Why? Well, a strong and positive image leads to good work ethics which in turn leads to transparency and good outcome. Can you guess the most important aspect of building a good relationship? Mentioned below are some factors necessary for curating a healthy relationship with your clients.

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Ways to build a healthy relationship with your clients

Observe how you communicate

Communication can be overtly underrated when you are busy paying attention to finding jobs, your client’s requirements, and the assignment at hand. And yet, the art of presenting information adds significant weightage to how you engage with your client during the project and after.

But effective communication isn't a daunting task. Most clients simply look for freelancers who are open, have a positive approach towards the client's suggestions, carry themselves professionally, and maintain an easy-to-approach aura around them. This way, you can build healthy work relationships.

Few Tips To Follow

• Be positive in your approach towards the client.
• Maintain an easy correspondence so that the client need not reach out to you again and again by themselves.
• Be professional in your conduct. It is a valued quality.
• Be open to client suggestions and discuss your views to root out any communication gap.

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Be honest with your credentials

We do realize how important it is for you to bag that big project. But being dishonest with your credentials is not the right solution. Lying on your freelancing portfolio is an act frowned upon within professional circles besides destroying your credibility on the freelancing platform. You tend to lose out on some vital clients. What is the solution? Making the best of your genuine experiences and work samples and presenting it in the best manner possible. This helps you to have better professional relationship with your client.

Few Tips To Follow

• Be honest with your work credentials, even if they are sparse.
• Looking for variety in your freelance jobs helps you gain experience and diversify your portfolio.
• Be transparent while informing your client about your previous work experiences and skills. Alternatively, be confident of your ability to learn and improve if you lack a certain skill. Honesty is an asset that is appreciated everywhere.

Your work matters a lot

Your client is paying you for your work after all. Therefore, honest work, responsibility, and client satisfaction are imperative to build your professional relationship. It is hard and takes time but the valuable work experience and networking is worth the efforts!

Few Tips To Follow

• Be honest with your skills, work samples, and experiences.
• Listen to what your clients say. Ask questions to get their views and lay out your own opinion.
• Find ways to improvise on your own. Your client’s not going to run after you to slip in every minute detail. A good research on your own about the business as well as the client is a great option.

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Pay attention

You can improve your professional relationship with the client by paying attention. Yes, we aren't bluffing here. Something as simple as keeping a note of everything your client suggests can reveal a lot about your client’s preference, his or her aspirations, and goals regarding the job which need to be achieved.

Few Tips To Follow

• Talk to them in their language.
• Take constant notes whenever and wherever needed to let them know you are listening. Also, respect the demands of the job at hand.
• Maintain eye contact. We are not talking about a staring contest. Rather, a constant, warm gaze with slight nodding from time to time shows that you are listening and respect what the client has to say.

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Do your research

Research to have a clear knowledge of your goals and requirements for completing the undertaken assignment. Research also gives you a good grasp over them. If you are a freelancer, you already know about the role good research plays in your work. This helps in improving your professional relationship with the client. So what exactly are we asking you to do?

Start by having sound knowledge of your employee, his or her credentials, vision and goals, the assignment you are expected to work on, and the background details of your client’s company.

Few Tips To Follow

• Do your homework every time you set out to meet your client. Make a list of all the points that need to be discussed during the meeting and accumulate some understanding before you head out. This way, you can understand your client better and be prepared to take up his or her questions.
• If you are a beginner, then research about your work or project, how you can do the work more efficiently, and what other freelancers use to perform similar work.
• Once you obtain work, especially content writing, research about the topic before you start. You will have solid knowledge about that topic. This goes a long way in maintaining healthy work relationships.

Share your knowledge

You want to build a good and healthy relationship with your clients and the foundation of every professional relationship is trust. To build trust with your clients, you need to share the knowledge you have; this will not only demonstrate your expertise but also show how serious you are about the job. When you get a job, prioritize it and put in your maximum efforts.

Few Tips To Follow

• Ask questions to your client and find the optimal solution.
• Share your domain knowledge along with your experience in that niche.
• Tell the clients how you can improve their business with your skills.
• Your positive impact helps build trust.

Conclusion

Every relation starts with professional and effective communication. So keep working on your communication skills. Whenever you get negative feedback, don't fret over it. Instead, learn from it and move on with a smile. Your hard work and honesty will bring in more customers, thereby establishing and strengthening professional relationships with your clients.