All posts by Jake Poinier

advice, Business, client relationships

Customer Service Sizzle

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By Jake Poinier

If you don’t already read the blog musings of Peter Shankman, founder of HARO (aka Help a Reporter Out), you should. (His twitter handle is @petershankman.) He related a steak-AND-sizzle customer service tale yesterday, “The Greatest Customer Service Story Ever Told, Starring Morton’s Steakhouse.”

At my last corporate job, we had a regular Monday morning meeting that always closed with an employee or two sharing a positive or negative customer service story from the previous week—something that happened at the bank, grocery store, car dealer, whatever. Some stories were better than others, but the bottom line was that it subliminally focused your attention on finding examples of people going the extra mile.

And that, in turn, gave you a sense of what you could do in your own job to make the company’s custom publication clients happier.

Mind you, it doesn’t escape me that Morton’s has a huge advantage over the average freelancer—steak, shrimp, and potatoes grab attention in ways that a clever headline, eye-catching design layout, or stunning photograph can’t really touch. Nonetheless, the same principles apply:

  • Customers put as much weight on the process as they do on the product—so make sure your project management is as rock solid as your creative output.
  • A client in need is a slam-dunk opportunity for you to be a hero.
  • If you can do your job in a way that gets people talking, that 3rd party recommendation is a lot more powerful than tooting your own horn. By now, this Morton’s story has been read by hundreds of thousands of people via Shankman’s various social media channels.

Do you have a customer service story that has impacted the way you do business? Please share in the comments!

Jake Poinier is the owner of Boomvang Creative Group and writes a freelance advice column as Dr. Freelance.

advice, blogging, Business, editorial, featured, Interviews

5 Questions with Jake Poinier

Jake runs Phoenix-based Boomvang Creative Group, writes an advice column for freelancers as Dr. Freelance, and is a regular contributor here at Freelance-Zone.com—most recently posting on “The 7 Scariest Words in the Freelance World.”

1. How did you wind up a writer?
I got my first encouragement from a high school English teacher, which led to writing for the school paper and later for my hometown paper in Massachusetts. After graduating college, I worked for about two years each at several different magazines. I realized at that point that my freelance stable had a lot of successful, independent-minded people in it…and I thought, “Why not me?” That was in 1999, and I’m happier with each passing year.

2. Was the road to being a writer what you expected? Why or why not?
Approximately. I consider myself fortunate to have worked for and with some outstanding businesses, which taught me more than an MBA ever could. I honestly don’t *love* writing the way some freelancers do, but the entrepreneurial aspect is what motivates me—which I credit to my dad.

3. What has been your best moment or biggest accomplishment as a writer?
Ha, I’d like to say it hasn’t happened yet. But I still get a thrill from each new client, had a blast ghostwriting my first book a few years ago, and I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to interview some of the world’s top professional speakers for Speaker magazine. And I’m looking forward to publishing my own first book in a few months.

4. What has been your most difficult moment?
I think the shock of my first non-paying client. I’d done a big web project for a local business, which went belly-up before I got paid. It was a cold, hard reminder that, particularly if you’re doing a sizable amount of work for an unproven entity, you need to ask for a deposit. If they say “no”…there’s your sign.

5. Can you share your top piece of writing advice with Freelance-Zone readers?
Be the writer who you’d want to hire if you were an editor or client. Some folks want lots of communication and updates, some just want the finished product. Figure out what the person wants, and deliver it.

advice, Business, client relationships, editorial

The 7 Scariest Words in the Freelance World

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By Jake Poinier

“We have just a few more changes.”

OK, if I haven’t scared you off with that skin-crawling, please-shoot-me-now, 7 Scariest Words in the Freelance World phrase, stick with me. It’s a horror story with a happy ending. (For the background on the client relationship, please see “Your Digital Triage Kit.”)

My design partner and I had delivered everything in the contract for a Fortune 500 company. The incremental changes during the editing/approval process had been tedious, but the files had been appended with “_FINAL.docx”, and we were ready to invoice.

Only FINAL didn’t mean final-final. We started receiving a steady stream of “we have just a few more changes” emails—with the requests now coming from a third-party PR firm that I’d love to name, but I’m too much of a gentleman. (Barely.)

I was floored. I disagreed with most of the comments, which were a combination of silly and this-would-take-another-100-words-to-explain. My partner took the position that we needed to stick to our guns, and I agreed: Either we were done, or additional changes would come at our hourly rate.

She wrote a pleasant, logical, and firm email that explained our position. And guess what? The über-boss of the project gave her a call…and ended up seeing it our way. Which, again, left me floored. This time in a good way!

For me, there were three takeaways:

  1. We were right to stand our ground, knowing that it could have backfired—they could have said we were breaching the contract unless we made the changes. Clearly, that could have been a never-ending process.
  2. We were remiss in not defining the word “approved” in the contract, which was provided from the client end. I’ll confess, specifying the number of rounds of changes has always bothered me, and in my almost 12 years of doing this, I’ve rarely had someone abuse the privilege. I may need to rethink my position.
  3. Third parties, trying to prove their value by criticizing your work, are toxic.

Please share in the comments: Do you specify rounds of changes in your agreements? Does it work? Has it ever backfired?

Jake Poinier runs Boomvang Creative Group, an editorial services firm, and blogs regularly as Dr. Freelance.

client relationships

If You Give a Client a Cookie

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if you give a mouse a cookieBy Jake Poinier

If you’re a parent, or have had any contact whatsoever with five-year-olds, or were yourself born sometime since 1985, you’re likely familiar with Laura Joffe Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie book series. (The favorite in our household was If You Give a Moose a Muffin.)

The basic principle is the cascade of escalating demands that occurs once you start giving in to someone of a needy-bossy persuasion: After you give the mouse a cookie, he’ll want some milk to go with it…and if he’s got a glass of milk, surely he’ll need a straw to drink it…and before you know it, you’re running around trying to oblige his newest request and the house is in a shambles.

IYGAMAC also happens to be the favorite business book of one of the most successful salespeople I know in the custom publishing business. He deals in six- and seven-figure projects, so he’s well aware of the temptation to sweeten the pot for potential clients — one easy concession surely leads to another, until suddenly you’ve got a contract that’s a lot more complicated and a lot less profitable.

For freelancers, the escalating demand dynamic often occurs in the form of scope creep or mission creep. It’s very common for a client to test your limits on how many itty-bitty revisions you’ll do for free, how short a deadline you’ll accept without rush charges, or how many changes in project direction you can stomach without going postal.

Each of us needs to manage cookie-craving clients in our own way, but in the simple spirit of IYGAMAC, here are a few thoughts to keeping the lid on the cookie jar till it’s appropriate:

  • Define policies in your contract or estimate. You can only negotiate things in writing, never he-said-she-said.
  • Set expectations early. Your behaviors at the beginning of a client relationship speak volumes about how you’re going to be to work with. I aim for something along the lines of firm-but-fair.
  • Don’t be a fool about it. I’m personally a lot freer with cookies when it comes long-term, loyal clients (who’ve earned them) or high-paying clients (who are paying for them) — not just any random mouse or moose who happens upon my doorstep.

Check out Jake’s most recent Dr. Freelance article: “The real freelance minimum wage.”

advice, client relationships

Fred? It’s Wilma Calling

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By Jake Poinier

In the past week, I’ve twice employed what I’ll call my Fred Flintstone technique. If you’re a fan of the old Flintstones cartoon, you’ll remember how, when Fred would get yelled at by Wilma over the phone, he’d hold the ram’s horn handset away from his head while she ranted on.

The truth is, there are going to be times as a freelancer when you just need to hear the client out. Don’t try to defend yourself, don’t try to explain why you did what you did, don’t even respond. Just listen.

We’re not perfect, nor are our clients. Sometimes they are cranky, and some are crankier than others. Ultimately, you need to have a sixth sense of when it’s going to benefit you to keep your mouth shut. If you’ve ever been on a good — or bad — customer service call, you remember exactly how you felt. I’ve canceled accounts purely over poor customer service, and I’ve also had my faith renewed in an entire brand by a single sympathetic voice.

The best customer services reps are incredibly skilled at one thing: de-escalation. They don’t want you to pull the ol’ “put a manager on the line!” gambit, and they want to solve your problem quickly and to your satisfaction.

Well, as a freelancer, there *is* no one to escalate to. You’re it, whether you like it or not. The problem is yours to solve.

There will be days when the little devil on your shoulder is prodding you with a pitchfork, and saying, “Go ahead — give ’em both barrels!” Better, however to listen to the angel on the other side: Take a cleansing breath, close your eyes, listen with as much sympathy as you can muster…and hold the phone away from your ear if it’s too much to deal with.

Jake Poinier runs Boomvang Creative Group, an editorial services firm, and blogs regularly as Dr. Freelance.

advice, client relationships, editorial

Your digital triage kit

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This Wednesday, I received a disheartening call from my graphic design partner, Eileen, on a new freelance job we’re working on: Our mutual client didn’t like the short “success profile” I’d written. Frankly, it came as a bit of a shock — I thought I’d followed the assignment to a T, and that the profile captured the tone they were looking for. It’s always a bit of a kick in the stomach when that happens…mercifully, it doesn’t happen all that often.

As Eileen and I talked through the feedback, three things were clearly the main obstacles: 1) I had written an early sentence that the client didn’t like, 2) one of the comments was “it just looks like a big block of text” and 3) another comment was that it was too long — she wanted it to be one page.

Well, we had all agreed that we’d get signoff on the text before going to design stage, and heaven knows Word ain’t pretty. Moreover, they’d contracted for 500 words; I’d had to spill onto a second page to hit the count. So, we went to Plan B: I’d execute some edits to reword the offending sentence and shorten everything to fit on one page, and Eileen would put it into a designed page.

Mentally, we prepared for the worst. Eileen, who now had a design on the line, joked that she was ready with her “digital triage kit” if her layout got shredded, too.

Amazingly enough, the client absolutely loved our second shot at it. She thought the content was 100% better…even though I’d probably only touched 10% of it.

Most designers and editors are hesitant to do too much design work before the text has been approved — and rightfully so, because you can waste a lot of time on the wrong thing. But sometimes, even though we’re Word People, you need to recognize the influence that form has on function. A talented designer will make your words a lot more powerful to someone who’s more visual.

In the comments, please share your tale of a successful…or not so successful…Plan B on a freelance job!

Jake Poinier runs Boomvang Creative Group, an editorial services firm, and blogs regularly as Dr. Freelance.