First of all, excuse my poor English.

There’s a lot of discussion about the 24/7 service. Jeffrey just wanted to offer an example of a better customer service. Maybe it is a good idea or maybe not. For me, to write down that you will be available 24/7 is not healthy, because someone may take it literally…even worst if it’s written in a contract.

My question is: What happens if a client actually calls you at 4 a.m. or every time he or she has a new “design idea”? How do you deal with this kind of annoying client? Is there an article regarding this subject?

Thanks for the article, Jeffrey!

The recent post “8 things you should include in your terms of service agreement” goes into this. I’m all for different approaches, but seriously, the 24/7 part of this post seems clearly optimistic, rather than informed. It should, in contrast, present the possible and obvious setbacks of that approach, and hence point out a real scenario, not just the good bits, so as to pomote an informed decision, not a biased one.

http://freelanceswitch.com/clients/8-things-you-should-include-in-your-terms-of-service-agreement/

Other than that, I did like the read, very much, as it does point out one of our major issues (and good solutions) and objectives, “reeling in th big ones”.

“Communication. If you can’t meet a suggested deadline on a new assignment, no sweat. Just talk to me and let me know so I can assign it to someone who can get it done”

He asked for responses within 24hours, and a 24 hr turn around on tiny little tasks. It’s very apparent that the management likes having a pool of freelancers that can give them very speedy and high quality customer service, rather than dishing out $ for full time employees or dealing with a sluggish agency.

The reason that I focused on the customer service aspect more than quality of the work is because, large and expensive design firms do exquisite work. It would be hard to gain an edge over them in at respect.

But obviously, customer service is just one tool to work with. There are many ways to stand out.

But, to be honest, I’d rather have the quality of my work stand out, and have that be the reason large clients are attracted to me. But of course it helps to stand out in as many aways as possible!

When you are a freelancer or running in any other business, sometimes you have to do what you have to do to complete your task at hand. I agree with Jeff, because going that extra mile is how I was able to get my name passed along to high profile people in the first place.

Jeff, I think your article was good no matter what age or stage of the design/programming career that someone may be in… let people take what they will from it. Customer service is never a bad idea, Thanks for your efforts.

Great article… Speaking of customer service, who here has ever received poor service from Chick-fil-A? It just never happens and I can’t figure it out. And so I keep gaining weight eating their classic chicken sandwich (but not on Sundays, of course, because they’re closed on Sundays).