Negative Reviews! How to Deal with them On Your Freelance Profile?

Negative reviews can have a significant effect on your freelance career. While 5-star reviews are great, there is no denying the amount of impact negative reviews can have on you.

This article explores some tips and advice to help you deal with negative reviews. It offers advice on both how to respond when they are already published and how to avoid receiving them in the first place.

What Causes Negative Reviews?

You'll never find a solution if you don't see the problem. So, here're some reasons that may stand between you and the good reviews:

A freelancer may have implemented the necessary things to accomplish the client's tasks, but a portion of clients are not willing to acknowledge the efforts made. Those people feel cheated and end up leaving a bad review about the freelancer.

Here're some other reasons that may push the clients to leave bad feedback about the freelancer:

• No communication between freelancer and client
• No delivery of ordered work in time
• No online presence from the freelancer
• Delayed project that was not announced in advance
• The freelancer has been paid in advance but did not finish the project correctly
• Deliveries that contain errors
• Slow work progress
• Fail to deliver what was on the contract

As you're a part of the problem, you should be a part of the solution.

Here're some tips that will help you deal with negative reviews from clients on your freelance profile.

Avoid negative reviews from the beginning

You can't ignore negative reviews on social media, but you can try to avoid them from happening. Take a walk in your client's shoes. Don't just listen to what your clients complain about; understand solutions that will satisfy them. Moreover, you have to respond as quickly as possible as the way you communicate determines a lot regarding your client's satisfaction.

Learn the art of "Replying."

Learn how to dispute a bad review professionally and diplomatically. Write back diplomatically, as if you are responding to an old friend. Give the facts without being argumentative. Make sure it's clear that you're taking the client's report seriously and that you want them to be happy with your results.

If your client says you didn't do the job and refuses to pay you,

you might be thinking: how do I get them to pay me? The first thing is to make sure whichever work you ask for payment has been done correctly. You might have heard that price is not essential if the work was good. This may be true for some jobs, but clients want to know they are getting value for money in most cases. If you don't think you did the job correctly, then it is your responsibility to correct it right away.

Takeaway: Most of the time, a client contacts you because they have a problem with something. Use these sessions as an opportunity to turn them into marketing material. Of course, you should always provide a detailed answer to the problem, but this means more than just solving it with one bad solution.

Be professional when responding to negative reviews

Don't take things personally. Keep calm and reply professionally, even if the reviewer is attacking you.

Learn from your past clients to boost your future business

Every freelancer deals with both good and bad reviews. As a freelancer, you must already gain enough experience working with clients to handle them constructively. We all know that dealing with bad reviews requires time and money; it can make it hard to be enthusiastic about your business and make you feel like making excuses instead of focusing on your work. You've to recognize that every freelancer experiences terrible reviews, but how you react to them can either make or break your online reputation.

Make sure you have happy clients only

We all love happy clients. We want to have satisfied clients because they usually are the ones who will also leave positive reviews about our work. They will talk about us with their friends. Happy clients become word-of-mouth that can increase our freelance business exponentially if we're doing a good job.

Be responsive and proactive

The internet is an important place for your freelance business, so you must take a proactive stance to manage the reputation that precedes you there.

Learn how to respond in different situations

A bad review can be upsetting. Instead of letting it get to you, keep calm and deal with the situation effectively. By being honest, you'll improve your response rate. If someone is angry at you, acknowledge that they have a good reason to be but be confident in your ability to resolve their problem. Dealing with criticism very well is an essential skill for freelance writers.

Responding well to a customer complaint will command your clients' respect and help keep your freelance business afloat.

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