Communication with freelance clients is a guarantee of your peace of mind

A large number of people who are just starting to work with freelancers are convinced that a good portfolio and a large number of positive reviews are a kind of guarantee of quality of work. Often this is true, but there are always exceptions that you definitely do not want to become and, I hope, will not.
Portfolio is wonderful, positive feedback is wonderful. But all this must be treated carefully. I believe that an integral part of the process of choosing a freelancer for the project is communication with his former clients , which can open up to you a freelancer from a completely different side. “Do you have few reviews?” You ask. Yes, they are few for several reasons. First, the content of the average recall should be taken into account:

• Good work and result!
• Very satisfied. XXXXX - thanks!
• talented and executive person, I recommend, etc.

Much useful information can be pulled out from here? Not. Secondly, even a detailed (to some extent) review should not be 100% believed, since the client often cannot fully objectively evaluate the work of a freelancer. Review is written after the final receipt of the order, when the customer received what he wanted, when he was satisfied and when some rough spots in the work can be forgiven. For example, you can not make an anti-PR and not talk about the fact that the freelancer was delayed with the delivery of the project, but you can indicate that he is talented and pleasant to communicate. You have to agree that “not everyone will be“ killing in karma ”after receiving an order that you liked.

What do you think, in my opinion, can tell a former client in personal correspondence, what you will not find in the reviews and, especially, in the portfolio? Much, I will give some examples from life and personal experience:

• You can find out that the freelancer does not know how or works very badly with a bank transfer , although this service is announced to him. The scheme is not adjusted, the process is very slow, the freelancer does not know how to work with documents. And after all you can want to pay a clearing settlement. Unfortunately, I have such (very deplorable) experience - the office through which the freelancer carried out operations, he simply “threw”. The freelancer did not receive his money, his team, respectively, also. The work got up, all the deadlines were broken several times, the project was completed by a miracle. I want to emphasize that this freelancer worked with the largest companies of both Russian and Western origin, and his services cost a lot. Conjuncture? Perhaps, but if I was not too lazy and talked with 3-4 of his major clients, I would have learned that he worked with them only in cash and cleared for the first time I tried on me;
• Freelancer does not know how to report. Personally, it is important for me to see that the work is going on, that there is progress. I do not like work jerky. For me, if a freelancer is silent for 3 days, 5 days, a week - this is a reason to think, is there anything being done there? Perhaps the client simply did not hurry and therefore reacted to this normally (and therefore did not reflect in the recall), but it may not suit you;
• A lot of strength and nerves are spent on explaining to the freelancer what you need. And like trying, but everything does not work. An experienced freelancer should grasp on the fly, he should quickly become aware of the customer’s needs. When we go with a bad tooth to the dentist, we do not need to explain what we need. We open our mouth and the dentist immediately understands everything. Here it should be about the same, otherwise you can redo the layouts 100 times and only 101 times get what you need. True, a lot depends on the customer, I do not argue.

These are just a few examples. Maybe you have even more interesting examples, express yourself, we will complement the list.

Of course, the deadlines, the “unprofitability” of the freelancer, the inability to work with a bank transfer may not be reflected in the final result (layout). But how much nerves and energy will be spent?
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Someone will say that I burned with milk, so I blow on the water. Perhaps this is true, but the careful, as they say ...
I recommend very carefully to the selection of freelancers. The right choice is 85% of project success.

PS Everything I listed in the list I met in reality. And this happened in the process of working with well-known freelancers with a solid track record.