19 Feb 11 What Client seeks from its Service Providers?

Nature of clients and their size of business may vary, but clients’ requirements from its service providers remain same always. Service provider may be an advertising agency or printing agency, office furniture provider or security service provider. Every service provider comes with its own standard of operation and respective job requirement; but basic expectations from clients remain same everywhere.

These are the few requirements clients consider mandatory from its service providers.

Authenticity

Clients always look for authentic companies, who are in the business since long and have earned good reputation in the same. If company is new, inexperienced and can’t be traced easily client may not approach it.

Good image

Clients never wish to get associated with a service provider who has bad name in the market; since association with controversial companies also bring bad name in the industry. Choosing a prestigious company is very important for any client.

Competitive edge

Every client wants to remain ahead of its competitors whether in terms of office space décor or in stationary designs. It is not only an ego boost for the client, but also they love to talk about its service provider to all. If you wish your clients to stay with you for long time, always make sure you give something more than your competitors. Don’t compromise with the quality and never stop innovating something new.

Meeting deadline

Working within the stipulated timeframe is very important aspect of any business. Even if you are an excellent service provider with exceptional standard of quality, but you fail to give work on time clients may blacklist you forever. If client gives a deadline to its service provider, it definitely involves lot of thinking.

Recognition

Clients look for recognized service provider. It can be recognition from an international council or government body or any well known institution. Clients hesitate to take risk of being associated with an unapproved or unrecognized company. It can also be recognition from well known personality.

Affordable

Last but not the least, most of the clients prefer to keep their expenses as low as possible. Even if the service provider is excellent clients hesitate to pay a premium price for that. Clients may agree to pay little more than the industry standard rate, but not exorbitant.

Tags: Advertising Agency, Authenticity, Clients Requirements, Competitive Edge, Compromise, Ego, Excellent Service, Good Reputation, Government Body, Long Time, Nature, New Meeting, Office Furniture, Office Space, Prestigious Company, Risk, Security Service Provider, Service Providers, Stationary Designs, Time Clients

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08 Sep 10 Should You Write Free Sample Articles for a Client?

Quite often in the beginning of your writing career you will encounter a client who will ask you to write a sample for him for free on his chosen topic before he could make his mind about your suitability to his work. Such requests put a beginner freelance writer in a fix.

The freelance writer gets confused whether he should write a free sample or not. He knows that refusing to write a free sample will mean losing the client, and writing a free sample may result in client’s disappearance, which is not unheard of in the business. Many clients, under the disguise of asking for free samples to evaluate the candidacy for a fictional big project, just take samples from various freelance writers and disappear.

The question is what should a freelance writer do, in situation like that?

There is not one single answer to this. You may or may not write a free sample. It all depends on you and kind of sample being asked to write. I cannot tell you that you should write or not, but I can tell you about the process I go through when deciding on whether to comply with the wish of getting a free sample or not.

Client authenticity checklist

Indeed, you need check the person’s authenticity before saying yes or no to his wish to have a free sample, and you can do this by doing the following things, at least I do these things:

Run a Google search with the client’s name, nickname along with the words like scam, cheat, fraud, scammer, etc., one at a time. This is done to find whether there is any reported fraudulent activity related to him. If he has done anything mischievous to people or service providers, you may find something. Well, this does not happen always, but most of the time, you will get what you are looking for.
I check the reviews and rating of a client, if I have been approached by him through a freelance exchange websites or forums. If there is enough positive reviews about a client then I think favorably of his request
Is the client giving me too rosy a picture to be true? A cheater will often show you a grand, often unrealistic, view of the future, in case you get the work, for which you will have to submit a free sample custom written on topic given by him. I stay away from such bait.
I never write a sample, if a client asks for a sample of 500+ words. From my experience I can say that such demands often come from clients with dubious intentions. I often offer to write a sample of not more than 250 words, and occasionally 300 words.

These are steps I run a client through before accepting or rejecting his offer. I think this will work for you. At least you should try this strategy, if you do not have any. Something is always better than having an absolute zilch.

Tags: Authenticity, Candidacy, Disappearance, Disguise, Exchange Websites, Fraud, Fraudulent Activity, Free Articles, Free Sample, Free Samples, Freelance Writer, Freelance Writers, Google, Google Search, Nickname, Sample Articles, Scammer, Service Providers, Suitability

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