{"id":259,"date":"2015-04-02T16:11:09","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T10:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.azoora.com\/?p=259"},"modified":"2017-06-30T18:07:59","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T18:07:59","slug":"working-with-remote-clients-follow-these-2-simple-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/business\/working-with-remote-clients-follow-these-2-simple-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Working with Remote Clients ? Follow these 2 simple rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of the times software companies expect of working face to face with clients, but with more & more casualness growing amongst technology companies, especially the ones which allow you to work in-house, for ex.: Azoora Inc<\/a>., most of the designers\/developers or even business representatives should be prepared to work remotely with clients. It\u2019s more than a little different from working with a client in local.<\/p>\n

If you own a business, or even if you freelance on the side, you probably should have a website & that’s the likeliest to get you deal with remote clients. Advertising locally will bring you local clients, but the web is open world-wide. This means that if your site ranks well enough, or you\u2019ve built enough backlinks to your site from other places, people all over the globe will be contacting you. I\u2019ve never really cared where my clients came from, as long as they were pleasant to work with, and paid me on time.<\/p>\n

However, if you want a butter-smooth experience working with remote clients, try to follow these couple of rules \u2026<\/p>\n

First, Be Prompt & Appropriate while Communicating<\/h3>\n

Previously it just used to be phone and fax. And now, there are all plethora of tools to meet up or talk with your clients face to face sitting near a beach! I personally use Skype. I can share my screen, or they can share their screen. It makes it easy to show someone what you\u2019re talking about in real time. You can iron out any details, and it\u2019s almost like meeting with someone in person.<\/p>\n

Here’s how:<\/p>\n

Stay on top of email<\/strong><\/p>\n

I recommend that you check your email regularly. Have you ever emailed someone and had it take 2 days to receive a reply? That\u2019s the worst, especially when that person is holding up progress on something you\u2019re working on. You can use Outlook 2015 for permanent connectivity on this, I & my team use this in combination with Office 365<\/a> with for www.azoora.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Email tips For remote clients (or anyone, really)<\/h4>\n

Have you ever received a huge, jumbled mess of an email? If you\u2019d received a project-related email from me a couple of years ago, you might have received one. Then I received one from someone else, and realized how frustrating this can be. Don\u2019t send one giant muddled wrecking ball of thoughts and questions in your emails. Your clients will be intimidated, confused, and less likely to take the time to address your email properly. Here are some tips to make things easier for your remote clients:<\/p>\n

Try to avoid sending long, drawn out emails.
\nIf you must send large emails, break each idea up into a numbered list.
\nInclude screenshots of what you\u2019re talking about to make things easier.
\nDon\u2019t include unnecessary stories or personal information.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t hesitate to make a quick call<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes, that\u2019s all it takes. Don\u2019t put off calling them to ask questions to get a project moving in the right direction. Don\u2019t just rely on Skype or email. Use the phone to handle urgent matters and stay productive.<\/p>\n

Do what you do, but on the web<\/h4>\n

I know that\u2019s kind of vague, so let me elaborate. Remember those design briefs and all the stuff you normally do for your clients? Make sure to do those for your remote clients, too. They shouldn\u2019t receive any lesser quality of service than your local clients do. Send them a questionnaire, or interview them about their business on Skype. The slight advantage to using Skype is that you can record the design brief interview and refer to it later. This is helpful, because it can keep you on the right track with projects.<\/p>\n

Second, Be sure you collect payments in stages<\/h3>\n

We all want to get paid. There\u2019s nothing more frustrating than working with a client and doing good work, only to not get paid for it. You can avoid all of that if you use what I call the staging method.<\/p>\n

Stages<\/h4>\n

Set up a payment plan where they have to pay you at intervals throughout the project. Require an initial down payment, and charge payments at different intervals throughout the project.<\/p>\n

I do this for several reasons. It forces them to stay active in the project. You don\u2019t end up wasting a bunch of time designing something, only to have taken it in the wrong direction. Charging at intervals throughout the project, like every 25% of completion for example, ensures that you get paid for the work you\u2019ve done. If they want the work to continue, they\u2019ll pay you.<\/p>\n

Contracts<\/h4>\n

This can be a little hairier, but there are options available for handling contracts from afar. You can fax them a copy of the contract, which sounds a little old school. The problem is that most small business owners don\u2019t own a fax machine.<\/p>\n

There are solutions online for collecting e-signatures, which is handy for working with remote clients. Just because you\u2019re working online doesn\u2019t mean you should forget about contracts or agreements. Always protect yourself! You might want to check out EchoSign by Adobe. It can be a great solution for handing this.<\/p>\n

Websites & files<\/h4>\n

The golden rule is never to release files until payments are complete, ever. There\u2019s no incentive for those clients to pay you what they owe you. They won\u2019t be in a hurry to send you the money they owe you if they already have what they need. I know it sounds bad, but it\u2019s almost like holding their project for ransom. The only difference is that they actually owe you the money to begin with.<\/p>\n

Always send lower resolution previews, like low resolution flattened PDFs. This ensures that they won\u2019t hijack your work and leave you hanging. This is especially useful for print files, like flyers and brochures. Never hand files over to clients before they pay you.<\/p>\n

For websites, build them in demo sections on your own hosting or sub-domains. Once it\u2019s built like they want, you can move it over to their servers, but only after they\u2019ve paid you. They can review the site you\u2019ve built via the demo link, but they won\u2019t be able to hijack your work without paying. They can request any final changes before wrapping up their final payment.<\/p>\n

Sending large files<\/h4>\n

This has always been a problem, because you just can\u2019t send large files via email. Email clients won\u2019t allow it, and most servers safeguard against it. However, there are ways to send large files to clients easily. If you have a Dropbox<\/a> account, you can send them a download link. You can also set up shared folders for project files. This is great for long term projects that have multiple parts.<\/p>\n

I personally use OneDrive since I use Office 365, since it already comes integrated with Windows 10 & 8. But alternatively there are also tons of services for sending large files: We Transfer<\/a>, DropSend<\/a>, Transfer Big Files<\/a>, and High Tail<\/a> are all good & will help you get feedbacks & take projects from concept to completion. They’ll be with you all the way! Try them out!<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Working with remote clients should not be treated as a headache, I’ve been personally working with only remote clients since last 7-8 years. It can\/has been actually very rewarding. On top of that, by following these simple guidelines it will ensure that your remote clients are happy<\/strong>, you get paid<\/strong>, and everything goes smoothly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of the times software companies expect of working face to face with clients, but with more & more casualness growing amongst technology companies, especially the ones which allow you to work in-house, for ex.: Azoora Inc., most of the designers\/developers or even business representatives should be prepared to work remotely with clients. It\u2019s more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/featured_remote.png","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7FQPL-4b","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667,"href":"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions\/667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}