A major part of being a freelancer is incorporating the feedback you receive from clients. Whether it’s a check-in on partial work or a full presentation of a finished project, the feedback you receive is critical to your ongoing relationship with this client.
But what happens when you get bad feedback? And by “bad feedback,” I don’t mean that a client is disappointed in your work. What we’re focusing on here is when you receive useless feedback that leaves you confused as to your next steps.
Picture this. You present your work and you start to get the feeling that the client is not thrilled. You could sense this in their tone or voice, body language, or in the comments they’re giving you.
Sound familiar? If you’ve been a freelancer for a while, you’ve likely encountered this reception at least once.
You know that old expression that there is no bad ideas? Well, the same isn’t true for receiving feedback. You can indeed get bad feedback.
The tricky thing is that bad feedback often masquerades as reasonable feedback. After all, what’s wrong with a client giving their opinion on what you’re presenting?
Client Suggestions Aren’t Always Helpful
One of the difficulties of taking in a lot of seemingly disconnected suggestions is that when you try to put all the pieces together—like a giant, 1,000-piece puzzle—you’ll see that the overall project is destined to fail. The project you’re working on was carefully considered by you during all the stages that led to this review. And now, by nit-picking with tiny ideas, the project will start to unravel like the yarn on a sweater getting caught on a door jamb.
Feedback like this turns you into someone who just takes requests—you’re a short-order chef in a 24-hour diner after the bars shut for the night.
The problem is that your client is trying to do your job for you by providing you with the solutions instead of letting you come up with the solutions. Remember, your client hired you because you are the expert at what you do. The client needs your expertise!
In a feedback session, your client may have ideas about your work, but their primary role is to voice the problems—the things that aren’t working—and then let you come up with the solution.
Beware of Lazy Clients
We’re posted elsewhere on this site about “Lazy Client Syndrome.” This takes one of two forms. The first form is that the client is lazy about giving you input and just wants you to “figure it out.” Not helpful!
The second form is at the other end of the spectrum. The client inundates you with too much information to accomplish what you need to do. Talk about information overload!
Both of these forms of feedback will leave you with your head spinning and not move the project along. Read more about how to address these issues in this post.
How To Redirect the Conversation To Nail the Project
So, what do you do? As soon as you notice the client is giving you “solutions” instead “problems,” you need to refocus the meeting. Simply say, “The best way for move forward is for me to understand what’s not working for you in this project. Once we nail that down, I can work on possible solutions. Can you tell me exactly what isn’t working for you?”
You may need to keep reiterating that you want to hear about the problems and not the solutions. But remember that it’s often going to be up to you and to guide the review and get the information you need to revise your work and create the best project.
Solutions from your client won’t do that—but an understanding of the problems with the project will.
If All Else Fails…
If you’re finding a client is driving you crazy with impossible feedback or even if you’re simply not enjoying the work anymore…stop working with them. You’re agreed to a project or contract, so you need to finish it. Then let your client know it will be the last project you’ll be able to work on with them.
Once you’ve determined that a client relationship isn’t working, it’s perfectly acceptable to part ways. Check out this post for some dos and dont’s to make sure you fire your freelance client so that you don’t burn bridges.
Your Turn
Tell us about a time when a client provided you with “useless feedback.” How did you overcome it and complete the project? Let us know in the comments below!
