Professional Correspondence for Freelancers and Solopreneurs.
Prompt and professional.
Courteous and effective correspondence.
Freelancers are small (or micro) businesses and therefore need to communicate professionally at all times. A surprising number of freelancers fall at this very first hurdle, perhaps not realizing that their approach to communication may perhaps put clients off.
Effective business correspondence.
When composing an email to a client, bear in mind the 5 C Principles:
Courteous: This is a very important point. Even if you adhere to all the other principles, clients will not be too impressed if your email lacks common professional courtesy. This includes an appropriate greeting and style, and a professional tone. “Hey dude, thanks for your enquiry but my cat just jumped on my keyboard and deleted your file. Can you resend it?” is obviously not appropriate and will probably ensure that you won’t hear from your potential new client again. Even if you’ve been working with a client for a long time and are quite familiar with them, keep your private and professional lives separate. It’s fine to mention what you did with your kids on the weekend, but don’t elaborate and quickly move back to business.
If you receive an enquiry that appears rude to you, follow the 20-minute rule: Don’t reply immediately but take a 20-minute break (and a deep breath), and then compose a professional, courteous reply. It’s never worth being rude, and you’ll want to avoid burning any bridges.
Clear: Delete any superfluous words and get your message across in clear terms, so there are no uncertainties on the client’s side. The recipient of your email doesn’t know what you were thinking when you wrote your message, so it must make sense to them without the need for asking you clarifying questions. Use paragraphs and underline or bold terms or sentences that you feel are important.
Complete: Before sending your message, read it again and check that you have not forgotten any important details. If you are responding to an enquiry that asked you several questions (e.g. about your rate, expertise, turnaround times), your reply should provide answers to all of them. Also triple-check that you have really attached all files you meant to attach. It happens to the best of us at times, but it will make a better impression if your email does arrive with a promised attachment the first time round.
Concise: Don’t waffle! There is no need for lengthy sentences or beating around the bush. The shorter and more concise your message, the better. Clients are generally time-poor and don’t want to read novels, so they will appreciate a concise message. This will leave an excellent impression as you will be considered as someone who is easy to communicate with.
Correct: As a language professional, it goes without saying that your business correspondence should be free of errors and typos. Always run the spellchecker and read every message one more time before hitting the ‘Send’ button.
Prompt replies.
The business world is generally very fast moving. Press releases, for example, need to be turned around as quickly as possible while they are still current. So clients will appreciate a prompt response to enquiries and follow-up emails. Taking too long to reply will cause annoyance and may deter them from using your services again in the future.
You will need to decide for yourself how often you want to check and respond to emails. I’d suggest checking emails every 30 to 60 minutes and replying to urgent matters as soon as possible, even if it’s just to decline an offer to quote if it’s not in your remit. This is where a smartphone comes in very handy. It allows you do enjoy your time wherever you wish and lets you respond to client enquiries even by the side of the pool! A short “I’ll be back at my desk in one hour and will be able to get back to you then.” is often sufficient. If a client doesn’t hear from you in due course, he or she may start to doubt your reliability or get nervous and contact another freelance translator who responds promptly.
