Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
I work for myself and have a good client base. I keep pretty busy and currently have an assistant that helps me with work orders a couple days a week. My clients range from attorneys to insurance agents to real estate agents to ecommerce sites to small businesses to a hospital. Most of them are very time sensitive updates; especially the hospital and real estate agents.
When a client emails a work order, I try to respond as soon as possible and just tell them that it has been scheduled in and I will let them know as soon as it's been completed. Depending on how busy I am sometimes it's one day to up to 2 weeks before it's completed. Even if I tell them they are currently work order #5, if the previous 4 are pretty big orders it can sometimes take me a week to get to them.
I'm just really curious how all of you handle your work orders and what your policy is. Is there any type of low-cost/free support ticket program that I can use to handle work orders?
Thanks for your help!
It doesn't sound like you need a ticket management system, but rather faster production. I think all freelancers run into this issue at one time or another and everyone handles them differently. Here is how I handle mine...
All monthly maintenance clients get first priority. If they pay me a monthly retainer to keep their sites updated and current they are first. I follow this up with any new clients I have obtained. I explain to new clients up front the approximate time frame to complete based on track records of maintenance clients as well as other projects in the queue. After these two groups outside requests are scheduled. These would be from clients that use my services, but don't pay me monthly and don't have a project being worked on.
The last group is told up front with all requests what my work load looks like and when I can get to them. Most are ok with it some complain and say they need it faster. When that happens I tell them I can do a "rush" job at a premium fee, typically double my normal rate, if they are ok with this I will juggle, work weekends, late nights etc. to fit them in.
If they can wait I tell them when I think it will be complete and leave it at that. Another way I juggle this last group is by type of client, i.e. fast payer, regular customer, good potential for future work and projects, and referrals/testimonials. If the client does any or all of these I try and get them scheduled quicker. If they are the opposite of these they go to the very bottom.
I explain to all parties in the last group my policies and encourage them to sign up for my maintenance plan rather than calling as needed since that group must come last after the first two groups. Some take me up on it some don't.
FH
Excellent policy- will have to note this for future reference!
