Making a living as a freelancer isn’t child’s play. The variables are stacked against you, and time and again you can be forced into situations where it’s essentially you against the world.
At least that’s how it feels, right?
When you are going up against the whole planet and have clients who seem to be hell-bent on making your life miserable, you need the best helpdesk you can get to deal with what they throw at you.
Here are five reasons you need to use a helpdesk as a freelancer.
1. Let Nothing Fall Through the Gaps
You are most likely using Gmail and its much touted labels and canned responses, aren’t you? If you are, you have certainly gone through that stage when you have missed important emails, had clients shout at you for forgetting important specifications, and had paying clients take off because of it.
If you are still using Gmail as your only organization system after all this, then it’s your own fault. You certainly don’t need to. Having a dedicated helpdesk means you won’t miss out on anything, never have a client specification ignored, never have any confusion when you work.
Which means you’ll never miss a customer.
2. Grab Leads from Social Networks
Social media is a full-time job at most agencies. There are people who sit down and look at social media accounts all day long. You are only one freelancer and don’t have that luxury.
Dealing with clients through email by itself takes all day long. How on earth are you keep an eye on Twitter and Facebook as well? Of course, there are a whole lot of leads there. But how do you get around to them? With a helpdesk, of course.
Helpdesks have social integrations that will let you keep an eye on your social media accounts, as well as searching for keywords that will help you latch on to leads. There are a ton of projects waiting for you on the social web, and it’s time you went and grabbed them.
3. Time Tracking and Invoicing in One Place
All the trouble you have with tracking the amount of time you worked on a customer’s project, determining how much they should pay, sending them invoices and so on will be history when you start using a helpdesk.
You can use the time tracking feature available on most helpdesks to track the time you have spent on the client’s project, then use an integrated invoicing application like Harvest or Freshbooks to invoice your client remotely and immediately. It’s that simple, really, but only if you have a helpdesk that does all this.
4. Automate Needless Actions & Focus on Work
Have some educational emails coming in which you want to send to a folder and not mix with your customer communications? Spam email you can’t unsubscribe from? A blog notifier you can come back to later?
With a helpdesk, you can automate all of this and it is like that alien in the post office in MIB 2, sorting through tickets and sending them off to the places where they belong. Which means you can open your laptop and start straight on the emails that need your attention right then, and not waste time on needless stuff.
Your work flow just got faster. A helpdesk puts the focus on what matters.
5. Maybe It All Could Be Free!
Here’s the clincher. You use Gmail because it’s free of course, and as a freelancer it’s perfectly understandable that you want to save every penny you can. But what if you can get all this for free? A complete, fully functional, social, ultramodern helpdesk to use without a penny to pay. You’d love it, wouldn’t you?
Well, most of the better helpdesks on the market actually offer a freelancer free versions, complete with all the perks I have laid out. It’s a complete no-brainer to go ahead and try them, and not let that potential customer on Twitter pass you by.
For all you know, he could be the client who could change your life.
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