Should Freelancers Worry About Bad Reviews?

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A bad review, whether it's posted on a portfolio site, or just shared by word of mouth, can ruin your whole day. It's easy to dwell on it, turning everything over and over again in your mind. But as a freelancer, how concerned should you really be about bad reviews?

For a hotel or a restaurant, one bad review can decimate the number of customers that come in. People routinely look at reviews for where they're going to stay or eat, making reviews crucial to business.

Freelancers don't have quite the same situation, but it is necessary to pay attention to reviews of your services.

The Habit of Reading Reviews

The big question is how do businesses look at reviews and information about a freelancer before signing a contract. While many companies will seek out references for individuals or organizations they're interested in working with, most don't have a habit of reading every last little review listed online about your freelance business.

…it’s likely that more and more businesses are going to pay attention to reviews beyond what they get through word of mouth.

It may not stay that way, of course: more and more businesses are doing at least a little online research about the freelancers they want to work with " they don't go much beyond what a search engine turns up, but if there's anything from a disgruntled client in that first page of search results for your name, it's worth noting.

Based on the number of platforms many of us maintain presences on and the ease of adding a recommendation or review on a site like LinkedIn, it's likely that more and more businesses are going to pay attention to reviews beyond what they get through word of mouth.

That means that simply ignoring reviews, especially bad ones, isn't a long-term strategy that you can rely on. You don't need to obsess over what's out there, but you do need to check up on those sorts of things regularly.

If you do find a bad review about yourself and your freelancing services somewhere, make the effort to address it. It can be a matter of contacting the client in question and revisiting the situation so that they're satisfied. You can't simply demand that a site or an individual take down reviews (that almost always leads to more problems), making it necessary to be as civil as possible. You may not be able to fix every problem, especially if there's something that you can't simply give in on, but make a good faith effort to try.

Businesses Do Get Bad Reviews

No matter the type of business that a person is running, however, bad reviews are a possibility. It might just be an off day or a client entirely beyond reason, but it's possible. It's important to take note, see if you can address the issue, and move on. Dwelling on a bad review doesn't actually make you any better " it may just distract you enough to cause more problems.

One of the biggest reasons we can't shake bad feelings when a negative review comes along is because, for most freelancers, it's personal. While a client may just think that they're commenting on a business that they worked with and didn't get particularly excited about, our work is our livelihood. There's just one person in the office, just one person responsible for every last little thing that could go wrong.

At the end of the day, you have to find a way to separate yourself from any reviews that come in. You have to be able to believe that a review is about your work, not you as a person, so that you can get on with your freelancing.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Lifeonwhite.