This is a post from a member of the Freelancers Union community. If you’re interested in sharing your expertise, your story, or some advice you think will help a fellow freelancer out, feel free to send your blog post to us here.

As a freelancer it’s tempting to think you understand your client. After all, you did the work, they paid you (hopefully) and you both moved on. What more do you need? To grow your business, you need specific feedback, reviews and referrals.

Before you close the books on a job be sure to obtain an evaluation of your services. My favorite questions for generating useful feedback:

• On a scale of 0 to 10 please rate your satisfaction with my services
• What additional things could I have to done to provide more value?
• On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend me to others?
• Why did you choose that rating?

The questions can be delivered in an email or survey, but it’s helpful to get them in writing. The more clients you have the more useful surveys are for aggregating feedback. There are several inexpensive online survey tools which can be used to present your request for feedback in a professional way.

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Asking your clients to evaluate your work demonstrates your commitment to improvement. It also makes it easier to ask for a quote, referral or a reference. Once you get the results, take action.

Ask permission to use positive feedback on your website. If appropriate, ask for a referral. Negative feedback should be immediately addressed and reasonable efforts made to make things right. Neutral feedback is the hardest to work with because there is no emotion to work with.

Don’t miss an opportunity to get feedback from your clients, and whenever possible, turn them into fans.

Elizabeth Thomas is a Customer Experience Freelancer based in Colorado. Contact her at ethomas@savvycx.com