There are millions of coders in the world, each one expert in two or more languages and can be specialist to specific industries and sectors. With so many software coders competing for limited positions, its natural to find many unemployed programmers.
Being unemployed is not a stigma, it’s a fact of life just like taxes and death. Everyone is unemployed at one stage in his or her life; even Steve Jobs was fired from Apple and as unemployed for a time. This didn’t stop him from setting up Pixar and becoming even bigger then he was. In fact, being unemployed should be a trigger for harder work and higher tenacity to succeed.
If you are a software specialist, and you know a few languages, we won’t go into details about specifics; the rules are identical to all when delivering a successful referral campaign. The differences in the target market are the variables.
The secret to success is satisfaction.
If you want to succeed in the rideshare app development business, you have to provide or go beyond expectations. This means that your clients will be satisfied with your results and will refer you to their clients and associates. While visibility is important and online marketing techniques can help you reach the customer, at the end of the day, only a satisfied client will provide you with a successful referral.
10 Steps to Satisfy
1. Focus and Define your Service
It’s not enough that you are an expert programmer in whatever languages you use. What is important is focusing your successes as the stepping stones that define what you offer. This means that you must define your services on what you have succeeded in delivering in the past. Your academic acumen is important, but it is not as important as proven experience. Define your service, focusing on what you can deliver on time, every time, and with success. Don’t try to deliver a large mix of services in which you are only 70% proficient, concentrate on a few that you are 100% proficient. This will stop you wasting time on clients that will be unsatisfied, which in the long run will ruin your reputation.
2. Provide an incentive-based System
It’s easy to say you charge $x per hour or $x per project. What is harder for you is to provide an incentive based system where you get a bonus or reduction based on milestones. Add to this a discount for the first job, show them that you are willing to prove to them how good you are. You could even persuade people to drive for you by paying for or put money towards their private hire car rental.
3. Know your Limits and Abilities
Don’t try to sell speeds that you cannot match and don’t take on work you cannot provide 100% perfection. Knowing your limits and abilities will make life easier, especially when you set your own constraints. If a client asks you to provide changes to other apps in other languages, either turn them down or make sure you have a programmer online that can do this work for you. If you want to increase your effectivity, constantly research and find out ways to improve your knowledge base and speed of work. Look for platforms and scripts that can speed up the coding process.
4. Build a Team
Since software programming is multi-tasking in different languages, it might be beneficial to build a team of professionals that complement each other and provide a comprehensive list of languages and specialties, which when working together provide a complete solution. If you build a team, you also increase your referral reach through all the team members reach.
5. Employ Freelancers
If you don’t want to build a team, then try to find several freelancers that you can use to help you complete complex projects. Once you can meet clients needs with a comprehensive service, you automatically have an advantage over single point services.
6. Don’t Oversell
Do not over promise, never oversell yourself. In other words, don’t say you can deliver in 3 days when it will take you a week. It is best to beat delivery times. Say it will take you five days to deliver, then deliver it in three days. This will surprise the client and lead to more work.
7. Be Concise and be Available
Don’t mince words and don’t beat around the bush. Talk directly, to the point. Discuss every issue and never leave any question unanswered. This means that both sides must understand communications if you are not 100% sure, ask.
8. Manage and Track your Time
Track every moment you work online, make sure that every stage is recorded and even include comments. You should make an hourly comment system. This means you write a sentence about what was done in that hour. Screenshots are also useful tools. Sometimes you might get up to stretch your legs or eat. Usually, freelancers do not charge for this when working on an hourly basis, unless a process is running, allowing you time to do something else. If you don’t have anything else to do, work for your client on another stage of the project, it this is feasible. It will speed up the time you budgeted and lead you to deliver ahead of schedule.
9. Complement your Client
Once you have completed a job, always compliment the client, and thank them for the work. During the work, the process asks if they will need you for any other jobs. If they are satisfied with your performance and product, they might consider you for more work.
10. Build a Network
Ask your satisfied customers to refer you, building up a network from satisfied customers. The more satisfied clients you have, the bigger your network will grow. There is a premise that larger networks provide more work; that is a false premise. It is a combination of quality referrers and quality of your work that will lead you to a successful software programming referral network.
