I need some tips on how to explain things to buyers

[miacmht]

I have always been working a 9-5 job and only started freelancing for about a year ago. Since then I discovered many things that are supposed to be common things (at least to me), in fact aren’t. And I simply don’t know how to make my buyers understand these.



For example, how do you explain that scaling an image (in this case it means making a bigger image from a small one), like to make a 5 cm square to a 100 cm square would end up with a bad looking image ? I really can’t understand why someone wouldn’t understand this. I knew this before studying any design class. Doesn’t everything work that way? You can cut a bread in half, but can’t make a full bread from half of a bread. It seems do able with digital image but the laws of physics still apply, the result wouldn’t look good.



The same with resolution (though this is more reasonable since not many people know what resolution means), how do you explain that making a 72dpi to 300 dpi by changing the number in photoshop wouldn’t make the image “high resolution”. It is like changing the .jpg to .ai doesn’t turn a jpeg file to a vector file. Or more simple, doing this like labeling a taco as a tiramisu, it doesn’t change what the file actually is.



And yes, I tried these breads and cakes explanations before and they :

• still didn’t get it. Some just agreed with me but I know they actually didn’t understand.
  
• didn’t want to get it, just wanted me to do whatever they said since they pay me.
  
• thought that I was being a smart mouth and want to embarrass them.
  
  
  
  I know I can’t please everyone, but when the majority of my buyers just don’t understand these common things, I need an easy and fast answer for those who do want to work with me ( of course not those who yells at me for educating them)

[newyorksocial]

^

Well, I think the primary reason for the misunderstanding could be some sort of language barrier. If for example your buyer may not be well-versed in English, they would struggle to understand those technicalities.



Some buyers though, even if they are American or are native English speakers, would still fail to understand what you’re talking about because they are either A.) Somehow old and not tech-savvy B.) Has no background whatsoever on the topic, hence why they are paying on Fiverr.



My only piece of advice to you is to keep calm and do your best to convey to your customers in the easiest way possible. Tell them politely what they should expect, what you can and can’t do. Use very basic English words just in case they are not Native speakers. Sometimes it’s really hard to understand something when you are completely clueless about all aspects of that “something”.



Good luck though! Take it easy bro. 🙂

[sincere18]

For which gig does this happen the most?



Yes, welcome to the world of sales. As a freelancer you have to understand that the general public does NOT know hardly any of this stuff. You knew it before taking a design class, because you are design minded in general. Most people are not.



Also, I think you need to make it clearer in your gig copy. I looked at one of them, the animal character one, and all you say is send me a good picture that is not blurry, not from afar and not a night shot. That is not clear enough.

You need to say more directly…

You must send a High resolution photo (XXX dpi at least X inches in it’s original format, if you have questions about your photo quality, please contact me before ordering)



then if someone send you something less, you write to them and let them know the photo is not suitable can they please send you a better photo from a good camera. And then if not, you have to cancel the gig.



When you work a 9-5 you do not have to worry about getting the business or explaing anything to anyone in that regard…welcome to the wonderful world of freelancing. Part of it is also a Fiverr issue as well. For $5 what levle of buyer do you think you will get. A designer and someone technical can do some of that stuff and knows what it takes.



But just be patient as the above person said and tell someone again and again, and then offer a mutual cancellation or you can do the proejct but let them know it will not come out to their liking.



Or perhaps you should just work at that half loaf of bread size. so if they give you problems and still don’t get it but want the job anyway, when you give it to them it looks really good small. But then they will try and blow it up and it will not look good and only then can they understand fully.



Maybe there is a link to a visual explanation and sample of this on the web you could send them as a link…this was just a quick look, but maybe something a bit better but so you get my idea:

http://www.mobilebeat.com/wp-content/themes/genesis/images/favicon.icoMobile Beat For DJs http://www.mobilebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/default.png

Getting Familiar with Images

by Allan Reiss, product manager for CHAUVET® There are different types of descriptions commonly used when it comes to discussing images and their resolution.  If you’re unfamiliar with terms like high resolution, web resolution, dpi, megapixel,...

[Guest tdelang]

My gigs are usually quite technical in nature, so it’s often really hard to explain what’s going on. I fortunately can say: “I’ll worry about the technical stuff, can you give me this bit of extra info I need”.



Maybe that doesn’t work for you, but here’s an idea:



Is there a case where a buyer didn’t understand what you were trying to communicate, but eventually they did? Can you retrace the steps in that interaction and make a blueprint of how to communicate certain ideas to people. So you have a sort of standard response, and every time people still don’t get it, you try to figure out why, and modify your standard response to make it even clearer. Of course it’s best to avoid jargon completely.



You will always get people who - for various reasons - still don’t understand. But if you have a standard response that you’ve tested and improved over and over again, the number of those people will gradually go down.