You do if you have a client that won't stop pestering you whilst you work. One way to phrase it is to have "tiers" or "levels" of escalation by turnaround time and charge/charge more for faster turnaround.
Ask HN: Do you (freelancers) charge for emails?
21–24 of 24 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you (freelancers) charge for emails?
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
thanks for the reply. on one hand what you are saying make sense.. too much distractions will make my other clients suffer and to me lose some money on the way.. on the other hand - I personally would not go to a freelance guy who only answers my emails 3 times a day.. what if i have an emergency ? (and yes,that is very subjective, i know). I would prefer to receive fast email replies with a lot of value, rather than…
Lets imagine you check your email 4 times a day instead. In an 8 hour workday, you would check it around once every 2 hours. So the absolute maximum time your client would wait for a reply would be 2 hours during working hours. Would your current clients find this unreasonable? There are not many issues that justify a "NEED A REPLY THIS VERY SECOND" response. You should find that most of your clients aren't sitting a…
sounds reasonable.. thanks
Re: Ask HN: Do you (freelancers) charge for emails?
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
thanks for the reply. on one hand what you are saying make sense.. too much distractions will make my other clients suffer and to me lose some money on the way.. on the other hand - I personally would not go to a freelance guy who only answers my emails 3 times a day.. what if i have an emergency ? (and yes,that is very subjective, i know). I would prefer to receive fast email replies with a lot of value, rather than…
Have you dealt with other professionals before? Say Lawyers or Architects or Doctors over email? A 4h reply is good. A 24h reply time is standard. A 48h reply is not unheard of. Why should programmer be different?
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Re: Ask HN: Do you (freelancers) charge for emails?
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
thanks for the reply. on one hand what you are saying make sense.. too much distractions will make my other clients suffer and to me lose some money on the way.. on the other hand - I personally would not go to a freelance guy who only answers my emails 3 times a day.. what if i have an emergency ? (and yes,that is very subjective, i know). I would prefer to receive fast email replies with a lot of value, rather than…
Which is more valuable: 1. Receiving email replies fast. 2. Receiving the work you are paying for finished fast.
If I were the client - both are more valuable :)