“I don’t like this”: How to Avoid Conflicts About Work Quality on Freelance

When a client hires a remote professional, they must understand that the result of the work will be an intangible product, and its quality is difficult to assess due to how subjective it may be. This fact contributes to disputes arising between the parties about the level of execution of the product/service.
If a client receives a result that is unsatisfactory, they ask the performer to revise the project. However, a freelancer may not always agree to this, arguing that they completed the work according to the technical specifications, i.e. how they were briefed. Such workplace conflicts can be avoided by clearly and thoroughly defining the brief. A quality project description will help figure out who is right. If it is the client who didn’t do a good job explaining the project, then it’s their responsibility to walk the freelancer through the task once again. Naturally, it comes at additional costs. Still, this would be more cost-effective than searching for and hiring a new remote employee, and both parties would ultimately maintain a good relationship.
It also happens that unscrupulous clients, after receiving the work, refuse to pay, justifying it with unsatisfactory quality of the product/service. Moreover, they may even use it for their own purposes. In this case, a conflict between the parties is inevitable, even leading to law suits. Therefore, employers should respect the work of their employees and prevent such situations to avoid damaging their reputation.

The most reliable way is to work under a contract. If the client and the freelancer do not have a record of all agreements and terms, resolving potential conflicts may be especially difficult. Each party will insist their understanding is the most accyrate, but it's impossible to prove one's case without written confirmation. Therefore, it's worth concluding a service agreement that records:
• Subject matter;
• General conditions;
• Rights and obligations of the parties;
• Cost, deadlines, and payment procedures;
• Liability;
• Dispute resolution procedures;
• Other conditions.
In addition, a technical brief, which specifies the goals, tasks, and requirements, should be attached to the contract. With its help, it will be much easier to determine the quality of the freelancer's work.
Different specialists have different results, and these need to be accepted with consideration for the specifics. For example, a client pays an SEO specialist for the process of promoting a website or social network. It's impossible to get a quick result; this requires months or years. And even after this time, it can be difficult to determine how good the work was. For the performer, a good result might be getting a website into the top 10, while for the client, it might be the top 3. To avoid conflict, it's important to have a TS that clearly specifies the results that the business expects from the remote specialist.
The situation is different with the services of a programmer. Their work involves obtaining a tangible product - a website. In this case, workplace conflicts may arise if the client is dissatisfied with, for example, the loading speed, interface, usability, and other quality characteristics. To avoid disputes, it's worth defining detailed requirements for the product and then checking how well it meets them.