The client who Googled me during our kickoff call

Last Tuesday I had a video call with a new small business owner in Austin, and we're going through the project scope when I hear typing in the background. Then he says, 'So I see you worked with a bakery in 2019, what went wrong there?' That was a job where the owner stopped paying after three months, and I left a polite but honest review on a freelancer site. I didn't realize clients could read those, so now I'm wondering how many others have looked me up mid-meeting. Has anyone else had a client weaponize your old reviews against you, and how do you handle it without sounding defensive?

2 comments

2 Comments

casey2681d ago

Man, that's wild that he pulled up old reviews right in the middle of the call! I mean, who does research like that and then just blurts it out loud, that's so direct. Honestly, I'd probably just laugh it off and say, "Yeah, that one was a mess, but every job's a lesson," then steer it back to the project.

noahwood1d ago

@casey268 woulda pulled up my Yelp and hung up on myself, honestly.