Remembering Client Details:
A Note Habit for Freelancers and Consultants

An agency has an account manager, a shared CRM and someone who remembers that the client’s daughter was starting uni. A freelancer has their own head, an inbox and whatever they jotted on the back of the brief.

Most of the time that’s enough for the work itself. The project details live in emails and the contract. What slips is the rest: the business partner they mentioned once, the thing they were quietly proud of, the deadline that was really someone else’s deadline. Those are the details that make the next conversation feel like a continuation instead of a fresh start.

This is a habit for keeping them, built for people who meet clients one at a time and have nobody to hand the notes to.

Why the first few minutes matter

Memory loses a lot early and then levels off. In Hermann Ebbinghaus’s experiments in the 1880s, an hour after learning a list he had kept enough to save only about 44% of the effort of relearning it, and a day later about 34% (Memory, 1885, chapter 7). He tested himself, with nonsense syllables, so it says nothing exact about a client meeting. The shape is the useful part: the best time to write something down is soon. There’s more on this in why we forget names.

The other reason is what you do with it next time. In a set of studies of getting-to-know-you conversations, people who asked more questions, and particularly follow-up questions, were better liked by the person they were talking to (Huang and colleagues, 2017). Those were chats between strangers and speed dates, not client relationships. But a follow-up question needs something to follow up on, and that’s what a note keeps.

The two-minute routine

Do it straight after the meeting, before the next email pulls you away: in the car, on the footpath, on the way to the lift. Two minutes is plenty. If it takes longer, it won’t last a busy month.

1. Who, and where

Their name as you’ll want to find it, and where you met. “Coffee at their office in Fitzroy” is enough. Where helps more than you’d think when you’re trying to place someone months later.

2. Their news

One or two things that are happening for them, in their words if you can. A launch, a hire, a move, a holiday they’re looking forward to.

3. Anything promised, by either side

What you said you’d send, and what they said they’d do. Client relationships run on small promises, and the ones made in passing (“I’ll send you that article”) are the ones that get lost.

4. Something to ask next time

One question you’d genuinely like the answer to. “How did the trial go?” beats “How’s business?” every time.

5. When you’ll see them next

Only if you know. “At the end-of-month check-in” or “probably not till the new year” both help you read the note later.

What’s worth noting

The project brief, the budget and the deliverables already live somewhere: the contract, your project tool, your inbox. Don’t copy them across. A client note is for what doesn’t fit there.

• Their projects beyond yours. What else they’re working on, and what it means for them.
• Their constraints. The board meeting the deadline is really about, the busy season, the approval that has to go through someone else.
• The people they mentioned. A business partner, a new hire, the person who signs things off. Names said once are easy to lose and good to have.
• What they’re proud of. The new fit-out, the award, the thing they built themselves. People tend to mention these lightly and remember who asked about them.
• How they like to work. Calls or email, mornings or afternoons, a quick draft or a polished one.

A worked example

Here’s a note a freelance designer might say after a first meeting with a new client, and what OldMate keeps from it. Declan, the brewery and everything in it are made up.

That’s eight short sentences. Before the tasting room opening, the page has what you need: the stout, the canning line, the promise you made, and a question to open with. Sienna, mentioned in passing, is offered as someone you can keep too, if you choose.

What not to write down

A note about a client is a note about a person, and it deserves the care you’d want for a note about you. A few things are better left out.

• Sensitive details. Health, religion, politics, sexuality, ethnicity, union membership and criminal records are what Australia’s privacy regulator calls sensitive information. If a client tells you they’re having surgery, “away for a few weeks in March” is all the note needs.
• Things you couldn’t say back to them. A good test: if they read your note over your shoulder, would it be fine? Keep it to what they told you and what you’d happily mention.
• Passwords, card numbers and ID numbers. They belong in a password manager or your accounting software, not in a note.
• What you agreed to keep confidential. If a contract limits where client information can go, it covers your notes too.
• The meeting itself. The note is your own words afterwards, said on your own. Recording someone else is a different matter, with its own rules, and it’s not what this habit is.

If you run a business, the law may have something to say about the personal information you keep on clients. In Australia that’s the Privacy Act and its Australian Privacy Principles; many businesses with a turnover of $3 million or less are outside it, but there are exceptions, including health service providers (OAIC, small business). This isn’t legal advice: if you’re unsure, the OAIC’s pages are the place to start. Either way, collecting only what you need and keeping it safe is good practice.

Where OldMate fits, and where it doesn’t

OldMate is a personal tool. It’s one person’s notes about the people in their life, clients included, and it’s honest to say what that means for work.

• It isn’t a business CRM. There are no deals, stages or invoices, no team to share with, and it doesn’t connect to Salesforce, HubSpot, your email or your calendar. If your business needs a shared record of customers, use a tool built for that.
• It doesn’t contact anyone. Nothing is sent to your client. The note is yours.
• It uses AI to sort your notes. What you say or type goes to OldMate’s AI providers to be transcribed and organised, as the Privacy Policy explains. Weigh that the way you would any online tool when a client’s contract says where their information can go.

What it does well is the bit above: you say a few lines after a meeting, and they land on that person’s page, ready before you see them again. You can search by name or by what you noted (“the brewery client”), and read the original words whenever you need them.

If you’d rather not use an app

The routine works anywhere. A note on your phone with the same five lines is a fine start, and there’s a template you can copy. If you’re weighing up apps, this comparison sets out what Dex, Mesh, Monica and others do, including where they suit work better. And if a networking event is where you meet most clients, here’s what to write down in the first five minutes.

For the bigger picture, start with what a personal CRM is, and whether you need one. Remembering the person behind the project isn’t a sales technique. It’s just paying attention, written down so it lasts.