Your Word is Gold (or Should Be)

A few weeks ago, I hired a freelance copywriter to develop some new text for a website I own. During my evaluation of their services everything looked great...good samples of past work, a strong conversion rate, and professional manner among other qualities. As the project got underway, I was impressed with their professionalism and excellent communication skills. We discussed the project, agreed to a scope of work, and my freelancing friend told me what date I could expect to receive the copy (a little over a week from the date I ok’d the project). Life was good.

Then the waiting began.

The delivery date (a Monday) came, and about 45 minutes before close of business I received a message from the copywriter saying they were going to sit on the project over night and put the finishing touches on the next day. They also told me to expect to have the copy by the following evening (Tuesday). So I thanked them for the update and provided them with a some additional information regarding the project that I thought would be useful. The copywriter reviewed the information and sent me back a message saying they wanted to revamp some of the copy based on the new info, and could they have until Wednesday to do it? And since the quality of the copy was important to me, I agreed to the additional day.

Wednesday came and I didn’t hear anything from the copywriter, so around 7pm that night I sent a message inquiring about the status of the project. The message I got back was that the copy was done but the copywriter wanted to finesse a couple parts of it, and that I should expect it the next day. I indicated that was fine, but I needed to have it as early as possible Thursday morning.

On Thursday, the same thing happened. No communication at all from the copywriter. So around 9:30pm that night I again inquired as to the project's status. No response.

The copy I needed on Monday, finally arrived in my inbox at five minutes past midnight Friday morning.

Some people will read this and think “So the copywriter didn’t meet the delivery date they promised. Big deal. What’s the problem with a few little delays in a project?” Plenty. Promising a client you will meet a given deadline and then not sticking to your word harms more than just your reputation with the client. For example, in my own situation with that copywriter I had made financial commitments to advertising placements based on the delivery date I was initially promised. Due to the delay in receiving the copy for the project, I missed a critical advertising opportunity and lost over $1,000 in non-refundable fees. Needless to say, I won’t be using that copywriter again.

Lets look at a few ways you can turn your word into gold when it comes to serving your clients’ needs:

Keep your word. If you promise something to a client make sure you deliver. Not living up to your promises makes you look unreliable to your client, and if it happens repeatedly they’ll begin looking for a new vendor that's more professional to replace you.

Under-promise, over-deliver. You’ve probably heard this well-known saying before, but it’s true. If you think you can have a project done on Wednesday, tell your client they will have it Friday. Doing so will give you a “safety net” in case “life” happens and causes a delay. Inevitably, things go wrong from time to time: a project takes longer than you anticipate, you get buried with other, more pressing deadlines, or a personal emergency occurs. By giving yourself that extra cushion of time, you minimize the chances that you’ll miss the deadline you committed to, and you build up your own value with your client as a vendor they can rely on to get things done.

Be honest. Don’t fall into the trap of telling the client what they want to hear. Be straightforward with your clients. If they ask for a specific delivery date that you know you won’t be able to meet, tell them you can’t meet that deadline and then tell them when you can have it complete (remembering the principle of under-promise, over deliver above). Also, don’t lie about the progress of a project just to make a client “feel good.” If you haven’t started it yet, tell them so followed by a timeline of when you expect to be able to complete it. Don’t tell them it’s almost done to buy yourself time when you haven’t even begun working on it...because if something goes wrong (as things do from time to time), the deadline arrives,  and your client finds out you haven’t even started, you can kiss that account goodbye.

If you put effort into keeping your word with your clients, you’ll build a solid reputation with them that can withstand sales presentations by your competitors. Clients are much less likely to change vendors over a lower price if they know they have a vendor they trust and can rely on to meet deadlines and deliver what they promise. So in that regard, keeping your word in today’s marketplace gives you a solid competitive edge, and really is like money in the bank -- both for you and your client.