What clients like to see
Most coaches, consultants and freelancers suck at meeting deadlines.
I’ve heard horror stories from disgruntled people complaining about coaches, consultants and small business owners they’ve worked with, in the past, and I’ve dealt with my own fair share of flaky coaches and freelancers.
Blown deadlines, forgotten deadlines, missed deadlines, stretched deadlines and the mysterious so-called “flexible” deadlines… no, coaches and consultants aren’t really known for being reliable people you depend on to deliver.
That’s too bad. Because there’s one easy way to create ecstatic clients who come back for more:
Set a reasonable timeframe to complete your work.
The keyword is “reasonable”.
Don’t say you can turn the work around in a day, especially when you know it may actually take you three days. Or four, because you have to be away from the computer for most of Friday and, well, after that it’s the weekend…
The client won’t mind that much if you write in at the last hour and tell him you’ll deliver on Monday instead. It’s only an extra day or two… right?
Wrong.
If you agree to a deadline, you have to hit it.
