Time for my first open discussion. I welcome any and all comments, feedback, examples and critiques on this post, basically I’m handing the reins over to you.
In order to be a successful freelancer you need to make customer satisfaction a top priority. You must consistently provide your best work and you must always be prompt, courteous and polite in your dealings.
At some point in your career however you are going to get these four words of advice; under-promise and over-deliver. But is it really a wise thing to do?
Fool Me Once…
By far and away the easiest approach to under promise is to tell the client her work will be done a few days later than it will actually take. For example, you can finish the work by Thursday but you tell your client to expect it next Tuesday.
You then (over) deliver the work a day or so earlier and naturally the client is impressed. This would very likely lead to more work. So what’s the problem with that you ask?
The thing is the client is going to quickly catch on to what you are doing assuming she isn’t already aware of the method already of course. The pleasant surprise of having the work delivered earlier than promised is all but gone and you could leave your client asking questions. Questions you don’t want to face.
Was it really a complicated project? Have I been overcharged?
Now you’re on a slippery path. The client could very well start asking for tighter deadlines, be more aggressive over negotiating prices and even question every thing you say. That is not a healthy relationship to have with your client.
Over To You
Anyway, that is my current take on the matter. I admit however that I’ve only been freelancing for a short while and so I could very well be missing the bigger picture. Hence this open discussion.
Am I way off the mark here? How else can we “under promise and over deliver”? Should we even bother to?
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I disagree, for a few reasons.
Promise less, deliver more, is standard business procedure across many industries. It allows a buffer of time should any unexpected issue crop up or need to be dealt with before delivering to the client.
Your reputation is at stake. If you are always precise to the minute, the risk is that you *will* blow a deadline and that is much more costly than a client who wonders, “They always deliver a day ahead… what’s up with that?”
I also don’t know of anyone who says, “Wow. I’m disappointed to get my stuff early. You must be screwing me.”
If a client *does* begin to wonder what’s up (still stating I’ve never heard of that), you can flat out say, “We like to be cautious with our turnaround times. It’s just good service.” Nothing wrong with that.
When you add a buffer of time, it’s important not to be ridiculous about it. The due Tuesday, deliver the prior Thursday example is pretty wide – that’s about 4 extra days. One day, maybe two… great. More? No.
Also, instead of adding time to a turnaround estimate, why not use a lead-time instead? “We request a 3-day lead time before we begin working on your project so that we can clear up current projects and devote our full attention to yours. If we can get to it sooner, we certainly will.” Great. That says, “Here’s the worst-case scenario, here’s the best.”
Rock on with that.
James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..Is Your Life a Runaway Train?
Thanks for taking the time to reply James, I really appreciate it.
I can understand your point about a time buffer to allow for the unexpected but then to me that is just common sense/good business practice and hardly fits the “under-promise over-deliver” mentality which I’ve been seeing quite a bit of lately.
Or am I reading too much into it? Is that all there is to it? How else can you “promise less and deliver more”?
*takes notes for a rockin’ blog post at MwP*
Good questions. What do you see as promise less and deliver more, if not time buffer? What are other ways it can be done? And should those be encouraged or avoided, you feel?
James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..Is Your Life a Runaway Train?
I never promise less, but I always try to deliver more. And not with turnaround times… I always do extra little things for my clients – sometimes I come up with a great tagline and just send it to them at no charge. Other times, I make recommendations that are outside the scope of the services I offer. For clients that place enough orders, I’ll also toss in freebies every now and then for small, quick things they want done (like proofing a 100-word paragraph).
Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..Word Pairs: That and Which
@James Spot on.
@Melissa I see what you are saying, kind of like the icing on the cake. Thanks for adding your point of view, it’s put things in a better light for me now.
I always overdeliver on anything that’s easy for me; I have ideas all day long, so there’s no point in holding on to them all if they could benefit someone else. For example, if I’m in a writing mood, my editor gets three pieces and I always self-edit so much that she rarely has to do much. That way, we can have conversations about the things that really interest us and she raises my game by being genuinely interested in me, by having faith in me – that’s what she can then ‘overdeliver’. That’s why blogging is – should be – wonderful. I comment only if and when I WANT to – I’ve not been around the blogging world long enough to think it’s networking or just a traffic building exercise. That way it’s a real win/win. We can all overdeliver our presence, our personality, our sense of fun, our ideas, our trustworthiness, our punctuality, our honesty, our integrity or whatever it is that we as an individuals bring to the world when we’re happy and feeling like we’re contributing, not just providing a service for money.
…oops, had a wee go at html there and accidentally overdid the italics!
I agree with both James and Melissa. You don’t want a mountain of clients. You want a few clients who cannot live without you and are willing to meet your set fees to book your time. Icing on the cake and over delivering paves a road that’s easy to roll down.
Writer Dad’s last blog post..Have a Nice Day! or Smell You Later.
I generally will always under-promise. What takes most webdesigners weeks to build generally takes me a few days at the most (I’ve been building sites since 1994 and doing SEO since 1997), however, my family life of a zillion kids and 12 Twitterbudgies and 2 Mooses sometimes makes my time unpredictable. Better to be ahead than behind.
Data points, Barbara
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach’s last blog post..Trampoline fitness even an elephant can do
@Janice Good points. I think bloggers tend to put too much emphasis on the networking and traffic building side of things. Those should be secondary effects or bonuses gained from the true nature of blogging, building a community.
@Sean I think where I was coming from was a concern for rolling down that road without any brakes. How do you under-promise and over-deliver without letting the client take advantage of you even if it’s unintentionally. It’s akin to James’ recent post about a Revisions policy or maybe I’m too pessimistic again.
@Barbara Makes sense. A time buffer as James was saying and I’m sure it’s a pleasant experience for your clients to receive their work slightly earlier than expected.
If that’s all there is to the saying than fair enough but I got the impression there was more to it.
I think I’m still waiting for that lightbulb moment