Here's how you can smoothly convey deadline extensions to customers.

Honesty is the number one way to show transparency from a mistake made or deadline not reached. We may thing that it can be seen as a weakness or clients will take advantage of it, but it is actually all the opposite. Why is that? Because they will appreciate your honesty and understand that you care enough for them to be honest about it. It will make a positive impact on their emotional perception which is the most important focus when it comes to making your clients happy and loyal to you.

Según mi experiencia, la honestidad y la transparencia en la trasmisión de ideas conceptos y objetivos es fundamental para una buena relación con el cliente.

It is all about becoming a Master in courageous conversations. And here is how you can do so: ? Be prepared: Know exactly what you want to address and what outcome you want ? Anticipate challenging questions and objections by preparing your answers accordingly ? Do not fall into the trap of becoming defensive ? On top of their needs, remember to use your expertise ? Come to a point of agreement and mention the next stage(s)

The best way to "offer value" in order to soften the impact of a deadline extension, is to make it about their needs as the reason behind it. Doing so is the best way to not make it conflictual while ensuring they agree to the extension more accordingly. As why would they not if they understand that it will get them more value? You can obviously only do that by being prepared which means knowing what objections and challenging questions you may have from clients when you bring up this deadline extension.

Be professional, direct and honest,don't wait until the last minute to ask for an extension, just portray transparency and be tactful and diplomatic in your wording, explain the issue, the cause for extension and how yo will rectify it, give space for the client to ask questions and any expression the may need clarity on, the dialogue is quite important to maintaining and building a lasting relationship with the client.

Constant communication is definitely the key focus to have when you extended a deadline for a client. At the end of the day they gave you their trust in your ability to deliver while agreeing to more time. And it definitely deserve acknowledgement and care. Specific methods I would recommend to effectively do so (which are very similar to the ones you use post-complaints) are the below: ? Take actions to try to finish the project/delivery before the new deadline ? Take time to let them know what has been done to not make it happen again ? Check on their satisfaction more often ? Give them update more often on how you are doing with the new deadline