It’s Wednesday afternoon and the launch video is due on Friday. The 3D product shots came back from the animator with the old packaging, the fix takes two more days, and the editor wants to know whether to tell the client now or try to make it work over the weekend.
Most studios wait. They hope the weekend saves it, and on Friday morning they send an email that starts with “unfortunately”.
Clients can usually live with a delivery date that moves. They get upset when they hear about it on the morning it was due, and more so when the new date slips as well.
This post is about telling the client early, in a way they can act on. If the hold-up is a client who hasn’t sent notes, chasing them is a different job, covered in what to do when a client takes too long to approve.
In short
- Run every video on two dates, the one promised to the client and an internal deadline a few working days earlier.
- Tell the client the day the internal deadline slips, while they still have days to adjust.
- A delay email gives a new date you can keep, says what’s done, explains the cause in one sentence and asks for a decision.
- When the delay comes from the client’s side, stick to dates and keep new requests apart from the agreed version.
- Silence, a vague date and a half-finished cut sent as if it were done all make a delay worse.
Tell them when the internal deadline slips
The best day to tell a client about a delay is the day you find out, and the easiest way to find out early is to run every video on two dates.
One is the date you promised the client. The other is an internal deadline a few working days earlier, the day the team has to be done for the promise to be safe.
On a two-week edit, two or three working days is a reasonable gap. A longer job with more review rounds deserves a week.
The client never sees the internal date. It’s there to work as an alarm. When it passes and the video isn’t finished, you still have the buffer in hand, and that’s when you write.
A client who hears on Monday that Friday has become next Thursday can push the launch post, warn their boss or ask for a shorter version on Friday. A client who hears on Friday morning has none of those options.
Without a buffer, the first warning arrives on the due date itself. Our post on video production timelines covers how much time to quote for each phase. The internal deadline tells you, halfway through the job, whether that estimate is holding.
What the message needs
A delay email has four jobs, and the bad ones usually skip at least two:
- Give a new date you can keep. If your gut says Wednesday, write Thursday. Moving a date once is a change of schedule, but a second move makes every date you give afterwards sound like a guess. “Early next week” isn’t a date. The client reads it as Monday while you’re thinking Wednesday.
- Say what’s already done. “The edit is locked and the color is finished, the only open item is the 3D shots” tells the client the project is nearly there. Leave it out and the delay sounds like nothing has happened.
- Explain the cause in one sentence. The client needs to know whether this is a one-off or a sign of trouble, and one plain sentence answers that. A paragraph of apology and detail reads like an excuse, and blaming a freelancer or a supplier the client has never heard of reads worse.
- Ask for what you need. Sometimes it’s only an OK on the new date. Often it’s a decision, such as a version without the 3D shots on Friday or the complete video on Thursday. A choice gives the client something to do besides being disappointed, and some will take the partial version because their own date can’t move.
Email when the delay is on your side
Subject: Launch video, new delivery date
Hi Ana,
I need to move the delivery of the launch video from Friday to next Thursday.
The edit is locked and the color is done. The 3D product shots came back with the old packaging, and redoing them takes until Tuesday. I’d rather tell you now than send something on Friday that we’d have to replace.
Two options:
- The full video on Thursday.
- On Friday, a version that uses the product footage from the shoot in place of the 3D, then the full version on Thursday.
Which works better for the launch? If anything on your side depends on Friday, tell me and we’ll work it out together.
There’s no long apology in it and no promise to work through the weekend. The client gets the date, what’s done, the cause and a choice.
Email when the delay comes from the client’s side
Late notes and new requests move dates too, and that conversation is harder because it can sound like an accusation. Stick to the dates and to what each one did to the schedule, and leave the judgment out.
Subject: Launch video, updated schedule
Hi Ana,
A quick update on the schedule. We sent v2 last Tuesday and planned on notes by Thursday. They arrived on Monday, so the edit restarted two working days later than planned. The notes also ask for a new closing scene with the sales team, which needs half a day of shooting.
With that, the earliest we can deliver is next Wednesday. If Friday has to stay, we can deliver this version with your notes applied on Friday and add the new scene as a separate edit the week after.
Let me know which you prefer and I’ll lock in the date.
The new scene is new work, and how to price and schedule it is in our post on scope creep in video production. In the email it’s enough to say that it adds time and to keep it apart from the version you’d already agreed on.
If the contract has a rule for late notes, such as moving delivery day for day, mention it once and calmly. The email shouldn’t read like a list of charges.
What makes a delay worse
Silence is the most common mistake. Waiting until you’re sure takes away the very days the client could have used to adjust.
A vague date comes next. “Early next week” or “in a few days” means the client has to write back to find out what you meant, and now you’re the one being chased.
Then there’s the half-finished cut sent on the due date as if it were done. The client watches it, writes notes on the temp music and the missing lower thirds, and either spends a review round on things you were going to fix anyway or approves something that isn’t finished.
If you send an incomplete version to keep the date, say so at the top of the email and list what’s missing.
How this works in RecReview
Every task in RecReview can carry two dates: the delivery date promised to the client and an internal deadline, which has to fall on or before it.
The client portal lists the delivery date. The internal deadline stays with the team and never appears in the portal or on a review link.
Owners and admins can see how much buffer is left across the studio. In Metrics, under Clients & review, the Deadline health card splits every active task that has both dates into three groups.
A task has slack until it’s halfway between its internal deadline and the client’s date, is running out of slack from there, and has none left once the client’s date arrives.
On Home, the Needs attention list has a Will be late filter for tasks that aren’t overdue yet but whose projected delivery lands after the promised date, and each row shows by how many days.
The projection is the internal deadline, or today if that has passed, plus the time that client usually takes to review a version, so it only appears once the studio has some review history.
When you agree on a new date, change the due date on the task and the portal shows the new one. Move the internal deadline as well, so the alarm is set again.
The task’s Activities tab records the change, who made it and when, next to every version sent to the client and every approval or request for changes.
When the delay came from the client’s side, that’s where the dates for your email are. The project management page has more.
