Handoff etiquette
A mistake handled badly costs more than the mistake itself.
Every delivery relationship makes mistakes eventually - a missed step, a wrong assumption, an update sent to the wrong context. What protects the partnership is not a promise of zero errors; it is a predictable, honest correction protocol.
The protocol
Five steps, in order, every time.
- NoticeThe error is identified - by delivery, the partner, or the client - and delivery does not wait to be caught.
- ContainImmediate, reversible action to limit further impact, within existing authority only.
- DiscloseThe partner is told plainly what happened, what is known, and what is still being checked - no minimizing language.
- CorrectA fix is proposed and, once approved where required, carried out.
- RecordThe cause and the prevention step are added to the operating review, not left as a one-off apology.
Who says what
Disclosure follows the same identity rule as everything else.
| Audience | Who communicates | What they hear |
|---|---|---|
| Your firm | Delivery, directly and promptly | The full known state, including what is still uncertain. |
| Your client | Your firm, in your identity | Only what you choose to share, in your own language and timing. |
| Delivery's own record | Delivery | Cause, containment action, and the prevention step for the review. |
Delivery does not contact your client to explain an error unless your firm has specifically authorized that channel for the situation.
What this is not
A correction protocol is not a liability waiver.
This page describes an operating expectation for how an error is handled day to day. It does not set liability terms, remedies, or compensation - those belong in the written partner agreement, negotiated directly and not implied by this description.
A healthy pattern looks like
Fewer repeated mistakes, not zero mistakes.
The useful signal in an operating review is not a claim of a perfect record. It is whether the same root cause keeps reappearing. A correction that is not paired with a prevention step is not finished.
Ask how the last correction was handled.
A concrete answer - not a promise of perfection - is what a fit conversation should produce here.