A customer approves a proof at half past five on a Friday, quickly, because the job needs to print on Monday.
Five thousand leaflets arrive with a transposed digit in the telephone number. The number was wrong in the file the customer supplied and it was wrong in the proof they approved.
Nobody at the printer introduced the error. The customer is understandably upset and the cost of the reprint is a real question with a clear but unwelcome answer.
1. Explain what approval means before it is given
That approving a proof confirms the content and transfers responsibility for anything visible in it. Customers treat approval as a formality unless told otherwise.
2. Make the proof stage deliberate
A separate step with a clear instruction to check specific things, rather than a link sent in an email that can be clicked without reading.
3. Name what always goes wrong
Telephone numbers, email addresses, dates, prices, opening times and anybody's name. A checklist of these catches the overwhelming majority of errors.
4. Ask for somebody else to check it
The author cannot see their own mistakes. A second pair of eyes is the single most effective error prevention available and it costs nothing.
5. Discourage approval in a hurry
A proof approved at the end of a Friday is a proof approved badly. Saying so explicitly gives a customer permission to take an extra hour.
6. Distinguish the error categories clearly
Printer error, customer error present in the approved proof, file supply problem and a fault in the material. These have different answers and they should be named.
7. Correct printer errors completely and quickly
Reprinted, at no cost, without argument. This is the category where reputation is made and it should be handled generously.
8. Explain the customer error position kindly
Firmly and with an explanation of where the error was visible. Customers accept this far better when the proof is shown to them than when a policy is quoted.
9. Offer a goodwill position for genuine cases
Where an error is small and a customer is otherwise good, a shared cost or a discounted reprint frequently preserves a relationship worth more than the reprint.
10. Explain the colour variation position
Which is not an error, and which is the commonest complaint after content mistakes. Explaining it before printing prevents the conversation afterwards.
11. Explain the trim tolerance
Slight variation in trimming is normal in any print process, which is why safe margins matter, and which customers experience as a mistake.
12. Keep a record of the approval
Who approved it, when, and what they saw. This is what makes the conversation about facts rather than recollections.
13. Prevent the file problems upstream
Most errors originate in the supplied file, so clear guidance on bleed, resolution, fonts and colour mode at the quotation stage prevents a large share of them.
14. Explain the approval process at the point of quotation
An assistant that explains what approving a proof means, lists the things that are always wrong, suggests a second checker and states the responsibility position clearly prevents the Friday afternoon approval and the Monday conversation. The quantity arithmetic sits in quantity break and pricing questions, the repeat orders in business stationery reorder questions from regular clients, the same responsibility explanation in drain and blockage questions with shared pipes, and coverage as in answering service area questions. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under printing services.