Performance Drift

Stage 1 of vendor relationship degradation, in which a vendor’s service levels begin missing contracted minimums at a frequency the customer tolerates without formal escalation. 

Performance drift is dangerous not because of the immediate service gap but because of the precedent it establishes. Each instance of unaddressed underperformance becomes the new acceptable baseline, normalising degradation and making formal escalation progressively harder to justify as months pass.

Most vendor relationships that reach operational capture began with a period of performance drift that was explained away as temporary.