Communication 101 -
Or, How to Always Put Your Best Foot Forward
Not counting Spam, how many e-mails do you get each day? 50? 100? More? Because of this information overload, we often get sloppy in our responses. Proper punctuation and grammar, correct spelling and fixing typos have gone by the wayside in our hurry to respond and get on to other “more important” tasks.
This is such a mistake! An e-mail that contains mistakes gives the reader the impression that you are careless in how you do business. If you can’t take the time to make sure your e-mail is correct, then do you also not care about the quality of the product or service you produce? Whether you realize it or not, it is all related and every thing you do - including e-mails - should reflect your high business standards.
You may think that you’re just sending a quick note to your friend, so it’s not really important. However, what if your friend forwards your e-mail to one of their business associates? Your quick note of “i thot youd be interested in attending this meetng to” takes on a life of its own. What if the person it is forwarded to is someone you’d like to do business with? What is their impression of you? Are you a polished professional - or someone who can’t be taken seriously?
And let’s face it - even if you’re sending a quick note to a friend, using poor grammar, misspelled words and other mistakes shows a fundamental lack of respect for that person. Your haste shows that they simply aren’t important to you.
All of your marketing materials also need to be scrutinized for mistakes. The more important the material, the more proofreaders you need to have. It’s very difficult - if not impossible - for someone to accurately proofread something they wrote themselves. The brain plays tricks and you see what you intended to write - not the mistakes.
How many times have you read a company’s brochure or looked at their Web site and found errors? Your first impression is not a positive one - and you often go on to their competitor for the product or service you need. Bearing this in mind, don’t you want your materials to appear as professional as possible? Why lose someone’s business simply because you didn’t take the time to make sure you used “you’re” and “your” correctly?
Even the best make mistakes. We recently received a flyer for an event that is hosted by a major media outlet. The flyer states: “Remeber to save the date” for the event. Again, the mind plays tricks. Did you even catch the misspelled word?
However, there’s simply no excuse for mistakes. Certainly, no one is expected to be a perfect speller or to write like a pro. However, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of online resources, including dictionaries, thesaurus (thesauri?), grammar checkers and the like, plus many, many reference books. Plus, most word processing programs have these capabilities. The funny little squiggle underlines are telling you something is incorrect! If all else fails, take a refresher course at your local community college.
You wouldn’t attend a business meeting with mismatched socks, a tear
in the knee of your pants or wearing a stained jacket. So, why don’t
you also take the time to make sure that all of your communications would
make your 8th Grade English teacher proud of you!