Have you ever noticed how communication skills have deteriorated over the past few years? In preparation for my lunch keynote at the 10th Annual Cause Marketing Conference in San Diego this week, I went through my “boo boo” folder and found some great examples.
Here are a couple of samples I’m using that underscore my point. These are real, folks. I didn’t make them up.
1.
“Thank you for contacting. Each survey opportunity is unique. The survey invitation will contain both the length of the survey and the amount of credit your will receive upon completion.”
2.
“By submitting this form you agree to receive periodic e-mails from [name of organization]. We will not sell or lease this list to any third party. You will be receiving a e-mail conformation.”
These represent auto responses from Web sites. I also have some juicy ones received from colleagues.
What impression do you think these types of boo-boo’s send? What does it say about an organization’s credibility?
Tags: email, keynote, marketing communication
Tell me about it – the ability to mangle the English language worse than monkeys banging on typewriters never fails to astound me.
My personal impression? Chances are, they’ve lost me as a customer.
Enjoy,
Barbara
You’re so right, Elaine. I get these emails and shake my head. Misspelling and poor grammar pepper our oral and written communications, even in business settings, and it’s alarming. National media outlets have the same problem. Have you ever read some of the news blurbs across the bottom of your TV screen? Since I develop and write marketing and PR communications for a living, I’m acutely aware of this trend.
I agree with Barbara. The impression made by these kinds of communications is such a poor one, that I’d be reluctant to do business with any company that sent them. After all, if they pay so little attention to the communications they send out, and take so little pride and care in how they represent themselves, how would they treat me as a customer?
Elaine,
If these types of errors come from a specific person sending me an individualized response, I generally let it go. If it happens more than once, that’s another story.
If this type of error comes from an automated response, I cannot have much confidence in the company. Everyone makes mistakes; a mistake that isn’t fixed is still a mistake. A mistake that is fixed shows me a company 1) pays attention and 2) can suck it up and admit they’re wrong. Those two things are important to me as a consumer.
And my own mistakes irritate me just as much. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough “edit” buttons on the Internet.
“What impression do you think these types of boo-boo’s send?”
I dant now inglish gut, bat wantyour muney.
I think these exist in emails, websites, brochures, even in packages. Yet they become irelevant with time it the product is ok.
Example: I’m buying products that have almost no slovenian word on the package – just german. Slovenia is actually too small market to adopt the package? Yet it is good so I buy it.
The same with some emails I receive. They’re full of mistakes and bad design. Yet content matters.
But if would have a choice and there were nicer words/design with competitors, I would go for them.
Btw: what’s a Boo-Boo?
Unfortunately, over 35 years of writing, marketing and communicating, I, too, have been guilty of typos, noun/verb disagreements, and misspellings. Everyone takes a piece of my flesh.
However, when it comes to my client work, my books and my articles, we proof and then proof some more. Because a professional piece should be perfect. On our blogs and in comments, I expect we make mistakes caused by our need to move on to our work, and hence proofing is not a must.
Two different scenarios–two different reactions by readers, I suspect.
P.S. Please overlook any errors here. I did not proof.
Thanks for these excellent comments. Barbara and Claire, I feel the same way. All those boo boo’s are like a knife scratching the bottom of a saucepan!
Michael, I know what you mean. When I catch one of my own typos or minor errors, it frustrates me. No matter how much I proof and then get my proofreader to proof, little things can get through.
Dusan, I appreciate your point, but I believe that’s the problem – when we continue to ignore these faux pas, they become even more common. Eventually, proper English spelling and grammar will be a thing of the past in America. What will the British think?
Lewis, as marketing communications professionals, I agree that there’s pressure on us to be “perfect.” It’s no wonder that I spend so much time on e-mails and other daily communications. I proof and read them many times. It’s time consuming, but I believe that I must be a paragon.
Thanks for these excellent comments. Barbara and Claire, I feel the same way. All those boo boo’s are like a knife scratching the bottom of a saucepan!
Michael, I know what you mean. When I catch one of my own typos or minor errors, it frustrates me. No matter how much I proof and then get my proofreader to proof, little things can get through.
Dusan, I appreciate your point, but I believe that’s the problem – when we continue to ignore these faux pas, they become even more common. Eventually, proper English spelling and grammar will be a thing of the past in America. What will the British think?
Lewis, as marketing communications professionals, I agree that there’s pressure on us to be “perfect.” It’s no wonder that I spend so much time on e-mails and other daily communications. I proof and read them many times. It’s time consuming, but I believe that I must be a paragon.
Is it a lack of intelligence or just a lack of consideration? That’s usually the question that comes to mind when I see mistakes like these. But each time I catch myself making this types of mistakes I realize more often then not, it’s lack of time. We rush through too many projects with the mentality, “that’s good enough”, and we tend to miss simple mistakes.
Is it forgiveable? In an automated response, sure.
In a personal response? Well, if I know the person is intelligent, then I can’t help but feel like I wasn’t worth 5 minutes of their time to check for those simple mistakes.
I swear, sometimes I think I need to go back to school to get my education degree so that I can try (and TRY is the operative word in this sentence) to teach students how to write and communicate effectively before they enter the workforce. I am consistently amazed at the level of grammatical ignorance exhibited by C-level executives and managers. It is just astonishing.
Thank you for your post; I feel your anguish!
Good point, Monique! We are rushed, but doesn’t the use of proper spelling and grammar speak to our personal brands? We can’t always be perfect, but we can certainly do a better job.
Ginny, I, too, am amazed. There are many very intelligent and educated people out there (whose first language is English) yet sound “dumb” when they misuse langauge.
I know, I’m anal about this subject. Blame it on my grade seven teacher Mrs. Yellin, who drilled my class (in Montreal) on the English language. I hated it at the time, but am I grateful!
I, too, spoke French before learning English as you did, Elaine. I credit my teachers throughout my parochial elementary school with doing an amazing job teaching us how to spell and use good grammar in English and in French. More importantly, they instilled the desire in us to master both languages and to take pride in doing our very best in our oral and written work at all times. Let’s hear it for dedicated teachers! What a difference they make in all of our lives.
Elaine,
It is not only grammar and spelling, but there seems to have been a “dumbing down” of sensitivity and civility. A case in point is the front page of this newsletter.
In the lead article “Put That Checkbook Away”, the Get To The Point newsletter states, “Using cash or checks in a retail establishment will disrupt the progress of daily life and piss people off–in a big way.”
The term “piss people off in a big way” simply cheapens the article and takes it from a publication aimed at prpofessionals to a low form of communication.
In some regions of the country, in spite of the plethora of colleges within those same regions, the local populace cares not for correct spelling or good grammar. It is the obligation of those who know better to set an example and press on in the battle for better english!
Thank you, Chuck Burk, for making the point that public communications should take the high road. Unless one is a writer for the Rolling Stone, assume the public is gentile and communicate accordingly.
It’s such a relief to know I’m not the only one who notices the often blatant disregard for intelligently representing oneself in print (whether it be emails, blogs, television tickers, etc.). Yes, mistakes happen . . . but some are just inexcusable, especially if they’ve been brought to someone’s attention and remain unchanged.
I sometimes wonder if I’m too critical when it comes to spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, but then I catch myself and realize that we need to be critical. In this age of text messaging and Internet slang, it’s more important than ever to preserve the written word. The day computer shorthand becomes the norm will be a sad one indeed. Is it inevitable? I certainly hope not. To me, it’s just sloppy.
I think there were two reasons why there is so much bad writing:
1) Everyone thinks that they can write (so they don’t use professional writers).
2) Organizations don’t allocate time for professional editing.
Elaine is posted twice (Posted by: Elaine Fogel | 03.18.08.) I could say, “Gotca!” but having a business where my intense all is constantly required, I understand typos.
Second-guessing to correct employees before they commit a faux pas is my daily bread. My email clients know who we are, and know the excellent product we provide, so I believe they do forgive my own fp’s in a correspondence.
Posting sites have made everyone a critic of minutia. Sometimes comments contain irrelevant content or completely misunderstand intent. I say, at times we all need to relax and enjoy the ride. To paraphrase Apollinaire, “Now and then it is good to pause in the pursuit of perfection to be perfectly happy!”
Copywriters are held heavily accountable. Meanwhile, a programmer or other non-writers can type in some text while coding that is seen far more often by the audience. That copy goes out unchecked, perhaps with poor grammar or a typo. Like the copywriters’ work, it also represent the brand, but falls outside a process, so no one notices. Bottom line: A brand needs guardians everywhere! Check everything for quality!!
As the writer child of two writer/editor parents, I am definitely a member of that part of the population that a) catches mistakes, and b) is irritated by them. I would love to boycott those who can’t be bothered to be correct, whether through ignorance or indifference, but it simply isn’t practical. I once had to screen nearly 1,000 resumes, and if I had thrown out all but those without spelling, grammar, or agreement mistakes, I would have had a total of three candidates for two positions. Like it or not, I think we are returning to the kind of grammatically freewheeling society best characterized by Andrew Jackson when he said that he “didn’t think much of a man who could only think of one way to spell a word.”
So the possessive apostrophe in the second “boo” of your headline–that’s a joke, right?
As a communicator, it’s illuminating to see how many people focus on mistakes and make so much of them. It’s a lesson to see how excited readers get! Do they NEVER make mistakes themselves? I guess so.
C’mon – let’s get our hands off our hips!! Words are pumped out by the millions on the web. What do you want with such quantity? It’s not literature, after all! All those people typing fast with no one to edit. Who wants to hire lots of qualified editors to check all that work? It’s just a reality of the pace at which people are expected to work. Anyone can be perfect when they have all day!
Um, Jan Kotila – I think you mean a public that is “genteel”?
Sent in the spirit of the quest for better English…
Eniko — I hope many employers decide to hire copy editors to improve their publications. As a writer and copy editor, it dismays me that many people seem to think editors are a useless expense. Competent editors don’t take all day to improve prose.
Marketers and other employers need to decide whether they value accurate vocabulary and good grammar.
Companies or individuals who don’t feel editors are worth the investment may make copy editors as obsolete as whalebone corsets.
In the meantime, any writer can take a few minutes to review and revise — it can protect the writer from intemperate writing, not just ungrammatical writing.
I see typos and poor writing as two very different things: Typos are easy to make and to forgive, but mangling the English language? If you didn’t pay attention in English class, then at least have the sense to pay someone to write and/or edit for you as a professional.
Dare I say it? My experience has been that marketers today are hired more for their analytical skills than for their writing skills. I’ve seen people for whom English is a second language writing online and email copy with the expected results. I guess the question is, when your audience is increasingly ‘English as a second language’, does it really matter if “boo boo’s” are made? Consider the growing use and nature of text messaging. I think that it really all comes down to your audience. If you can effectively target, you should write/speak using language, format and channel that are most appropriate to that audience. Clearly non-targeted communications are held to a different standard, although possibly one that is more forgiving than in the past.
Not only does poor writing, for whatever reason (grammar, spelling, content, language mangulation) send a message that the originator of the communication doesn’t care enough to get even the basics right, it also distracts readers from the message itself.
And you probably found it distracting…
Many people who don’t write well do READ well enough to know when something is wrong with a piece of writing.
@ Eniko–the pursuit of perfection is what we’re asking for here… concern about getting the basics right. Typos will happen. Content mistakes will happen. I hope we can avoid degenerating into a state where correcting spelling and grammar are considered “if I have time for them” processes.
Yes, the possessive is incorrect in the article’s headline. Yes, I made up the word “mangulation.”
Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
– Thomas Jefferson
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