Ducks in a Row: Don’t Do As Sephora
by Miki Saxon
As workloads have increased, companies are pushing people to move faster and faster—often to the company’s detriment.
At the same time employee engagement (AKA, giving a damn) has been plummeting like a rock.
This is especially true when it comes to written communications.
Whether errors are from lack of knowledge or carelessness doesn’t change their effect on readers.
Some errors just make a company’s workforce look ignorant and uneducated (here’s a list of 15 common errors), but some can make it a laughingstock and cost big-time.
Consider the effect of a spelling error on Sephora.
In the lead up to its launch in Australia Sephora has made a doozy of a spelling mistake, leaving out the ‘o’ in its #countdowntobeauty hashtag on Facebook.
Social media is having a field day and it’s doubtful it will go away any time soon.
Obviously, the error wasn’t intentional; it’s more likely the result of not taking time to proof the copy, whether from being overloaded or just sloppy.
Either way, the damage is done.
Here are three simple things you can do to avoid finding your company in a similar situation.
- Spell and grammar check should be the default on all company computers—executives and senior personnel aren’t immune to errors.
- For critical content, writing and proofing should be done by different people; the second person is less likely to unconsciously correct an error.
- Budget enough time to allow for proofing; reading a sentence backwards makes it easier to catch errors.
Flickr image credit: Jean-Daniel Echenard
