There are a lot of great ways to damage your reputation, but a failure to proofread important documents or correspondence is perhaps one of the easiest. For example, when I read a resume or cover letter littered with errors, I’m almost guaranteed to discard the applicant as lazy and lacking attention to detail. And I’m not alone. In turn, this immediate bias clouds any potentially positive impressions I may have had otherwise.
And the more weight, time, effort, money, or reach that something represents, the larger the negative impact. This morning I received an automated email from Kaiser Permanente, a tiny company that doesn’t really rely on trust, sensitivity, and the utmost attention to detail. I assume their email was of the tone, “we miss you, please come back”. However, I failed to read the message at all because of the blatant typo in the email’s subject line:
Biziorek, Wed like to welcome you back to Kaiser Permanente
Yes, they said “Wed”. This may have been ok, perhaps even humorous with a subject like:
“Biziorek, Remember the day we were wed… what happened to our love?”
Odds are I would have chuckled and at least read the email. Instead, I found myself wondering how many people got this very same message. And, if Kaiser is this careless with their outreach emails, how careless are they with other aspects of their business? Should I really trust this company with my health?
What are your thoughts? Have you ever sworn off a company because of grammatical errors or careless typos?
