The Secret Power of Typos

We all make typos. We all miss them, too. Even proofreading pros. Fortunately today, we all forgive typos, as long as they are few and far between. But what does it say about your business when your website is filled with typos and misspelled words?

To digress for a moment: Unlike most people, I’ve spent most of my professional life obsessed with typos. When I owned my “old-fashioned” typesetting business from 1980-1993, I used to track the efficiency of our proofreaders, and anyone who scored under 99% was sure to be summoned to my office for a little chat. After all, 99% meant that one typo slipped by for every hundred words, and in those days, this was not an acceptable level of quality. 99.99% was.

My favorite typo story from that former life involves the Greyhound Corporation. We were hired to typeset and lay out a quarterly 8-page newsletter for their Internal Auditing Department. Since this work was performed before the invention of word processing and desktop publishing, we retyped every word of the client’s manuscript into our dedicated typesetting system, and then proofread the long strips of type (called galleys) before they were manually cut and pasted up into newsletter pages. (Yes, it’s hard to believe, even for me.)

This newsletter probably contained about 2,500 words. When we didn’t hear from the client the following quarter, I called Clarence (yes, I even remember his name) to find out when the next issue would arrive. “I’ve found another provider,” he said, in a very unfriendly tone. “There was A TYPO in the last issue, so we just can’t use you again.”

Can you imagine anyone making that statement today? No, thank heaven, but sometimes I do wish that at least some of the old quality standards were still appreciated, if not enforced with an iron hand.

I’m prompted to write today because this past weekend I was viewing a website for a really cool new product/service. I had seen an ad in the paper. I was already “sold” truth be told, and I logged on with every expectation of placing an order. The site was loaded with great information, enticing pictures, and a very effective sales pitch. It was also loaded with typos and misspelled words (in nearly every paragraph). My expectation of satisfaction suddenly turned into serious doubt about the competence of this business. I had to wonder, if they were this careless with their own website, were they also this careless with their product/service? And if so, what consequences might result?

I decided to think it over a little longer. I ultimately placed an order, which, some may argue, negates my argument. Not really. Instead of feeling reassured and confident about this new product/service, I’m now primed for a mishap. If the delivery is late or the quality is anything less than promised, I probably won’t be as forgiving as I otherwise might have been, because this, you see, won’t be the first mistake. It will be the 20th.

I’m sure the new business owners would be horrified to learn that they are leaving this impression. Perhaps they are young and have been educated into the belief that creativity and self-esteem are more important than accuracy and spelling. Perhaps they are unaware of the availability of proofreading. Perhaps they simply don’t think it’s a big deal. I’m here to tell them, yes it is.

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Michele DeFilippo, owner, 1106 Design