Do you owe it to clients to prevent them from making dumb mistakes?
Do you owe it to them to correct their easily correctible mistakes? Or should you just ignore it, thinking "It's their money (or reputation)."
This was my question today when I viewed a sign on a business we passed by.
It was a septic tank pumping business, and the sign said: "If your plugged up, call ..."
It was a large sign, so I could read it easily where it was attached to a building set well back off the road. It also appeared to be a professionally produced sign, so I'm guessing the business owner paid at least a few hundred dollars for it.
My first thought was "How could a sign maker allow a client to say that?" Then I thought perhaps the sign maker didn't know any better either. Then I thought maybe he or just said said "I paint what I'm told. Not my fault if it's wrong."
This isn't the first time I've seen commercially produced signs with this kind of error, and I always think the same things.
A few years ago there were two similar signs in our local laundromat/dry cleaners. Someone had taken a magic marker and corrected them. Another time there was a huge sign on a store that sold boxes. It said "Get you're boxes here."
In real estate, I suppose keeping quiet about such errors would equate to going along with it if your listing client wanted to paint their living room hot pink. Or maybe letting a client discuss their real estate negotiations and get advice from all of their friends on Facebook.
I'll admit - some people don't take criticism well. I once had a client who got angry when I pointed out that he was misusing words like here and there on his website. He let me know that he knew better, he was just in too much of a hurry to pay attention. Someone else halted all communication when I said that she needed to add her name and her location to the home page on her personal website.
But still... even if they take offense, shouldn't we at least TRY to keep people from making goofy mistakes?
Graphic courtesy of Stuart Miles @ freedigitalphotos.net
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