To Err Is Human, to Ask for Forgiveness Divine

Yes, Pace Communications and I are absolutely, 110 percent devoted to excellence. But let me break this to you gently: No company, organization or individual is ever going to get everything right all the time, down to the last tiny detail. That’s not realistic. The job of an editor is to make copy as perfect as possible to ensure it sends the intended message to recipients, and then acknowledge and correct the hopefully small mistakes that do occur.

Check out the photo a friend took of a church sign he spotted recently (left image). Notice anything amiss? That’s it—seperates should actually be separates. Certainly an understandable error. It is, after all, one of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language. Sometimes I have to remind myself how to spell it. (Am I the only one who does that thing where you scrutinize a word so intently that any potential combination of letters starts to look like an alien alphabet?)

But here’s where the story gets interesting. My friend, who’s a helpful sort, tracked down and e-mailed the pastor at the church, who replied with a very kind note of gratitude for my friend’s thoughtfulness in helping him rectify the mistake. But, not content to apologize merely to one passerby when the spelling skills of many others may have been negatively influenced, as well, the pastor chose to issue a more public apology. The next day, the sign looked like this (right image).

When it comes to communications strategies that businesses can share, the church is doing one thing very right: listening and responding to its audience. As my friend said, “How a brand behaves in its public-facing communications says a lot about the personality of the company and the people behind it.” Indeed. He’s preaching to the choir.

Posted By: Alicia Miller Corbett