Get QA/QC off the QT

by Jonathan McGaha | April 30, 2014 12:00 am

You see it every day, whether it’s on the sign outside a fast-food restaurant, on the pages of your favorite website, or particularly on social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Typos are the bane of existence of every word nerd, copy editor and proofreader. But aside from coming across like the grammar police by noticing them, there are sound business (read: financial) reasons for doing something about them.

As a professional architect, you know the importance of precise measurements in your technical drawings and design work. As the saying goes: measure twice, cut once. You can’t overstate the importance of getting it right, all the way down to the smallest fraction.

Your marketing department has the same issues. It’s their job to promote the work of you and your colleagues in promotional materials, proposals and presentations, not to mention on the firm’s website.

And while you focus more on numbers than words, the power of language cannot be overstated. Let’s say your firm does most of its work in the public sector. Take the ‘l’ out of ‘public’ and you end up with a word that will likely draw laughs at first glance, unless you are the client. They are the ones who decide which firm gets the project, and typos involving the word “public”
(which cannot be detected through spell-check tools on your computer) will likely put your proposal in the trash.

What can you do to help? If you see marketing as a time-suck that adds nothing and takes away valuable overhead, think again. They are the ones who take your finished projects and turn them into the lure that attracts new clients, new projects and new revenue. Start with a new approach to the role of marketing in your firm and you’re well on your way to helping.

How can you help? Offer to get involved. No marketer will ever turn down your willingness to serve as an extra set of eyes. Marketing professionals are often too close to the subject matter to see typos that not only make their way into new proposals, but regularly end up in boiler-plate material that is used in all proposals. That’s the worst-case scenario, but it’s not 100-year event. It happens all the time.

There was a story in the Boston Globe a few years ago that showed how TSA officials working security at Logan Airport miss explosives and other banned materials going through an X-ray machine because they spend so much time looking at the same things that they become immune to what they see.

The same thing happens with marketing professionals and the collateral they work with every day. They are so close to their work that they start to scan and glaze over the material. Anyone-and I really mean anyone-who can detect typos and other potential inaccuracies adds immeasurable value to the equation.

Oh, and before I wrap this up, I should mention that you can help by finding more than typos. If something doesn’t look right in terms of technical descriptions, project descriptions, the role that a team member played on a prior project, by all means, say something.

It’s important to remember that everyone is working together for the greater good of adding value to the firm. There should be no sacred cows. No, let me correct that. The only sacred cow should be making sure the firm is doing the best work it can.

QA/QC can be a dirty word, but it shouldn’t be. It’s time to get it into the standard operating procedure for everything your firm does, whether it’s an architectural drawing or a piece of marketing copy.

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Ed Hannan is principal of HannComm, a firm dedicated to improving the quality of A/E/C marketing communications. He’s spent the past decade covering the industry as publishing director with two leading management consulting firms, ZweigWhite and PSMJ Resources. Hannan can be reached at (508) 308-9544 or edhannan@gmail.com[1].

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/get-qaqc-off-the-qt/

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