WichitaFallsComplete.com
Is The Public's First Impression of Your Agency A Crappy Copy of a Copy of a Copy?
If you work for an organization that uses a high volume of many different forms on a daily basis, I bet you have experienced this problem at some time or another. For some companies, it's a chronic disease. Maybe your organization has caught this ailment?
I'm talking about forms on which the text and lines are so wavy it's almost line a cartoon. In addition to the wavy lines and text, the entire copy is not "square" or centered on the page.
Of course, the reasoning behind this disease is simple. Someone finds that they are holding what they think is the last copy of a certain document, and before using it, they feel it is only right that they make more copies. Only they don't first check to see if there is a clean master copy to use for this purpose. Instead, they use the "second generation" copy as the new master.
Then, weeks or months down the road, when it's time to make more copies, a "third generation" copy ends up being used as the master. Combine this with the fact that some people don't take the time to make sure the master copy, good or bad in appearance, is positioned properly on the copy machine.
And the trend goes on, with each small error multiplied each time a new batch of documents is produced, until after a year or so, your organization is working with "forms from hell". Now, it's bad enough when these forms are used internally. It's horrible when you actually distribute this type of garbage to people outside your organization.
Imagine that one of these "forms from hell" is the first impression a person or organization has of your company!
At some point in time, someone may have to actually sit down at the computer and re-invent new master copies for these "forms gone wild" to cure the problem. But usually, no one does.
Maynard