‘Autocorrect’ Can Kill a Client Relationship

“I have to hoover our meeting to Tuesday”

You’ve probably seen the infamous “D*mn You Autocorrect” site; or have been victim of your

cell phone’s attempt to guess what you are typing. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s

uncomfortable and sometimes it’s downright absurd. If it happens with someone you are

familiar with, usually you just laugh it off, or pretend it didn’t happen.

What happens when Autocorrect sneaks up and strikes when you are texting a client? What

should you do? I offer this tip: you should never put yourself in that kind of situation. Any

communication with a client should be read twice before sending to catch any erroneous

errors. I think I’m going to coin a new phrase, ‘read2xB4send’. It only takes an extra second to

avoid negative situations.

OK, so the one time you don’t read2xB4send, your phone Autocorrects the simple message you

were trying to send to a client and turns it into something obscene. What do you do? I don’t

know if they work, but I’ve seen ‘text recall’ apps in the App stores. Let us know if you have

one to recommend. This is a dangerous path to be explained in another blog post.

To start, I would keep your apology simple and explain what you meant to say (making sure your

phone doesn’t autocorrect again). If I were the client, I would ask, “why didn’t

you read2xB4send?” You’re on your own to answer that one.

The other thing I would do is, send a few short texts right away to that person. That way, they

will have to scroll to view your Autocorrect mishap again. You don’t want the mishap to display

prominently on the screen the next time you text them.

With all communications with clients, the solution is simple ‘read2xB4send’.

By John Boyer, Director of Marketing, Coldwell Banker Commercial Affiliates

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