Business Posting- Sylva G. 12/14/2007

I currently work for a survey lab that is constantly mailing and receiving surveys for different projects. The process to mail out the surveys is very drawn out. There is constant reviewing of every introductory letter, actual surveys, and post-survey letters. Our current project is dealing with attorneys critiquing judges all over Virginia. This is a very confidential project that took several months of planning, analyzing, and reviewing by our Project Managers. I realized that a good first impression does make a huge statement about our company. I recently have received hundreds of these surveys completed by the assigned Attorneys. However, I did notice that a majority of the Attorneys circled and left several comments about the introduction letter of the survey. They stated that sentences were not understandable and there were even misspelled words. I know that the head Managers of this project will feel humiliated considering the time and effort they “thought” they spent reviewing these letters. I really thought that maybe the Head Managers would take even more time to review these letters. In class we discussed that the first thing you should do before preparing a document for anyone is to know and connect with who is actually receiving the document. Attorneys are generally very educated people, with lots of experience in law and basic language skills, and this should have been taken into account. I remember in class that a different set of eyes could detect errors that others cannot see. Perhaps now the project managers will try to include us in the reviewing process and get our input about things. Overall, I do feel that the Attorneys will take the surveys seriously, however I know that the company I work for has lost some respect for their carelessness.