What if you spell your client’s name wrong?

While on the topic of my wonderful classroom clients and partners…

What if you spell your client’s name wrong?

It that okay?

Is it a death-blow to a relationship?

It might be and I wouldn’t blame them.

On a related note, there are only four letters in my last name… no matter what anyone else says. What’s funny is that it’s more often misspelled as “Arron” than as “Aaron.” The latter is a comparatively common name not to mention the last name of one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived, and the former… well I’ve still not ever met an Aron who uses two Rs.

Please, introduce yourself and we can be friends.

I don’t take this personally, not even from students and friends and relatives.

But I’m not a client.

In my classroom, we work with real clients, from down the hall, from two miles away, and from across the Atlantic.

And sometimes students spell the client’s name wrong.

Now, we know there are many combinations and permutations for spelling “Aron.” I believe 24 permutations. And that doesn’t even include adding extraneous As or Rs or Os or Ns. Aron Factorial!

Do you know how many different ways one student spelled “LA Fitness” in her final paper, the version presented to the client? (and yes, despite my attempts at correcting her).

How many ways are possible?

Well, if you check their website (a minimal research effort) you might think it’s “LA FITNESS.” Or even LA Fitness. This student spelled it five different ways in the same paper, with varying forms of punctuation and capitalization.

Dale Carnegie wrote that the sweetest words someone can hear is their own name.

Let them enjoy it.

What do you think?

See you tomorrow!