The Hidden Cost of Poor Microsoft Word Templates

For many surveying practices, Microsoft Word templates are used every day without much thought.  Once created, they often remain unchanged for years.

Over time, however, even well designed templates can become increasingly inefficient as branding evolves, reporting styles change and additional content is added.

Small inefficiencies repeated across hundreds or thousands of reports every year can quietly consume a significant amount of valuable time.  Many of these issues are caused by templates that have simply evolved over time without being reviewed.  We explored this further in our article, Why Every Chartered Surveying Practice Should Review Its Report Templates Every Few Years.

A well designed template should help report production, not slow it down.

Professional Reports Deserve Professional Templates

Surveyors provide the professional expertise that clients value.  Their knowledge, inspections and recommendations form the heart of every report.  The document itself should support that expertise by presenting information clearly, consistently and professionally.

When Microsoft Word templates are designed with document production in mind, surveyors can focus on producing excellent reports rather than dealing with unnecessary formatting issues.

Hidden Time Loss Often Goes Unnoticed

Many inefficiencies become accepted simply because they happen every day.

Examples include:

• Manually applying formatting throughout a report.
• Inconsistent heading styles.
• Tables of Contents requiring manual updates.
• Images that move unexpectedly.
• Different versions of the same template.
• Users creating their own workarounds.
• Repeated formatting corrections before reports are issued.

Individually these may seem minor.

Across an organisation, they quickly become a significant drain on productivity.

Small Improvements Create Large Savings

Saving twenty or thirty minutes on a single report may not initially appear significant.

Across hundreds or thousands of reports each year, those minutes become many days of productive time.

Well designed Microsoft Word templates can reduce:

• Manual formatting
• Quality control corrections
• Document inconsistencies
• Staff training time
• Repetitive administration
• Version control issues

Those efficiencies are repeated every time the template is used.

Good Templates Begin With Good Planning

One common misconception is that document formatting happens after a report has been written.  In reality, the most efficient report production starts long before the first word is typed.  Templates should be designed around the way reports are produced.

Features such as Microsoft Word Styles, automatic numbering, automatic Tables of Contents, consistent page layouts and carefully planned formatting all contribute to a smoother document production process.

Attempting to improve formatting after reports have already been produced often takes just as long as producing the document correctly in the first place.  Planning templates properly from the outset delivers far greater long term benefits.  Planning templates carefully from the outset also helps create consistency across every report produced. Our article, Why Consistent Document Templates Matter More Than Most Businesses Realise, explains why consistency benefits both businesses and their clients.

Involve The People Who Use The Templates Every Day

Successful template reviews often involve more than marketing teams or external designers.  The people producing reports every day understand how documents function in practice.

• Surveyors.
• Administrators.
• Document production specialists.
• Quality reviewers.

Each group experiences different parts of the report production process.  Their combined experience often identifies practical improvements that would otherwise remain hidden.

We have recently begun discussions with a large international property consultancy that is undertaking exactly this type of review.  The objective is to create a consistent look and feel across the organisation while also ensuring the templates are straightforward to use, efficient to produce and make full use of Microsoft Word's automation features.

That combination benefits both the business and the people producing reports every day.

Attractive Templates Are Only Part Of The Story

We have seen some beautifully designed templates that reflected a company's brand perfectly.  Presentation is important, but efficient document production should always be considered alongside branding. We discuss this in more detail in Why Report Formatting Matters More Than Most Businesses Realise.

Unfortunately, some of those beautifully designed templates were also unnecessarily complicated to use:

• Multiple text boxes.
• Inconsistent styles.
• Manual formatting.

Features that looked impressive but added unnecessary time to document production.

The most successful templates combine professional presentation with practical usability.

Both are equally important.

Looking Beyond The Visual Appearance

When reviewing Microsoft Word templates, organisations often focus on branding, colours and presentation.

Those elements certainly matter.

However, equal consideration should be given to how efficiently the templates work for the people using them every day.  Well structured templates support consistency, improve productivity and help maintain high standards across every report produced.

Over time, those benefits become increasingly valuable.

Microsoft Word templates are much more than branded documents.  They are an important part of the document production process.  Investing time in reviewing and improving templates can reduce administration, improve consistency and support the production of high quality professional reports across an organisation.

For practices producing large numbers of reports, even relatively small improvements can deliver meaningful long term benefits.  If you would like assistance in producing simple to use Microsoft Word templates call 020 7096 1663 or email.