Mr. Beckett showed up at my house on Saturday.   Josh is a pretty famous major league baseball pitcher and currently plays for the Red Sox.  

My wife had been cleaning all morning in anticipation of his arrival (I told her that it was not a big deal; the house looked fine- but you know how that goes).

I had a busy morning too and was in the backyard when Josh rang the doorbell an hour early.   My wife answered the door and not being much of a baseball fan, she didn’t recognize him even though he was decked out in his baseball jersey that said “RED SOX” on the front and “BECKETT” on his back.  

I came around the front of the house and was surprised that he was wearing a game jersey. Not what I expected.  I was then shocked he had put a ton of weight on and got about a foot shorter since the season started.   I looked a little closer…. and realized……. that it wasn’t Josh Beckett at all, but the cable guy who was scheduled to come about an hour later.

There are a lot of problems with this; not the least of which is that there is an age when a man should stop wearing another man’s name on his back (and that age should be about 14 ).  But there are bigger problems than that; problems that people and companies should fix.   Problems you can get involved in solving.

Problem A):   He scared my wife.  Really scared her.   That is not good.    Who is this guy at the front door in khaki’s and Red Sox Jersey?  She literally told me later “I was freaked out and scared, I had no idea what he wanted and you were way out back”.   (It was only because our dog was barking that I even came around to the front of the house.)

Problem B):   I didn’t trust him the entire time.  About anything.  He was there for an hour adding some cable service and because he chose to wear his Saturday best and he scared my wife, I had a lot of tension and concern watching him work around my house.  If you don’t care how you look, do you care how you work?  

Don’t tell me that his truck should be a giveaway.  His truck was parked behind our two cars and the lettering on the truck if you chose to walk up to it, was tiny, had no colors and no logo.   It doesn’t matter.  If someone comes to your door dressed like he’s ready to go to a tailgate party, you’re not looking at his vehicle for a company or a brand to begin with.

If you serve businesses or are one you’ve known (supposedly) for years about the value of having that logo and that personalization on the clothing because it makes the customers feel at ease and that your company is professional.   So why is it not happening still today?

Uneasiness was the tenor of the day and hence, the entire experience was certainly not professional.

Right or wrong, because of the way he dressed Saturday, I questioned everything about him.   I questioned his ability, his commitment to his company and whether he had any concern at all about me, the customer.   That’s bad news.

And worse now, whenever I see Josh Beckett pitch I’m going to think about the cable guy and wonder if my picture in HD is really as good as it could be.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark