Living Up To Our Own Advertising

When I was eleven, I had sent away for a 100 piece play set of soldiers that had been advertised on the back cover of a comic book. Most guys over 45 will likely recall this promotion and its extraordinary offer. The set included planes, ships, tanks , cannons, soldiers and even female military personnel all for only $1.25! Looking at the picture of the amassed army and navy, I wondered how much space I would need to set all of this up. I waited for weeks on end. Everyday, I would look to see if the big package had arrived.

One day, there was something in the mail for me . It was a package about the size of those free samples of laundry detergent that we used to get. But there was no way this object could be the 100 piece army that I had waited half the summer for. Or could it? I opened the box, and inside was a tangle of green plastic shapes. Spreading these shapes onto the kitchen table, I realized that I had been had.I picked up one of the pieces and saw that it was a "tank". A two dimensional plastic silhouette on a base stand. Everything was here; the soldiers, the ships, the cannons . They looked like pieces from a board game. Not at all what I had expected.

I think about what it would be like for a new customer of security services under similar circumstances. First, he's drawn in by an idealized image of an immaculately attired security officer featured on a companies' website. Second, the prospective client is reassured over and over in consultations with the sales team; "You're making a wise decision here." Finally, when the big day arrives, the officer who reports for the inaugural shift is not the super patrolman from the website, but a different fellow altogether; 45 minutes late, dons his uniform in the parking lot and ambles in at his own pace.

I do not condemn those who use generic images of models in their advertising. Nothing wrong with that . What counts , of course, is the service we deliver. If one's goal, is to provide a superior brand of service, the effort invested into that goal will come through in the officers whom are hired to do the work. They are the ones who can be counted upon to arrive a few minutes early, fully dressed and ready to work from the very first shift to the very last.