The Sporting Life: Clothes make the man; service makes the sale

Brent Lawrence is a columnist with Springfield Business Journal.

Those who know me, or read my column very often, know that the thing I hate most in the world is poor service.

I don't ask for much a little eye contact, a bit of conversation and good service relative to how busy the business is. Nothing unreasonable.

Those who know me also know that I'm not a suit-and-tie guy. Scratch that. I wasn't a suit-and-tie guy until I met Basil Frost. Basil works at Men's Suit Mart across from Battlefield Mall. To say Basil works there is a gross understatement. Basil is a craftsman, honing his profession of helping people buy suits. It's customer service to the nth degree.

Let me set the scene before I go any further. About a month ago, I found out on a Friday afternoon that I would need a suit the following Monday evening for a meeting. Fair enough, but my suits were well, let's just say that they hadn't expanded over time and I had. And due to my stunning lack of height and size 19 1/2 neck, I'm not an off-the-rack type of fella.

I had some sport coats and dress pants that would suffice for the meeting, but I decided to go ahead and purchase a suit for the next time a meeting came up (or funeral, as the case may be). Following up on a referral by good friend Anthony Tindall, who is always impeccably dressed, I stopped in Men's Suit Mart a little after noon on Saturday and asked for Basil.

Basil took me back to the suits and showed me the selection in my size aka the short-and-fat section. I tried on suits, and Basil went to work asking questions about what color I liked, what style, what I needed it for and when I needed it. I told him I needed one for Monday, but that I knew it was too late for him to help and that I was buying a suit for the next time I needed one.

We found one, measured the pants and arms, and we were done.

On the way out, Basil asked, "Is noon Monday early enough to have the alterations done?"

"What? Don't put yourself out, Basil," I said. "I want the suit regardless of when it gets done."

"No, we'll get it done. Is that early enough?"

My answer was, of course, "Yes, that would be great."

Basil took down my cell number and promised to call once it was done. It was done by 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon. And when Basil called, he reminded me to bring my dress shirt in with me so he could help pick out a couple of ties.

When I picked it up he had me try it on and he picked out a couple of nice ties. He charged me a very, very reasonable price and sent me on my way.

After this positive experience, I decided to buy another suit from Basil.

The second time I went in, Basil was off and I talked with Jim Maggi. I told Jim that since they were on commission, I wanted to remain loyal to Basil because he had taken care of me. Jim didn't hesitate, saying, "Since you're already here, if you have one in mind go ahead and get it, and we'll let Basil write it up when you pick it up."

Jim took care of everything and Basil had it ready when I walked in a few days later, tie and shirt suggestions at the ready.

I've decided that with their service, I can't afford not to occasionally wear a suit. But this isn't about suits, it's about service.

Just for the record, this isn't an ad for Men's Suit Mart. They don't know I work at SBJ or anything about me, other than I am a long-time friend of one of their regular customers. I simply received some exceptional service and thought it was worth writing about.

If you read the Alf Nucifora and Jeff Blackman columns on these two pages, you'll see that they're also talking about customer service and taking care of clients. Why are we all writing about the same topic? Because service is the difference between success and failure in the highly competitive business world. Service matters.

If Men's Suit Mart had given me poor or even average service, would I have told everybody within earshot to go talk to Basil before buying a suit? No. Because of his service, I've handed out some of his cards and I probably earned him some business. No, scratch that. Basil earned the business himself; I'm just letting people know about it.