The plumber’s promise.

As I was gazing out of the window on the Florida highway heading back to the airport, I spotted a very rundown truck. The exhaust was pushing gunk into the environment that would be heartbreaking to Mother Nature (especially on Valentine’s Day). The driver was smoking a cigarette with the window rolled down and – at quick glance – didn’t look like he had just rolled out of bed after a fresh and cleansing shower. Plastered across the van, in a massive font size, it read: "Professional and Courteous Service." I thought to myself: "maybe… but unlikely."

Isn’t that what we all want?

At the end of the day, we want our plumbers to be professional and courteous. What winds up happening is that we consider it a "win" if they take their boots off before entering our homes (without track dog dung on our floors), if we don’t see too much butt crack, if they don’t pretend like they’re smarter than us just so that they can rip us off and, ultimately, that they don’t use our bathrooms to take a dump. It’s a universal truism and, by the way, we’re not just talking about plumbers. We’re talking about all of us . Nobody likes to be dumped on. We’ve set (or moved) the bar so low in today’s business world, that we’re all amazed when any service or product that we have purchased is shrouded with an abundance of professionalism and courtesy. Why is that? We should not accept clients screaming at us and we should not be irrational if a Kickstarter project gets delayed. In a world of tweets, Facebook updates and tumblr, the short fuse is all but gone and we’re constantly explosive… about everything.

We need more professional and courteous people in the business world.

It’s as simple as that. Things go sideways. Projects don’t always work out. Deadlines are sometimes missed. We often try to push new ideas on people who may not be open to them. Whatever the case is in your world, nothing is perfect. We all strive for excellence and perfection. We often fall shy of it (sometimes it’s our own doing and sometime it is completely out of anyone’s control). But, in a world where nothing is perfect (let’s say seldom perfect?), there is never a reason not to be professional and courteous. It’s the one thing that each and every one of us can not only control, but that we should all be very cognizant of in each and every business interaction with one another. It is something we can be vigilant about.

Back to that plumbing truck.

I have no idea whether that plumbing company lives up to their promise. By my guesstimates, it’s hard to say you’re professional when your transport vehicle looks so unprofessional, but who am I to judge from that brief moment alone? Still that line: "professional and courteous service," gave me pause. It made me think about the many interactions I had in the past few days, where I had been crabby due to a lack of sleep and too many early-morning flights, coupled with a burning desire to be constantly delivering great work with everything we’re doing at Twist Image. In the end, I think I delivered on the promise of being professional and courteous. Going forward I’m not going to have to think about it again, because I’m going to do my best to live it – at each and every moment in time.

Taking a second.

My trick. Your trick. Before any interaction (phone, email, text, in person, Twitter, whatever), take a pause. Don’t hit the publish button, hold your tongue and take a second to say to yourself, "professional and courteous service." Be there, in the moment, to serve, to engender a smile and to get whoever you’re working with to be happy about that interaction. Do your best to get them to the point that they end your moment by saying, "thank you." Imagine, in just one second, you really can change the face of your business.

What’s your secret to always being professional and courteous? Share them below, so that we can all learn…