The life of a carpenter is an interesting one; you often have quite a niche area of expertise that you are passionate about and excel at, and you travel far and wide to help people wherever you are needed. Beats sitting at a desk from 9-5, doesn’t it?
Josephsen Hardwood Floor Company has been repairing, installing, and refinishing hardwood floors in southern New Jersey for 3 generations. Fred Jr. will drive around to people’s houses in his van, where he will get to work crafting top quality floors and stairfaces at reasonable prices. But while you might be happy to have Fred come over and rip up your floors, creating clouds of dust with his shrill, noisy sander, what do the canine inhabitants think about this intrusion? I would bet that they are not impressed, and that’s putting it kindly.
Luckily, Fred understands and goes out of his way to show his appreciation for his doggy ‘helpers.’ Obviously forming a good relationship with the pups whose homes he has so rudely invaded, he started making them his ’employees of the week,’ a regular doggo treat for his Facebook followers. It’s fair to say that this has been a hit, with people leaving reviews like: “I love the dog pictures!! I’d hire this company just because of the dogs!!”
Fred’s son Dillon first brought the world’s attention to his dad’s quirky habit when his tweet about it went viral back in 2017. People have been coming to the business page ever since to see the latest winners of ’employee of the week.’ “I had been doing it a few years before Dillon noticed and decided to tweet about it,” Fred explained. “The reaction to that tweet going viral was interesting. We had 250+ followers on the day he tweeted it. By the end of the week we had over 28k followers. Now I believe we have over 32k followers.”
People from all over have visited the page and left reviews, with many wishing that they could hire Fred’s services. Talk about marketing genius! “I’m just here for the employee of the week! But if I was a local you would definitely get my call! Floors look amazing and those helpers sure are adorable!” is just one example.
Was there any method behind this stroke of luck? “Interestingly, our son Dillon just graduated with a degree in Media Studies from Temple University this past December,” Fred said. “His specialty? Social Media Marketing. He is currently looking for a job and uses this example in his portfolio.” It’s starting to make sense now!
As a contractor, Fred often finds himself alone on a job site. “If a homeowner has a pet, that is the only interaction with another that I receive,” he said. “Pets have personalities as unique as humans. Some love me immediately; others need to warm up to me. I rarely meet a pet that does not become a new best friend by the end of the job.”
Fred and his family have dogs themselves, which makes sense as he clearly has an affinity for pooches. “We have a six year old brain injured Cocker Spaniel names Kona,” he told us. “We also have a three year old Beagle Dachsund mix named Isla, a rescue from Puerto Rico. They are a lot of fun. I do enjoy meeting pets on job sites but have not encountered many in the past few months since I’ve been working on many new construction sites.” Let’s hope for more ’employees of the week’ soon!
Scroll down to check out some of Fred’s ’employees of the week’ for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments!
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