Business Casual vs. Business Professional

The age old question:  Do dress codes at work make any difference on productivity or morale?  It seems the scientific answer is that most studies show little to no effect in either direction.  Here's a few blogs that get into this discussion in a little more detail:  Productivity Blog, Culture in the Workplace, Andrew Jensen.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I will offer up that I am absolutely a jeans and t-shirt guy.  So you can guess which side of the fence I fall on.  Personally, I feel if I am comfortable, I am much more likely to be happy and productive.  Business casual all the way for me!  But, I absolutely think business professional attire is warranted at times.  So basically, since company dress codes come down to company preference, here's the three basic questions to ask to determine which one makes the most sense.

1. How often do you work face-to-face with customers?  If you meet with customers regularly, you should probably be dressed more professionally.  You are the face of your company and how you look carries an impression with customers.  If you work in a strictly back-office function, there's zero need to break out the business suits.  The need for more professional business attire increases in direct correlation with the level of face-to-face contact with customers. 
2. How do your customers dress?  If you meet with customers, you should dress at least as professionally as they do.  Are you visiting a law firm?  Probably a good idea to break out the suit.  Visiting a manufacturing plant floor or a Silicon Valley company?  A much more casual outfit is probably in order.  There's no harm in looking a bit more professional than the customer.  But you definitely don't want to look like a slob compared to them.
3. Do you apply a dress code consistently?  The easiest way for a policy to be ignored and/or despised is to apply it inconsistently.  Whatever you decide, apply it uniformly (pun intended!).