Once I went into a shop to look for snow pants for my daughter. As I came in there was no one in the store. In a little while a man comes out and when I ask him whether he has any snow pants for a 9-year-old girl he points absentmindedly in to a corner and says; “if we have them, they are over there”. He then took up a newspaper and started reading! I didn’t find any snow pants, and if I had, a don’t think I would have bought them. Why should I? I got zero service.
Then recently I went shopping at Wrentham Outlet just outside Boston. Like many women I know, I hate buying jeans. I love my jeans, use them a lot, but hate trying them on. But as I was in the land of the blue jeans, and there was a huge Levi’s store with great deals, I figured I’d undertake the torture of jeans shopping.
I entered the store with my heart thumping and anxiety levels spiking. Confused I scanned shelves after shelves of jeans and tried to tell myself it would be all right. As I am doing this, a young, lively and handsome man comes up to me and offers to assist. I jumped at the opportunity. He asked me what kind of jeans I was looking for, recommended cuts and colors, told me that even though I was buying the same cut I may need different sizes depending on the materials etc. etc. etc. He chose some jeans for me, took me to the fitting room and waited as I tried them on. He asked me to come out, had a look at me, told me what worked and what didn’t, when I needed another size (he told me I needed to go down a size, and what woman doesn’t love to hear that!) and he went and got that size and in general was just running around servicing me like I was the Queen of England! :) This was Pablo and I am in love with him. Not like I am in love with my husband (actually, Pablo would actually like my husband more than me that way ;) but OMG, I wish I could make an itty bitty clone version of him that I could always take with me when going jeans shopping. He managed to make trying on and buying jeans fun and that is no small feat!
I live in Iceland, and the store is in the US, but I have still promised myself that I will go there again. I bought three pairs of jeans, and will probably buy another three next time. I am telling everybody I can about it … I am one deliriously happy customer!
All too often, when walking into a shop, one gets the feeling that one is disturbing the staff. I mean, who am I to actually want to go in there and browse, and maybe even buy something! Of course this is not always the case, I have got great service in many shops in many countries, but unfortunately this still happens too often. How on earth can we complain that people don’t shop with us if this is the kind of attitude they get? No thank you – this is it. If you are one of those lazy shop assistants, get your ass in gear and start earning your salary. And you know, as a bonus, work will be so much more fun because people will actually be a lot happier!
Have you got a story about great service that you want to share? Please do! :)