How Not to Provide Customer Service

Tuesday morning, I headed to South Coast Plaza, a local mall. They hate it when you call it a mall, but it's a mall. Not the plaza, etc. Apparently to be considered a mall, it has to have a food court, whatever.

I was going there to purchase some baskets at Pottery Barn Kids. My son's dresser has a spot under it for baskets. I was excited to organize some of his crap toys. I'm tired of tripping over Hot Wheels. I arrived at So. Coast about 10am when everything was just opening. I headed into American Eagle Outfitters because Pottery Barn Kids hadn't quite opened yet. As I entered the store I was bombarded by employees. Within five minutes, I got these speech from four different people, "Our special today is you buy one t-shirt and you get the second one for $10". Ok, thanks. I was the only one in the store. Obviously the employees could see who greeted me. I've worked retail, I know how it works. As soon as a customer walks in, you greet them. You don't stalk them, follow them around, or harass them. It makes a customer want to run out of the store. And that is what I did. I saw some things I liked, but hells to the no was I going to purchase something from them. I now know why most of my friends shop online. My sizing is so inconsistent so I hesitate from shopping online.

Today, I was at the Irvine Spectrum. I had just left my awesome 24Lift class at 24 Hour Fitness. I stopped in a new store there called "Buckle". I've heard some of my online forum peeps talk about it, so I thought I would check it out. I've been looking for some capris and they had some great styles. I'm trying to avoid that mom-jeans look. There were two sales people working at the time. They offered their assistance. They asked if there was a particular style I was looking for, and that was it. I told them that I had an extremely short inseam and that I had issues with capris looking like high water pants. They were able to assist me with the perfect fit. I tried on two different styles. I thought that the second pair made me look a little wider. They agreed that the first pair was much better. I literally fell over and applauded them for not harassing me. They were laughing.

My point is, I know times are tough. The economy sucks. People are being more conservative with their money. Consumers are shopping less. But if you harass and stalk your customers, they are not going to make purchases.

Oh and I got the baskets at Pottery Barn Kids. They work perfectly for all the junk that Angry Toddler has acquired.