The importance of understanding your shopper!!

I had a bad customer service experience shopping yesterday.  I was shopping for a snazzy outfit for a gig I was doing that night.  There was a 99% chance I was going to buy something, I was a motivated shopper.  I knew I wanted something red, I knew I wanted something dressy, and other than that, I was open to what would catch my eye....  I didn't have a lot of time, so I chose to go to one of my favourite stores where I have had good success picking out an outfit in the past.

I went to boutique called, Narnia.  It's on Yonge Street north of Lawrence in Toronto. It's a small boutique, with an interesting selection of merchandize.  What I love about the store is the personalised service you get when you shop. The sales ladies are really great at  helping you find an outfit, well prior to yesterday, anyway.....

Here's how it went...
I walked into the store, started looking around and picking up various tops, and outfits, all with a red motif.  One of the very helpful sales ladies walks up to me and asks if I would like her to start a changing room for me, and I answer back, absolutely!  We give each other big smiles, and I'm happy thinking I made the right choice, I am on my way to one awesome outfit for my gig.

But that's when it all ended with a big BANG.

The sales lady takes the clothes I had chosen and looks at one of my outfits I picked up.  She turns to me and says, that the dress is sized a bit small,  and that she will include this purple dress in an extra large.  FULL STOP.  Did I just hear that?  Did the sales lady just SHOUT in the store that she was pulling another dress for me to try on in EXTRA LARGE?!!!  Are you kidding?

OK, I'll admit I'm not skinny, and even if I do or should wear an extra large, isn't that rule number one that you don't go shouting it around the store?! I was stunned.

What was her big mistake?  Besides embarrassing me by shouting out that I needed to take an extra large, she never even probed to understand what I was looking for.  If she had asked a few simple questions she would have known I wanted something in red, so the EXTRA LARGE purple outfit, wasn't going to cut it, even if it fit me like a glove.

I didn't say anything to her, but I went ahead and tried on the red outfit, and the other items I picked out, which at this point feeling out of sorts, I didn't think any of them looked good on.    I didn't try on the EXTRA LARGE purple dress, hah, I wasn't going to let her be right about that, and I left very quickly without purchasing anything in the store.

What's the lesson here?

Well - #1 never say EXTRA LARGE,  EVER,  in this type of situation.  She could have said any of a number of things, like "I have another, in a different size that you might like to compare".

The other point, is that the sales person didn't take the time to understand what I was looking for, an outfit for an outing that night that was red.

Will I go back to Narnia?  Well at this point probably, as I have had great experiences there in the past.  But the reality, is that a bad customer experience doesn't go away easily.

Lastly, for those of you who are wondering, yes, I did find my outfit for the night.  I went to a competing store across the street, TIQUE, and I got a smokin outfit for my gig!