SoapZone Community Message Board

I've mentioned some real doozies lately so I thought I would also give a shout out to this really lovely customer and her husband. Mary Ann and Matt first came into our store a few weeks ago. I don't recall if she bought anything then but I do recall both were wearing matching-ish T-shirts related to camping and bears. Which gave me an opening to chat with them, telling them I admire people who camp but my idea of "roughing it" is no turndown service with a mint on the pillow at my hotel. They laughed and we chatted some more. They then told us how nice our store was and how nice we all are. We actually hear this a lot; it's a small store with a cozy boutique vibe and while of course all the people at all our stores are supposed to be nice, our SM expects us to be really nice (bordering on obsequious, really). Anyways, they told us that Wife is a frequent shopper but she thinks she might want to make our store "her" store from now on. She asked if we did "style connect" appointments (where we call certain customers--usually the high rollers--and not only encourage them to come to specific events but also offer an extra discount), and we told her we did. So she asked to be called for our next event.

Well, our next event started today and is going on for the next three days. Company-wide, we're having a "friends and family" event where everything is 30% off and customers who were called get an extra % off on top of that. In addition to that, my store is celebrating 25 years in our current location. We're throwing a "party" of sorts Saturday; we're giving out pens (with a leopard print and a faux diamond on top, very similar to this plus SM has a "cookie woman" who makes fancy, pretty dipped Oreos and was able to make ones that resemble our shopping bags. We also collected donations from local businesses (and that's a story as well but a story for another time) and put together two raffle baskets. One will be for all customers and the second will be for breast cancer survivors and anyone currently going through treatment for breast cancer (our business has been collecting donations for Breast Cancer Research Foundation all this month).

Today was intensely busy all day, and tomorrow and Saturday will be as well. Our last customer of the day was Mary Ann and Matt. Mary Ann is a dream; she does her research and knows what she wants (no vague requests for "pants" or "a shirt" or "something to wear to a wedding") but she's also very willing to try things on, even things she's skeptical about. Matt is even better...he actually enjoys shopping with his wife and goes in the dressing room with her to offer his opinion. He also was re-hanging clothes Mary Ann didn't want and putting them on the bar on the outside the door, which made cleaning the room a breeze (we've had customers, plural, who literally left multiple items lying in heaps around the dressing room). He knows his wife's size, the colors she prefers, her basic style and even the definitions of some of the terms used in fashion such as "ponte knit" and "burnout" (*I* didn't know what a burnout top was until I worked in retail...it's essential a top where parts of the fabric has been chemically "burned away", giving the item a more textured look). While Mary Ann was walking around with my colleague "B" (Big Grandma Energy), Matt and I were chatting. Mary Ann tried on a pair of leather flare pants that made both of them giggle and proclaim them "Star Trek pants" (because of how short AND flared they were on Mary Ann), and when I confessed I was a Star Trek fan, both of them lit up and Matt regaled me with Star Trek quotes. Matt also volunteered to fold the unwanted sweaters and take things back to the shelves but we assured him that wasn't needed.

Despite looking fabulous in almost everything she tried on, Mary Ann wound up "only" buying 2 blouses, 5 tops and a fun pin. She was happy to let us order them for her as opposed to going home and ordering her items online, which helps our store's numbers (and we really don't mind doing that for our customers!). Both Mary Ann and Matt thanked us several times, told us how wonderful our store was and told us how wonderful WE were; we assured them the feeling was mutual. They promised to come back for the next event (whenever it is). But the kicker? Outside of our dressing rooms, there's a small dry erase board that we write our customers' names on. This helps when there's a store full of women going in and out of the dressing rooms; they just have to look for their name to know which room is theirs. It can be a bit tricky sometimes; we get a lot of Barbs, Donnas, Marys, Lindas and Sues (though today I had a "Timmie"--short for "Timothea") and we have to add an initial <g>. Anyways, after our lovely couple left, I went to erase Mary Ann's name from the dry board...and found they'd written "thank you ladies!" on the board.

If only all our customers were so exceptionally kind...(many *are* pretty nice).