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| - This boutique has beautiful and timeless couture pieces. I visited from Ottawa and had only an hour left before having to drive back. And I called before visiting, to make sure they were open, and to make the appointment.
I was greeted by a woman with a European accent (France or Northern Africa) who did not speak English. Luckily her colleague spoke a little English, she was very nice. We tried to communicate what I was looking for (colour, price, size etc) for my brother's wedding a month away, and told her I may be ready to buy straight off the rack same day. She went to the back room and fetched about 6-8 dresses for me to try on, and they were all beautiful. I was very surprised how she handled these delicate dresses, some were beaded, some were tulle, some had trains, most were champagne, blush or silver coloured, all carried against each other and dragging on the floor from the back room to the dressing room, and cost in the range of $1000 or more. This woman was even rough with the dresses while zipping them up for me.
At this point, 2 other clients had entered the store wanting to try on clothes. I figured the saleswoman was having a bad day and I forgave her rudeness, but then noticed she was much nicer with the other 2 ladies.
Some of the dresses were so well-fitted I wanted to take a photo of myself in the mirror to send to my sister and mother in Ottawa (since I was shopping alone, and these dresses are over $1000), but she stopped me as it was against a store policy. One of the other clients stepped in, introduced herself as a stylist from another store, and debated with her that it doesn't make sense that the boutique has an online store with photos of the dresses but the clients can't take a photo of themselves while in the store before making a decision. This other client was aware that I was ready to buy on the same day too. But I abided anyway and didn't take the photo.
So I started discussing making another appointment the following weekend to drive back to Montreal to visit the store again with my sister to show her the most beautiful dresses I'd found, and to help me choose one. Then to my surprise, she became pushy about the sale, saying these are the last dresses in stock, someone could buy them online in an hour and i'd lose my chance, and it takes 8 weeks for an order to come in. I still told her I'd take my chances and come back next weekend with my sister, and hopefully the dresses wouldn't all be sold... But I left without securing the appointment time.
The poor customer service by the end of my hour visit just left a bad taste in my mouth when I left. I still liked all the dresses however, so that evening, when I returned home, I called back to set up a time for an appointment the following weekend. Another woman answered, she was fully bilingual. I explained to her that I was in the store earlier and really liked 3 dresses and tried to describe them to her. And that I wanted to make an appointment for next weekend. I expressed I was worried that the dresses would be sold (based on what I was told), especially because an order would take 8 weeks. She corrected me and said orders take only 2 weeks....
It was after this call that I pondered about my whole experience in hindsight. It became more clear to me that it's more an issue with an individual salesperson than the actual boutique or store-owner itself. As a business person with a focus on customer service myself, I just want the store-owner to know that they have a fabulous store and exceptionally great products, but sometimes, some staff really affect your business, and sometimes you don't even know unless someone tells you.
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