Friday, March 19, 2010

Work - RL

wow! It's been over a month since I posted! It's been quite a month, good and bad and VERY STRESSFUL. I wanted to share with you a little something from my RL job.

I had a customer yesterday. She came in saying that she had been told by name in California to get coral. (coral what? thread, hemming tape, trim, fabric) I guessed fabric.
me: What kind? cotton, wool, polyester, linen, silk, spandex - a knit, a satin? her: I don't care.
me: Is the color more important or the fabric (thinking which department is the most likely to have coral? that would be mine - name a color and I probably have it in a solid colored cotton - over 200 choices) her: the color
I did not discover that was the wrong answer until after I lead her on a sweep of the shop. She approached me in the quilt department, so we looked at cotton, linen, silk, polyester. I had discovered it was for a dress; they can all be used for dresses. She was one of the least informative customers I have encountered. It is amazing how many of them expect you to know what they want when they give you almost nothing to base that knowledge upon. Finally I dug out of her that it was for a wedding.
me: for you? her: no, I'm the bride. (looking at me like I wasn't paying attention)
me: for your bridesmaids? her: yes (other options: flower girls, mothers, sponsors, junior bridesmaids)

It would have helped if she walked up to me and simply said I am getting married and my maid of honor wants the bridesmaids to wear coral.

Then like many other people, she told me she wanted a particular fabric that she has seen. No content, no swatch, no name, no picture. I asked for a description. hmmm....If she had told me immediately that she wanted a coral fabric with another color running through it (gold), I could have lead her to the bridal/special occasion department and shown her the two bolts that fit that description. No, this was at least 15 minutes later. I called Wayne to the department, and turned her over to him. He really doesn't have as much patience as I give him credit for, however it was someone else's turn, mine had run out.