How do SAs judge/decide who to help?

L

lovingmybags

O.G.
Nov 24, 2006
5,453
1,136
#1
I'm really curious here. How do the SAs decide to help a certain person? I know some really nice SA's make it their business to help everyone that come into the store, but what do the rest of them look for? Do they look at your age, clothing, bag, or what? I had an experience recently at a Coach boutique; it was my first time shopping for a full-price item, and to be honest, I was nervous. Here I thought I looked at least presentable, wearing a Burberry newsboy hat, Burberry earmuffs, J Crew coat, Prada leather bag, jeans, and Burberry loafers, with everything matching in color/style. Well the first SA that saw me didn't even look at me or bothered to budge from her counter. I was like, okay, then another very nice SA came and we had a good time! She showed me how to use the chains to put the charms on my bag, and I ended up buying a 6x8 planner as well. You should have seen the face of the SA who ignored me when I was paying for my items at the counter! It's very strange; I think she's more experienced than my SA; she knew more about the products and their prices. When my SA was introducing things to me and makes a mistake she would grunt from the counter to correct her. But then I haven't seen that SA since...? :shrugs:

Before this boutique experience I have only been to large department stores like Nordstrom, and the SAs there seems to know a lot about bags and would comment on mine when I go browsing at their handbag section. One SA who showed me their bags actually remembered me two months later even though I didn't buy anything the previous time! Truly amazing. Ladies, what are your experiences with Coach or other boutiques you have been to? Any guesses on certain SAs thought processes? For me I guess I do look young; I'm in my twenties but some say I look like I'm in high school. Would that be why? Any thoughts/opinions on this?
 
#2
I look very young and always dress casually, generally i'm ignored. I usually attract the more timid SAs and they ALWAYS get glowing reports and commission from me. The last time I was at an outlet near me, the only reason I attracted a more prominent SA was because I was carrying my Carly. I think it was because she was annoyed people were asking if they had them in stock and would point at me.
 
#3
I have no idea... whether I go to a boutique or the outlet, I get treated the same - barraged to the point of irritation by SA's. I'm young and dress typically casual, occasionally in a cute dress. I don't see anything "special" about me that separates me from others for an SA to go "oooh, I'm gonna go to her." I always get greeted when I first enter and I'm constantly asked every few minutes if I need help by many of the SA's. I'm a person that likes to browse and will ask for help if I need it, so I definitely get irked when an SA asks if I need help, I say no, and they come back again and again. Blah. It sometimes comes to the point where I try to make myself look unapproachable through no eye contact and body language... they still flock to me. *lol* Maybe there's a Coach smell in my blood that just attracts the SA's... Hahaha.

At least I know the SA's are doing their job with trying to provide excellent customer service, but PART of excellent customer service is reading your customer and adapting to their needs... which they clearly don't for me. *lol*
 
#4
At my local Coach, it's kind of a mixed bag of SAs. Sometimes there's one male SA on the sales floor taking care of ALL the customers, while the other SAs stand behind the counter and man the register ... other times there's more SAs helping people out.

I've found that wearing a Coach bag into the store is pretty much a guarantee that they're going to say "Nice bag!" and talk to you. For some reason, that happens a lot at outlets; I get greeted at least 5 times by different SAs usually. If I linger over a bag for a long time, I also attract attention -- the SA will ... "zero in for the kill"? lol All of the SAs I've encountered are super nice and helpful, but very focused on making the sale. I personally hate it when salespeople "hover" and try and point out everything within a 5 foot radius of what you're looking at, so it doesn't bug me when people don't greet me in the store, but that SA that you mentioned who just stood behind the counter and grunted at the other employee ... how rude! I hope someone gave her a dressing down for being nasty to both customers and coworkers :P
 
#5
If you don't like to be helped, perhaps you should say, I don't want any help. That way they wouldn't irk you. Those SA's are paid to help you and people get all angry on here when one is rude but then again there are probably many customers who are like you and give off horrible body language and get mad when someone asks you if you need any help when you could just say, I don't want any help, I'll let you know or something like that. I personally enjoy the way they help me usually. I think it's nice to have generally nice people to bounce ideas off of and get their opinion, but I hate it when I run into one who's rude and refuses eye contact, but now I'm thinking perhaps they have run into people like you who consider their help annoying. However, I'm almost positive you would be extremely upset if they didn't greet you the moment you walked in the door and then just refused to ask you if you needed any help. Why that would be bad customer service, but for you to be kinda standoffish to them and not just smile back well thats aokay because you are the customer. Right?

BTW: I was told by my SA that they do not get a commission so if you are concerned about them helping you and then getting a penny for it you can rest assured that is not the case.

Explaination: I have in recent months gotten extremely tired of people not being cordial to eachother in even the simplist of situations, as a matter of fact I believe people have become rather cold just because we are becoming a society of solitude. Thats why I like shopping at Coach, they want you to leave happy, for the most part!:hysteric:

maya_exquisite said:
I have no idea... whether I go to a boutique or the outlet, I get treated the same - barraged to the point of irritation by SA's. I'm young and dress typically casual, occasionally in a cute dress. I don't see anything "special" about me that separates me from others for an SA to go "oooh, I'm gonna go to her." I always get greeted when I first enter and I'm constantly asked every few minutes if I need help by many of the SA's. I'm a person that likes to browse and will ask for help if I need it, so I definitely get irked when an SA asks if I need help, I say no, and they come back again and again. Blah. It sometimes comes to the point where I try to make myself look unapproachable through no eye contact and body language... they still flock to me. *lol* Maybe there's a Coach smell in my blood that just attracts the SA's... Hahaha.

At least I know the SA's are doing their job with trying to provide excellent customer service, but PART of excellent customer service is reading your customer and adapting to their needs... which they clearly don't for me. *lol*
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#6
AwesomeJones said:
If you don't like to be helped, perhaps you should say, I don't want any help. That way they wouldn't irk you. Those SA's are paid to help you and people get all angry on here when one is rude but then again there are probably many customers who are like you and give off horrible body language and get mad when someone asks you if you need any help when you could just say, I don't want any help, I'll let you know or something like that. I personally enjoy the way they help me usually. I think it's nice to have generally nice people to bounce ideas off of and get their opinion, but I hate it when I run into one who's rude and refuses eye contact, but now I'm thinking perhaps they have run into people like you who consider their help annoying. However, I'm almost positive you would be extremely upset if they didn't greet you the moment you walked in the door and then just refused to ask you if you needed any help. Why that would be bad customer service, but for you to be kinda standoffish to them and not just smile back well thats aokay because you are the customer. Right?

BTW: I was told by my SA that they do not get a commission so if you are concerned about them helping you and then getting a penny for it you can rest assured that is not the case.

Explaination: I have in recent months gotten extremely tired of people not being cordial to eachother in even the simplist of situations, as a matter of fact I believe people have become rather cold just because we are becoming a society of solitude. Thats why I like shopping at Coach, they want you to leave happy, for the most part!:hysteric:
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Whoa whoa whoa... I didn't say anything about getting angry or being rude to SA's. I definitely have told many SA's that I don't need help at the current time, that if I need help I'd let them know, and so on. They still come back to me. All I said what that I get irked. Does that constitute getting angry and becoming rude? And "unapproachable" doesn't mean REFUSING eye contact. I just pretty much stay out of SA's floating areas and just look at the merchandise. If I look at an SA, they're going to come to me. I even pointed out that they're just doing their job and providing excellent customer service!!

I also know they don't make commission as my brother worked at Coach before.

I don't appreciate the attack.

On a side note, I have never posted on here about a specific bad experience with an SA and even if I ever did, I wouldn't write about it because I just don't do that.
 
#7
not an attack, just an opinion

maya_exquisite said:
Whoa whoa whoa... I didn't say anything about getting angry or being rude to SA's. I definitely have told many SA's that I don't need help at the current time, that if I need help I'd let them know, and so on. They still come back to me. All I said what that I get irked. Does that constitute getting angry and becoming rude? And "unapproachable" doesn't mean REFUSING eye contact. I just pretty much stay out of SA's floating areas and just look at the merchandise. If I look at an SA, they're going to come to me. I even pointed out that they're just doing their job and providing excellent customer service!!

I also know they don't make commission as my brother worked at Coach before.

I don't appreciate the attack.

On a side note, I have never posted on here about a specific bad experience with an SA and even if I ever did, I wouldn't write about it because I just don't do that.
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#8
AwesomeJones said:
If you don't like to be helped, perhaps you should say, I don't want any help. That way they wouldn't irk you. Those SA's are paid to help you and people get all angry on here when one is rude but then again there are probably many customers who are like you and give off horrible body language and get mad when someone asks you if you need any help when you could just say, I don't want any help, I'll let you know or something like that. I personally enjoy the way they help me usually. I think it's nice to have generally nice people to bounce ideas off of and get their opinion, but I hate it when I run into one who's rude and refuses eye contact, but now I'm thinking perhaps they have run into people like you who consider their help annoying. However, I'm almost positive you would be extremely upset if they didn't greet you the moment you walked in the door and then just refused to ask you if you needed any help. Why that would be bad customer service, but for you to be kinda standoffish to them and not just smile back well thats aokay because you are the customer. Right?
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Really? Just an opinion?? You wrote that, quoting what I had first written.

This is exactly why I don't post much on here anymore.
 
#9
maya_exquisite said:

Really? Just an opinion??

This is exactly why I don't post much on here anymore.
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yes really, just an opinion. i just get tired of people saying how rude they are and then someone saying they were helped and it got on their nerves. it just gets old.

btw: YOU being a blanket statement, as I'm not really concerned with you personally just the general tone of your statement so yes, just an opinion.
 
#10
^ Well I didn't say anything about rude SA's so don't lump me into that category just because I say I like to be left alone, YET acknowledge that they do an excellent job. So it was uncalled for because I'm obviously not one of "those" that you're targeting your "opinion" towards.
 
#12
^ Chill? I don't need to... I'm fine. This is the internet and don't get p*ssed over what people write on here, that'd mean I have no life. I just find it sad to be treated this way. Because of what I wrote, you went off. *shrugs*

I hope this thread gets back on track!!
 
#13
maya_exquisite said:
^ Chill? I don't need to... I'm fine. This is the internet and don't get p*ssed over what people write on here, that'd mean I have no life. I just find it sad to be treated this way. Because of what I wrote, you went off. *shrugs*

I hope this thread gets back on track!!
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I didn't go off. Generally people have a right to an opinion and if that opinion is different from yours then awesome, that sparks meaningful discussion. I tend not to get hurt so easily so sorry for making you think you have been mistreated, sorry for making you shrug or whatever and sorry for stating my opinion on the subject. I apologize.
 
#14
OK, now that that's out of our system, I'm glad you two are OK. Unfortunately, Internet discussions can get misunderstood since we can't see each other face-to-face.

Regarding the post, I personally don't mind being approached, but generally when I go into certain boutiques, I am looking for specific individuals. However, I'm comfortable with anyone helping me.

I think I understand that the OP might have felt that she was being judged for no apparent reason. Hopefully, that was an isolated case and your future COACH Boutique visits will be pleasant ones!!!
 
#15
The SAs at the Coach boutigue I go to aren't really talkative except for this one younger girl, she is always really helpful and polite. If I go in by myself I always ask her for her opinion on bags and she gives great advice! I think that some SAs do judge you on your appearance, especially the ones that seem to be more knowledgable but most, I think, approach you if you look approachable or if you look like you're going to purchase something. I think you can always tell when someone is just going to be a "browser" or if they're in the store actually to buy something.
 
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