This is what I heard from my SA here in the US. I don’t know if it’s just excuses or if it’s the real story. I prefer to choose the latter. When I’m trying things in store, she is desperately trying to answer some texts. When I am talking to her she is engaged but if I am trying shoes or trying to make up my mind about something, I see that she is using those gaps to answer text messages. She told me several times that she can’t take her phone home with her anymore and she gets so many messages to respond to when she is back at the store that she can’t keep up. She seemed very frustrated at times. She mentioned that she was tired of telling people that she couldn’t get them a bag and they kept nagging her and asking for a bag every week. She was truly overwhelmed. At this point, I never discussed bags with her yet so maybe that’s why she feels free to share those feelings. It might be really tough. Hang in there guys. My two cents: I think Hermès created a type of business model that over the years shaped our relationship with the SAs in a certain way. Meaning, those patterns that we see today is just a response from the public towards the type of business dynamics they manufactured, in a way. The SAs withdraw and the clients pursue and the rat race continues. It’s an endless cycle. The SA needs to find a sustainable way to be mentally healthy to hold on to a retail job that requires her to answer endless texts and deal with us chasing her for a quota bag. I told my SA last week that I am gonna give her some space and we’ll touch base after the Holidays. Is it the SA job to sell? Yes! But there’s a person behind that job description and we need to have some emotional intelligence to remember that they have a lot of people texting them and pursuing them as well. It’s a hard balance to attain. We want the product and we expect the SA to facilitate that transaction. The company plays hard ball and the SA is caught in the middle of that crossfire, having to keep the balls up the air.
