Lessons in customer service

It's a happy time, preparing for a wedding. A stressful time but ultimately happy none the less. I mean after all, one of the main reasons for getting married is because you are in love and you want everyone to know it. How could that not be a happy time?

So...it's happy, sometimes stressful and usually expensive too to organise this celebration of your love status. Outfits in particular can be pricey and for the less-than-body-confident it can come back round to stressful when it comes to searching out The One (dress that is, other half is presumably settled on by the time you come to shopping for outfits).

Yesterday was spent venturing out on the hunt for bridesmaid dresses (and I am the bridesmaid this time rather than the bride). Two shops in one day where potentially between us we could be spending the best part of a grand when all is added up. So you'd think they might want to make you feel welcome, be helpful, put you at ease and generally do all they can to make the experience enjoyable so you want to spend your budget with them. You'd think...

The first shop we went to was in a lovely little village but from the moment the owner clocked us through the door it was obvious she either thought a) we didn't really have any money to spend or b) just weren't physically the right fit for who she wanted to wear a dress she sold. But we went through the charade of looking at her dresses and one of us was allowed to try on (not me, I could just 'relax' my large arse and view). 

The dresses were gorgeous but her attitude was not and it was agreed before we even got back in the car that we wouldn't be spending a penny of our ample budget with her.

But, for me, this is not the first experience I have had of this kind of attitude from wedding dress shops. One of the main drivers for having my bridal gown made was that I couldn't stand any more trying on trips where I was looked down on and made to feel more self-concious about my weight and my very obvious abdominal scar. Agreed there is no point pretending to be a size or shape you are not but you would think, given their business, they may have learnt how to be a little more diplomatic about the whole thing. And as people you would think they would know that once the fat girl in knickers before them has broken down in tears that is the time to stop being quite so blunt or personal about the whole thing.

I digress though...back to yesterday. After the bad experience in the morning fortification was needed and it was with more than a little dread that appointment two was approached. However, it turned out to be the flip-side of the coin. This shop ticked all of the 'good approach' points I mentioned earlier. Kind, helpful and generous. 

Hell, even if we hadn't found a likely candidate for The One (which I think we might have) I would want to spend money with her! We spent a very happy hour going through a selection of dresses and sashaying around the shop and remembering why we were doing this in the first place. It was even funny as opposed to mortifying that passing shoppers outside could see our knickers hanging out where the dresses didn't quite meet at the back.

It just never fails to shock me that the mean side of the industry exists...and that a stranger can have so much sway on how you think of yourself with just a few cruel words.