hippielover23-blog1

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First Class Service At Dry Goods

As a woman, I definitely love shopping. I feel that it is in our nature to love it. My favorite place to shop around here is the mall and have always been to the same one since I was a little girl. So when shopping today, there was no place I would have rather went to. 

My first stop was at a store Dry Goods, which I go to on occasion, but never really spent much time there because they are an expensive store. However, today they had a huge sale going on so I wasn’t going to miss out. I scanned the racks of clothing and pulled a couple pieces that I liked. What was great however was before I even thought of getting a dressing room, a customer service woman walked over to me and said “Can I start a dressing room for you?” That has never happened before in any other store I had went to so of course I said “Yes please and thank you so much.” She responded with “Of course I am always happy to help and my name is ‘Sheila’ if you need anything else.” She had high friendliness, informal and low power. In response to her as a customer I had the same style. 

As I picked up a few more things, I made my way to the dressing room. Sheila greeted me and said again “If there is anything I can do for you, let me know.” It was great to hear that because I was shopping alone and its hard to get different sizes on something or just ask an opinion on how an outfit looks on you. As I started to try on a few things, there was this one outfit that I just didn't know if it was cute or not, so I asked Sheila “Does this look ok on me or should I not get it?” At first I was thinking that she would just say yes because she wants to sell her clothing, but she actually surprised me and said “I bought that same exact outfit last week and can't not stop wearing it, but if you don’t feel 100% in it then I wouldn't get it.” It was nice to have her personal perspective on it and to be honest with me. We were connecting as two woman, not just customer service representative and a customer. The talk cards changed a little after this because we were bonding as woman. 

After I tried everything on, I agreed on some of the pieces and went to the register. The lady asked me if anyone helped me today and I said “Yes, Sheila did and she was fantastic!” The lady said “Thats great news, we strive to help every individual here feel comfortable and to make sure they are getting exactly what they want.” This was great to hear because not all stores have this state of mind about customers. Some just treat them as banks and just want them in and out. The style stayed the same through the whole experience because of the excellent service. 

Looking back at my experience, I will definitely come to this store more because of the excellent staff and service that was provided. I highly recommend for people to shop at Dry Goods! 

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Puerto Rico Bars Know How To Have Fun!

Have you ever walked into a bar and just know that its going to be a fun time? Well back when I went on my second cruise, my family and I found this amazing little bar at one of our stops in Puerto Rico. 

As a customer, I love asking the bartender what their favorite or most popular drink is? So when I got to this bar, that was no exception. I asked the bartender “What is your favorite drink here in Puerto Rico?” He responded with “Anything made with tequila,” as he is smirking and chuckles a little. I love tequila and lets be honest, who could go wrong with tequila? From that point on, I knew this was going to be a good day. The bartender was extremely friendly, informal and low power. As the customer, I had high friendliness, was informal and had low power as well. 

As time passed by, I could see this was going to be an unforgettable vacation. My mother started dancing with my step-father and it was like they were teenagers again that couldn't hold their liquor. It was hilarious to watch and just made for a great time. My brother kept on wanting to buy me more shots and me just turning 21, how could I deny that? The bartender had made great drinks as well and if only I could remember what they were called. I just remember that he always kept saying “The secret to every drink, add more tequila.” I chuckled and told him I agree. The talk cards changed from just being customer and bartender to feeling like we were good friends at this moment. He understood my love for tequila and we bonded on that aspect. 

As the sun was setting, we had to unfortunately get back on the cruise ship but I will never forget the time we spent at this little bar in Puerto Rico.

The most important thing to remember when you are serving someone from out of town is to make them have a great experience and this bartender sure did. 

[hippielover23-blog1]

Celebration or Disappointment?

Have you ever been to a restaurant and just walked out thinking “What a horrible experience I just had?” Well that happened to me just last week. I went out to dinner with my family to celebrate my mother’s engagement to my soon to be step-father. We sat down ready to celebrate and hoping for a great evening. The waitress came over and introduced herself “Hello everyone, I am Brooke, I will be your waitress this evening” My grandpa reached over and told her that we were celebrating an engagement and she responded “Congratulations to the happy couple, I will take great care of you this evening” She had a friendly tone, informal and medium power to her. Us as customers were friendly, informal and had low power.

We were off to a great start; however, as the night went on things turned from good to bad. After she greeted us, she didn't bring back the drinks until 20 minutes later, blaming it on the bartender. I understood this because it was a busy friday night at a popular restaurant in town, so I let that mistake slide. 

As we got our drinks we started to order our meals, but as she was writing them down she kept going back and forth to the kitchen to make sure they had all of the food that was on the menu. At this point I was getting irritated because this was supposed to be a night of celebration and it was starting to become a disappointment. After the order was taken, I went over to the waitress and explained again the importance of this night and she responded in a rude demeanor “This is my job, let me do it.” I understood this was her job, but she was not doing a good job at it. Her style had shifted to unfriendly, formal and high power. My style shifted as well and went to unfriendly, informal but still had low power. 

When we finally got our food, my food never came to the table. At this point I am on my last straw with her, but I didn't want to make a scene in front of everyone, so I asked the waitress politely, “Excuse me, do you have my food coming?” The waitress said “Oh what did you order?” I replied with “mushroom ravioli.” She said “Oh that was a special for this evening, so we actually ran out of it and there is no more left.” I responded with “Then why did you write it down and wait to tell me now?” She said “It must have slipped my mind, I am very busy tonight.” 

So many things were running through my head at this point, so I had to ask for the manager. The manager came over and spoke to us at the table apologizing for the experience we were having and offered to take money off the bill. The manager had medium friendliness, was formal and had low power because he felt bad about our experience. It was nice of the manager to do so, but this should have never happened! The style shifted throughout the story, but the talk cards remained the same. 

I never expected this night to turn out the way it did and was expecting so much more to celebrate this great event that just happened. I will never go back to that restaurant again, thats for sure!