I was shopping yesterday at a department store across town from the one I normally shop at. My one friend (I'll call her A)and I have for years done our "clearance rack shopping sprees" where we head to this specific store, find what we like on the store near me, but this time we went to one about 35 min away, along with another friend0 (J).
We started looking through the clearance racks when a sales associate came and asked if she could put the clothes A had in a dressing room. This kinda struck me as weird, because its something I'd expect in a chain mall store (like Express), but had never experienced it at this kind of store. When we had finally gathered enough stuff to try on, we went to go find a room, when we remembered that A's first selection of clothes were *somewhere* and we had to search the store for the associate to find them.
We're used to being in the larger fitting rooms, with say 10 or 12 stalls, which are nice, cause then we can all try on at the same time and give each other advice. But the sales associate had taken A's clothes to one of the bigger fitting rooms in a central location in the store, where there was only one other fitting room. I figured, I could just wait till the other fitting room was free, so I stood there and so did J.
The same sales associate then came up to us and told us she could find us a fitting room. We thanked her and declined. About 3 minutes later, she again came by and said, "Still waiting? I can show you another fitting room." At this point, another associate came over and knocked on the other fitting room (not the one A was in) to ask her if she "needed any help" or could they "find anything for her."
Again, the type of service you expect in a pricier, smaller store, but not in a large department store like this. Usually its you go in, try on clothes, take what you like and buy, hang up the clothes you dont want on the given rack. Really, imo, a large department store is too big to be trying to give individual service like this. I guess its just kinda funny, cause it wasnt some high-end department store, although it may have been the nicest one at this particular mall.
Well, it kinda annoyed me that I had to wait longer for the stranger in the fitting room across from A because she was given such "individual" service, but again, I was perfectly happy standing there, because A kept coming out and showing me items and I was giving my opinions.
But the sales associate kept coming over to me to ask me if she could find me a fitting room. I wasn't in any hurry, and I am perfectly capable of finding fitting rooms on my own if I wanted to. But I didn't want to, and I just couldn't get the point across to this lady, or the other one who had been helping the other customer that I did not need THEM to find me a room.
I finally got in the room, was in and out in about 3 minutes, just after A had finished. At the register, I mentioned how "different" it was to shop at this store than the one by my house. And they replied how they prided themselves on customer service.
To me though, it wasn't customer service. I felt like I was being treated like some sort of child who couldn't find my way to a fitting room. The initial offer to find me a fitting room was fine, but after it just made me more and more annoyed.
On the positive, we finally left the mall and had the best server ever (EVER) at Olive Garden.
tl;dr Sales Associate repeated attempts to "find" me a fitting room while I waited for my friend (who was trying things on and needed my opinion) was incredibly annoying and felt like the furthest thing from customer service.