I got a gift voucher to get some stuff from Citigems by my housemate. Turns out that she too, went to buy herself some bling-bling from there. Met up with her to go take a look at the stuff as I was already dying to buy something last Sunday.
My housemate and I decided to meet and choose a suitable piece of jewellery for me. We were being served by a very nice salesperson by the name of Lydia (at the AMK Hub branch), when this other salesperson, with a very foreign accent came over to help her (and to serve us). I pointed out that I liked this particular pendant which I thought was a ruby. I told my housemate, "Hey! This ruby pendant looks great!"
The other salesperon by the name of "Trainee" immediately corrected me in Mandarin,"This is not [ruby]. This is [garnet] (square brackets spoken in English)". Her tone was unapolegitic (not that I expect it to be) and quite matter-of-fact.
It was like I kena wacked on the face, mentally, ala Ally McBeal. I was in total shock. Then in she immediately told me that the rubies were in the next cabinet and asked if I wanted to see them. Told her I was not interested as the colours are not so nice.
From then on, I was determined not to give the sale. As a customer service officer, you can be assertive in some ways but never tell a person off like that, especially not when the person is going to spend a few hundred dollars!!
My housemate whispered that she had more 'exciting' things to tell me later and I could hardly wait till we left the shop!
In between, Lydia came to assist us and I so wanted to buy something, except that I did not see something that I particularly like. Lydia was again called away by "Trainee" to serve another customer who obviously had previously liaised with her. It was back to square one and I was stuck with "Trainee", which I did not want to give the sale to, did not want her to earn commission out of my sale.
What made me even more determined not to buy anything from "Trainee" was when she again asked if I wanted to look at the rubies, which were the colour of rose syrup and to me, looked like masak-masak (toys or to play in Malay). Preferred the blood red garnet. She has proven to me that she had not been listening to me earlier when I said I did not like the colour of the rubies! She is SO NOT getting a sale from me.
In the end, I decided not to buy anything at all. Too bad for Lydia coz she was really very sweet and very profssional. In fact, I always made a point to remember their names, those salespersons at Citigems, for, up till tonight, they always gave professional service and I always made sure that they managed to earn their commission.
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What was my housemate's encounter with "Trainee"? The other day, she was trying to look out for a present for me and she saw something that she could get for herself and so, decided to try it on. It was a pair of earrings.
"Trainee" was serving my housemate and while she was trying to put on the earrings, it fell out. This is only because she had not put on the backing/stud to fasten the earring. Our dear "Trainee" spoke in Mandarin, telling my housemate, "You hole is too big."
Hahahahahahaha!!!!! How vulgar and crude! She should have said that my housemate's ear hole is too big and not her hole! I told my housemate that she should have asked her how she knows that her hole is too big and whether she has tried it before.
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Really, when you are selling something like jewellery, you have got to have some tact and should beautify things even though they are just...ordinary. Not too over the top but just right. This would include the customers too. It is a skill to be able to find out what so great about your customer and emphasise on it. Just one good point is good enough.
When I bought stuff from them, they would usually play on the fact that I have roundish fingers and wrists. This makes it easy for my hand to complement most jewellery. In other words, they do not only get to compliment my hands but also on the hind sight, make their job easier. They do not have to talk too much to convince me that the piece of jewellery looks good.
Anyhow, I might or might not go back to AMK Hub again. My last buy was from Citilink. I may go back there. Or I may just go to Vivocity, where my housemate suggested.
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