I’ve never been the type of person who makes what I consider “big” purchases. Sure, I’ll spend a decent amount of cash on multiple items, but rarely for one piece. I can count the number of important style purchases I’ve made in my life on one hand – buying my entire makeup collection in one go from MAC, and purchasing my beloved Ray-Bans stand out as two of the highlights. But because I’m not a high roller, I’m not really used to the perks that come with shopping at high-end stores, ie exceptional customer service. People who drop a lot of dollars are used to and maybe even don’t appreciate this kind of service, but a newbie like me takes notice.
When Dan said we should stop by Coach to look at bags, I didn’t expect anything, but as you may remember, Dan bought me a Coach purse for my birthday. And the fact that I’ve talked about this bag on the blog multiple times should indicate how much I’m in love with it. It’s so soft and has so many pockets, which for me is a big deal because I’m that girl you can count on for gum or a band-aid or an extra bobby pin. I swear, we touched every bag in the store before I settled on the Coach Legacy Leather Medium Candace Carryall in black – of course it was going to be black!
As I said, I walked into Coach with no expectations; the girl helping us was super nice, Dan bought the bag, and I left the store starry-eyed. So when I received a letter from Coach the following week, I was surprised. Rebecca, the girl who had helped us, had written us a note thanking us for shopping there, had remember that the purchase was for my birthday, and had added a gift card as well! I was floored! One, I get very excited about people remembering my birthday (and she was a stranger) and two, she wrote me a personalized note with a gift card. What?! I need to point out that Coach doesn’t know that I have a blog, this has nothing to do with that, I was just a normal girl looking at purses and Coach decided I should be appreciated. That is so cool.
My view of stores like Coach was that they only had bags saturated with their logo. Whenever I saw someone with a Coach bag, it had the Coach logo splayed all over it, and I guess I assumed that was the only type of bag they made. Some people like logos, Dan even likes some of the logo bags, but me? I’m super simple. Give me hardware, pockets, leather, and equestrian styles. I don’t want too much bling and it has to be easy to carry. When I stepped into Coach, I didn’t know they’d have so many options that fit what I love. Naive little me, right? But as I’m sure you’ve noticed, more than a couple of Coach bags have made their way into my style collages. I have found a brand that is perfect for me!
The gift card had a time limit, I had until March 2nd to get something. I knew I needed a wallet (you might remember this post?) so I perused Coach’s website, and fell hard for the Legacy Leather Soft Wallet. My wallet doesn’t need a lot of pockets because I only carry a few cards and so rarely carry cash (those few dollars below? that’s me rollin’ in dough). But I waited too long and by the time I was ready to buy it, the black one was sold out online! Noo! I tried to find a different one I liked, but my heart was already set. Dan suggested I look into getting something else if I couldn’t find a wallet, and I had just written one of the equestrian posts for HSWI which featured the Coach Legacy Leather Mini Saddle Bag. In my mind, that was going to be a future purchase. It was beautiful and fit right in with my style.
We went back to Coach to find another wallet I could love and out of nowhere popped Mitchell! I explained to him that I was looking for something small, a wallet or small clutch, and such a sweetheart, he started showing me everything in the store, not realizing I was still gung-ho for this other wallet. I told him if I couldn’t find a wallet I wanted the satchel. They didn’t have it in store but he brought it up online, showed me the color and size based on a different bag, and I was all for it. Dan, still looking for an alternative wallet, finds me and excitedly and hands me MY WALLET. They had it! Except, being a “floor model” it was super beat up. And he explained to Mitchell that this was the wallet I had wanted and did they possibly have any others? They didn’t, but they could order one for me!
I was so excited, too excited actually because Mitchell asked if I wanted to purchase both items and I said yes without thinking about it. Dan gave me “the eye,” you know the one, when you try to eat candy or cookies before dinner? But I was on a shopping high! And I had a gift card! But for the life of me I couldn’t remember the name of the Coach employee who sent it to me. Mitchell and I bonded over our inability to remember names but strong ability to remember faces of even the most random people. Finally, we figured out that it was Rebecca who sent me the letter and I told him to thank her profusely. The whole experience made my day, week, year.
After all that I couldn’t expect anything more from Coach. I waited patiently for the bag and wallet, caught a color mistake on my purchase (I blame Mercury Retrograde) and got it fixed before it even arrived. When my purchases came, I was in love all over again. I’m sick like that, great purchases give me euphoria, which could be why I have a style blog in the first place? But I did not expect even more letters. One was from Mitchell thanking me for my purchase and one was from Jeanette apologizing for the color mix-up. That was not one, but two letters! Letters that in my mind didn’t even need to be sent but still were.
Even if no letters had been sent, I would still be a loyal Coach customer. I was that happy with my initial experience in the store and the purse that I will definitely look to make future purchases at Coach. As a customer, I’m fairly easy to please. Be nice, be helpful and I’ll probably like my time there. But I’m not every customer; I’ve worked in customer service and people aren’t always nice, but I’ve found that when you don’t have super high expectations, good things happen. And this wasn’t just great customer service, this was wonderful customer service. Coach is where it’s at!
Feel free to share any of your amazing customer service experiences. Spread the word on brands who go above and beyond. When and where did you feel like a super special customer?
