It's not often you hear a good customer service story. No one ever calls up their friends or dishes over coffee about how amazingly well they were treated while shopping. It's just how it is. If something bad happens, we tell everyone who will listen, but we take good service for granted all the time. But I think it's time we change all that.
What with Bridget having a massive hockey obsession, her 21 month old self is getting skates for Christmas. While we were shopping for other members of our hockey obsessed family, I noticed little tiny pink skates that looked really supportive for her tiny ankles. Still thinking she was too young to learn to skate, I left them where they were.
However, the 'Hockey, Hockey' shouting tot has turned into the 'Hockey Me! Hockey Me' shouting tot. Too young or not, the child wants to skate.
So yesterday, I returned to United Cycle on Gateway Boulevard in Edmonton to buy her skates. We passed Canadian Tire along the way and I stopped to compare prices. I remembered that the skates were $84.99 at United Cycle where I had first seen them and that seemed really steep for skates for a toddler. But when I couldn't find a parking space to save my life, I gave up and drove the 45 minutes across the city in snow to get to United Cycle.
It was the best thing I could have done.
I regret not making a note of the name of the lady who greeted me the minute we arrived at the skating department of the store. Seeing me with Daniel and his friend Cyrus, she didn't assume I wanted skates for the boys. We always get Daniels skates and hockey equipment there, because the place gives phenomenal service. It stood to reason that with a pair of 11 year old boys in tow, I was looking for new hockey skates. But instead of assuming, she asked me which child I was shopping for. When I told her it was for Bridget, she immediately smiled and knew what my options were.
She asked me to wait one moment, and disappeared into the back. She popped back mere moments later with a box in hand.
She then took Bridget by the hand, led her to a chair, sat her up, took off her clunky winter boots and put both skates on her feet. She adjusted them to make sure the Velcro (instead of laces for little tiny feet) was secure, and then they were off. She held Bridget's hand as they walked in circles around the figure and hockey skate department. The skates were not inexpensive by any means considering they were for the feet of a toddler, but to know that she took so much care to make sure they fit her properly, that I knew what kind of socks to put on her feet, and to know they were a quality item meant enough for me to pay what was written on the display. Realistically, I am aware of the copious dollars our family wastes on take out, pay per view movies and other junk. To buy something that she will outgrow in not such a long time may seem a waste, but I think they are an investment for her. Literally, I hope they get her off on the right foot where it comes to living an active healthy life.
It also meant an awful lot to me that she took the skates off of her feet, put back on her winter boots, adjusted her pants the way I would have around the legs of her boots and then zipped up her coat again. You might find cheaper skates, but you also don't get that kind of service at Canadian Tire or Wal-Mart.
With the skates fitted in less than 20 minutes, start to finish, and not a bead of sweat on me from wrestling with her in the aisles to get her boots off, skates on, skates off and then boots back on with other frantic holiday shoppers pushing past on the last Saturday before Christmas, we were done. I couldn't believe it. I had anticipated the process taking the better part of an hour, and ending with a screaming toddler, no skates and a migraine.
This lady even dropped the skates off at sharpening for me, while I trotted off in search of a helmet.
The helmet we purchased was for Jamie. Because it was being bought with a gift card, it came from Sportchek. Trying to find one that fit his head was an ordeal, but not because he has an odd sized head or anything. The process of searching through unorganized boxes, taking them out, trying them on, only to realize it was the wrong one, and then trying to match up which helmet belonged in which space to see the actual price and if we had the right helmet in the right box. It was a day trip. There wasn't a soul in sight to help the process. I anticipated the same fuss again.
Walking past a service counter near the helmet display, I casually said (not anticipating much of a reaction) 'Do you have a helmet to fit this little head?'
The three men around the counter laughed and one of them said they absolutely did. Before I got to where he walked, he had a helmet out of the box and was inserting the padding inside, to size it down to fit Bridget's head. They only had one kind, in black and though I wish it was white or pink, I couldn't believe it when he took the face mask off, inserted the little doo dads and jangles to make it all work and tried it on her head. Bridget lit up like a Christmas tree, yelling 'my hockey, my hockey!"
He took it off of her head and then asked me if I wanted to take the box or if he would just dispose of it for me. When I said it would probably be easier to wrap it in the box, he packed it all up for me, closed the box and put it in the cart. Oh, and did I mentioned he was smiling as he did it!? I couldn't believe it.
While I was paying for our things, I realized that it's not just a special breed of staff that makes the place special. A manager named John stopped by the customer service desk as I was being rung in and dropped the girl a gift card from Booster Juice- just for being such a great employee. You could tell it was totally unexpected, and it really made me feel good about shopping somewhere that goes out of their way to make their employees feel valued.
You can absolutely bet your bottom dollar that the next time I need anything for Daniel or Bridget's hockey, baseball or whatever; I won't mind the 45 minute drive across Edmonton because I will know that I am definitely getting the best service in town!
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