Recently, I had seen advertised a stack of mugs that sit nicely in a wire holder and only take up the place of one mug. Being in the process of moving and downsizing, I thought this set would take up less space than conventional mugs.

We receive publicity brochures in our letterbox every week and so when I saw a stack of mugs advertised for only 9.99€ . I was tempted. I tore the page out of the brochure. A few days later, I set off down the road and up the hill, brochure page in hand. Drawing close to my destination I realised that the torn out page hadn’t got the name of the shop on it. Was it GiFi or La Foir’Fouille?

I was closest to latter, so I entered and approached the till. ‘Bonjour, excuse me, but is this brochure for you or GiFi?’ ‘It’s us’, said one of the 2 assistants. I explained that I was interested in the stacking mugs. ‘Come this way,’ she said, leading me straight to a tall display unit. Sure enough, there were the items, but high up, way above our heads. ‘Which would you like?’ It turned out that there was a choice between 5 with a geometric black and white design, or 6, each having a different colour. The 6 were more attractive and cheaper!

By then she had clambered on top of packing cases that were in front of the shelves. Reaching up and balancing precariously, she retrieved one of each for me to make my choice. At this point, I was holding onto her leg in case she fell! But, she was soon down on the ground again – perhaps her sport is rock climbing – she was certainly very agile. I returned to the till with my chosen item, having had a personal shopper to guide me straight to the item I wanted and to help me access what would have been impossible. And all with a friendly smile as well.

Every example of bad customer service remains in one’s memory. So, today I will immortalise in writing an example of excellent customer service.