House of Cramel

I really wish this was a more positive post...but its not. A friend and I were shopping in the growing art district of the Castleberry Hills area of Atlanta. We decided to go into La Bella Vie Boutique. Upon entering this establishment, I saw the Sales Associate seated behind the checkout counter. I don't know what he was doing behind the counter but whatever it was must have been important because he didn't take a second to greet me or my friend when we came in. We were the only customers in the store. So my friend and I looked around on our own. The clothes were actually very very beautiful, and the visual merchandising was on point as well. I can alway appreciate great visual merchandising. But I was so underwhelmed by the "customer service " I was receiving that it put a damper on my entire experience. The sad part is the store is so nice, they had an awesome shoe display wall, there is even a table of custom made accessories by the owner, Jason Loren Scott.

I am very critical of customer service, or what I like to refer to as "guest service", especially in specialized establishments. In my opinion, in a boutique great guest service should be a given. Your level of service could be the difference in you making not just a sale, but in converting a guest or customer into YOUR CLIENT! Let me step off my soap box, as I continued to look through the racks I found a damaged piece I called the associate over to let him know. It wasn't until then that I knew he could talk! He happily took the merchandise of the floor, but sadly thats the only interaction we had. A couple minutes later a group of people came in. They must have been friends with the associate because he spoke to them and one of them sat comfortably in a seat near the accessories table. This actually made me uncomfortable because I was looking at the accessories and I felt the person in the chair looking at me.....I sincerely hope this isn't the case all the time at La Bella Vie, they've been open since 2010 so they have to be doing something right over there. La Bella Vie Boutique does have a website, you can visit them at www.labellavieboutique.net . They also have tumbler, facebook fan page, and twitter accounts. If you'd like to visit, you can find them at 309 Peters Street  SW Atlanta, GA 30313. Hopefully you'll have a better experience than I did. I do plan to visit again and hopefully get a better guest experience. And when I do, I will happily post again with better news. Until then, go down to La Bella Vie Boutique and see for yourselves! Let me know how your experience was. Jason Scott, I know you have to be fabulous because your store is beautiful, but talk to whoever is running your store when your not there!