Service Quality = Product Price?

[Iris 0]

I have been an avid reader of this forum in my sourcing of furnitures of my new house and have found the comments given by other members to be helpful.

I would now also like to give my 2 cents worth about my experience when searching for a sofa during the F1 weekend.

My husband and I after going through religiously the various topics in this forum decided to visit the Sofalab outlet at Kaki Bukit to look for a 3+2 Sofa for our house. We were very impresses with the range of products and the price that they were going for. We were just a impressed with the showroom which was bright and cheerful. In fact, we had already decided to place an order for one of their design when alas, we were let down by the heck care attitude of the Sales Lady there. She was totally not interested in our requests for service and at times, we felt that she had the "Take it or leave it" type of attitude. She gave us the Novena / Nova / Red Apple feeling. As such, we left the shop empty handed and empty hearted!

Since we were around the corner and had learned from this forum that Massimo is the Sister company, we decided to make full use of the trip and went to Massimo. The Sales gentleman there was a breath of fresh air. Even though he could tell that their products are well beyond our budget, he served us as if we were going to buy tens of thousands of dollars of their products and was friendly and patient throughout. He even told us that we could try to have a look at Sofalab (We did not tell him we came from there).

From Massimo, we found that there was another branch of Sofalab at Boon Lay and we took a cab there. At the Boon Lay branch, the Sales Lady was totally different to that from Kaki Bukit and as such, we bought our sofa from her and left happily.

The thought that was going through our mind was though Sofalab is a "lesser" sibling of Massimo. the service standard should not be that way off! It gave us the feeling that the cheaper the product, the lower the quality of service we should expect. Service should be the same which is tip top regardless whether it is a 10 cents product or a 10 Thousand Dollars thing.

Luckily, the guy at Massimo and the lady at Boon Lay Way Sofalab saved the day for us.

Sorry for this lengthly 1st post but just wanted to reflect my experience.

iris

[applefreak 1]

well price definitely has got nothing to do with service quality

think the best example will be hoe kee, the shop that sells kitchen/bathroom accessories

go check out the jln besar branch and katong complext branch

everything is priced exactly the same but the service is totally different

another example with be those branded boutiques

expensive stuff, but service leaves much to be desired (certain branches)

[Iris 0]

I guess you are right. Being in the service line myself, I believe my husband and I are not the 'arrogant nor impossible" kind of clients and expect the Sales Staff to Kow Tow and cater to our every whims.

I think it is the professionalism of the Sales person that matters the most regardless of the products they are are selling.

All in all. it is much thanks to the lady at Boon Lay way who made our shopping experience a fruitful one.

[DoubleJ 0]

been using this forum as my textbook as well. was planning to visit sofalab too. prolly going to the boonlay one and give the other one a miss.its nearer anyway.haha

so far been to a few other 'designer' furniture boutiques. by far,Lifestory,OM,lorenzo is really dissapointing.

Lifestory, i walked in and looked at the staff's direction waiting to return their welcome smile or acknowledgement, there are like 6 staff sitting at lifestory's counter, 3 didnt bother to look, 3 of them turn and looked at our direction and turn back chitchating again. another one joins them in later walking pass us with no regards. sigh..

OM same thing. just lesser staff with 1 guy putting his leg up high while sitting on the bar stool near counter,looked and turn away.

Lorenzo was somehow strange, we felt like 2nd grade customer. walk in wearing berms and t-shirt(as always). staff just stood near us,not smiling not saying hi,just looking at us as if worrying we might break their things. another guy in berms and shirt(btw,strange way to wear with berms on a hot afternoon) walked in with an elderly man(father?) in shirt and pants. fwah, the salesman went over immediately and humped their legs with a sunshine looks on his face.

i dunno..maybe we as customer supposed to wear interview kits when visiting designer furniture boutiques or maybe leave our ferrari carkeys(not that i have one) dangling out of our pocket to display our spending power?

maybe someone whom have a better list of names on the various "designer" boutiques can start a poll and vote for best service. would be interesting to see the results.