In my current work I have to wear from time to time a suit. It is not obligatory however it is advisable. At the same time, I have to do this while travelling. One of the positive things about my work is that I get to travel to meet with clients and prospects. One of the things I realized that made the difference in a business suit, is the materials. It is not about being fancy but rather practical. When travelling for work, you have to spend a lot of time on the airplane or in a car. You might have to wear the same suit for several days straight and you might have to stuff it in a already overloaded suitcase. In order to avoid bad odour and a wrinkled suit, you should either have many of them, or buy a suit made of wool fabric, preferably cool wool. Synthetic fabrics become smelly really fast and I do not want to know about wrinkles. Both not so helpful when you try to sell something classy.

As a result my first suits were made of wool. I was impressed by the results (odour and wrinkle control). Also, I didn’t had to spent a fortune to get them. At the time there were some companies that sold such suits, as a part of their premium collection. Not cheap compared to synthetic alternatives, however affordable.

And there I was in my longest and furthest from home trip for work. I was in India for an expo, in a humid and hot environment. However the suit did its job. Until I noticed something weird. While being a tricycle taxi returning from the expo grounds, I noticed that there where some wrinkles on the external face of the jacket, near the chest. It seemed like…the front layer of fabric was locally separated from the base fabric of the jacket. I was very annoyed, as I have been using the suit for only 2 months and to be honest, I really liked it.

Long story short, after I returned to my country, I took the suit and the receipt (thankfully I had not thrown this away) and I went to the shop. The shop was at the center of the capital, right in front of the classiest square of the center. I entered the shop and I approached the reception/cashier. I informed the cashier that I had a garment with defects and she instantly called the store manager. He came, and he asked me politely what the issue was. I explained, he asked for the receipt, he cross checked that it belonged to this garment, and he asked me to pinpoint the defect. I did and he instantly covered the defect saying: “We deeply apologize for this, please leave this here and go upstairs to choose a replacement, even with different colour or size”. Polite, to the point, direct, no questions how it happened, how I cleaned it, no excuses, instant solution.

I went upstairs and I got another one. I was disappointed that the same design was not available, however I found another one, equally pleasing.

Conclusion: Accidents happen, however the way that you will handle them makes a big difference. In this case, I was enjoying a suit that caused me an inconvenience (I couldn’t use the suit for business and I had to go downtown to resolve the issue) but in the end I got recognition for my claim and a brand new suit (the suit with the defect was almost 8 months old). A satisfied customer that returned several times ever since for repeated sales. Additionally, the store manager handled a case that could easily get out of hand. Imagine a dissatisfied client, that bought something expensive, who is already frustrated due to an unacceptable defect, to start yelling in a classy store. Horrible. We see again how important is to handle the whole customer experience and to understand that it is not always about a product, it is about the whole package.