- Building Rapport
- Learn their name and tell them yours
- Ask questions and engage in active listening
- Instil confidence in your professional experience and a positive outcome for the fitting
- Language
- Enthusiastic
- Boost their confidence and make it clear that they are not abnormal in any way
- Take the language away from their body and focus on getting them support and comfort
- Work as a team with your customer to get the correct bra style
- Evaluate their current bra
- Non-judgementally establish what we need to change about their current style or sizing
- Once again instil confidence that they will be in a much better fitting/ more comfortable bra very soon!
- Establish their size
- Getting the correct fit – 6 steps –
- Band – firm but not pinching when you run two fingers from each hand underneath the band right around from the centre to the sides
- Wires – the wires are sitting behind the breast tissue, encapsulating all breast tissue, tacking firmly against the customer’s ribs and not sitting too low on the ribs.
- Cups – The cup is flush without any extra space puckering the cup and there is no spillage over the cup
- Straps – The straps are firm on the shoulders but so that you can still get 2 fingers underneath at the top of the shoulder
- Gore – is the centre gore feeling comfortable on the customer’s sternum. Is it digging or sitting very far away from the customer? Some styles will not allow the gore to sit flush, such as a flexiwire bra and some t-shirt bras, however it should always feel comfortable.
- Feeling – How does the bra feel on the customer? Take on all feedback and educate regarding any new feelings the customer is not used to in a firm fitting bra.
- Getting the correct fit – 6 steps –
- Try different shapes and styles
- Now you have a good idea of their size you can bring in different shapes and styles depending on the customer’s needs
- Evaluate the customer’s shape and fullness so as to bring in bras that will suit them –
- Fullness mainly to the side of the breasts:
- Balconettes – perfect to pull in fullness from the side ✅
- Plunges – perfect to pull in fullness from the side and less risk of spilling into the centre ✅
- Full cups – Support from all angles ✅
- T-shirt – needs a tshirt bra with depth in the cup, not a shallow minimising style
- Fullness to the centre of the chest:
- Balconettes – make sure customer separates breasts away from centre gore
- Plunge – Only if fullness doesn’t spill out in centre, may be better in a lace plunge so that stretch fabric can hold breast tissue in place
- Full cup – Will support tissue from spilling out of cup ✅
- T-shirt – Will suit most styles ✅
- Fullness to top of breasts:
- Balconettes – May be too low across the neckline and cause spillage, opt for one with stretch lace and potentially size up to contain fullness
- Plunge – Similar to above, may need to size up and choose a style with stretch lace
- Full cup – Best shape for this breast shape ✅
- T-shirt – Not as suited as cup is usually too rigid however may suit a spacer foam style better
- Fullness underneath breasts:
- Balconette – YES, best style for this breast shape ✅
- Plunge – Can work but watch soft breast tissue, may not fill to top of cup and may cause spillage at lowest point of plunge
- Full cup – Suitable however there still may be a small gap at the top of the cup, this is normal in this shape. Choose a shallow style if opting for a full cup.
- T-shirt – May also have a small gap in top of cup which may be unavoidable. Try to choose a balconette shaped t-shirt bra.
- Fullness mainly to the side of the breasts:
- Putting the bra on properly
- Instruct the customer on how to properly put each bra on. Either stay in the fitting room to assist with each bra or step out if the customer is not comfortable between each bra.
- Instruct the customer not to spin the bra around from the front and if she needs assistance doing the band up she can hold the bra over her breasts and you can step in to do up the band.
- If the customer is unable to reach around her back to fasten the bra and would not like assistance, let the customer know it is ok to spin the bra, however there is a correct way. Make sure the cups are facing up and not upside down. The higher up the bra is on the body the easier it will be when spinning. Once the bra is facing the correct direction make sure the underwire is shimmied right up under the breast tissue.
- Ask the customer to lean forward into the cup while you do the band up for them – so that their breast tissue is best positioned in the cup.
- Instruct the customer to do the scoop and swoop method. Scoop the breast tissue in from the side of the cup and sit the wire back behind the breast tissue.
- Then swoop any overspill back inside the cup and stretch the lace up over the breast at the same time.
- In a t-shirt bra you may need to instruct the customer to hold the top of the cup and jiggle the bra so that their breast tissue drops down into the bottom of the cup, instead of the swoop method.
- Add Ons
- Always offer matching briefs, sports bra, swimwear, strapless or any other styles you think they might like to look at while they are already undressed.
- Decision
- Help the customer narrow down their options and take out any bras which they have ruled out. This helps them make a clear decision and you can put these bras back while they are deciding. This process should be done through the fitting making sure not to overwhelm/confuse the customer with too many items.
- Make sure you are still available for them to ask questions or help deciding.
- At the counter
- Always compliment the customer’s choices
- Washing instructions – hand wash in the shower or basin with our lingerie wash or a wool wash
- Remind customer about starting on loosest hook and moving hooks in over time
- Lingerie Lovers
- Returns Policy – Wear at home for half a hour with tags on, if there is discomfort we provide exchanges and credit notes. We do not provide refunds.
- Farewell customer warmly to leave a lasting impression
