It’s no good having the right product in the right place at the right time, if the all-important customer-service element is absent.

A Sunday constitutional to St John’s Wood. Nice place. A little overpriced and filled with Range Rovers, Beemers and suchlike, but still nice.

Pretty ‘village-like’ shops too – cafes brimful of well-heeled types tucking into their mochas, Americanos and brioches, and a handful of upscale shops.

The latter are aimed precisely at the people sitting in the coffee shops in the hope that they’ll pick up a little fashion number prior to climbing back into the jalopy and heading home.

And as such, you’d expect them to be pretty good and for service to be impeccable.

Venturing into one of these it was just as you’d expect. The horses had not been spared when it came to creating the interior in terms either of the material palette or fashioning something that would have a strong sense of luxury.

The same was true of the stock. This was not an emporium for the shy of wallet, although most of what was on show did look as if it would pass modish muster.

One mild problem and it involved a mobile phone. No, this was not a store that was iBeaconed-up and was busy spamming passers-by with information about what was in the shop. Neither was it one of those stores where handsets cease to work.

Quite the reverse in fact. So strong was the signal that the member of staff in the front corner of the shop, opposite the door, seemed unable to tear herself away from the conversation that was in progress.

So engrossing was the subject matter at hand that the normal requirement of making eye contact with a potential customer was in fact totally by-passed.

All of which proved sufficient for a swift exit to be effected. This is a shame, because in all other respects the shop was an exemplar of upper mass-market best practice.

What it does show however is the level of importance that should still be attached to service.

It’s no good having the right thing in the right place at the right time if the right people aren’t there as well.

Items still need to be sold and at this end of the market that requirement is higher up the agenda than in, say, Primark or New Look… which do what they do very well.

Needless to say, the shop was empty and sales would have been hard to come by.

And in case your curiosity has been pricked, the store in question was Whistles.