The fit record card your next fitter can read

Before the tape comes out

• Write why she booked, in her wordsOne line: uncomfortable in everything, post surgery, mother of the bride, nursing, first proper fitting. Her reason sets the whole appointment and is the first thing the next fitter should read.
• Record what she is wearing now and how old it isBrand, marked size and rough age of the band. A two year old 36C that has been on the loosest hook for months tells you more than any tape measure will.
• Note any surgery, treatment or body changeReduction, augmentation, mastectomy with or without reconstruction, pregnancy, nursing stage, significant weight change, radiation in progress. Write the date if she offers it, and never make her repeat it at the next visit.
• Log her comfort complaints in her languageDigging straps, riding band, spillage at the underarm, wires that sit on tissue. Keep her phrasing rather than translating it, because the same words will come back next time and you want to recognize them.
• Ask what she will not wearMolded cups, lace against the skin, plunges, anything without a wide strap. Recording the refusals stops the next fitter from pulling an armful she was never going to take.

Measurement and starting size

• Write the underbust and bust measurement with the dateNumbers without a date are guesses within a year. Date every measurement so you can see how much a band has been chased over time.
• Record the starting size and the sister sizes triedThe tape gives you a place to begin, not a verdict. Note the size you started at and the one or two sister sizes you moved to, so the next fitting starts where this one ended.
• Note the shape read, not just the sizeRoot width, projection, whether the tissue sits high or low, how full the upper pole is. This is what decides the cut, and it is the field most cards leave out.
• List the brands you pulled first and whyFitters develop a reliable order for each shape. Writing it down turns a personal instinct into something a new hire can use in her first month on the floor.
• Record the hook setting that workedLoosest, middle or tightest at the time of fitting. It tells the next fitter how much life the band has left and whether she should size the band down on the reorder.

What actually left the room

• Log brand, style, colorway, band and cup for every bra soldThe marked size only means something next to the brand and style. A 34E in one label and a 32F in another can be the same body, and both belong on the card.
• Write the cut family beside each styleBalconette, full cup, plunge, longline, T shirt, seamed, wire free, post surgical pocketed. Cut is what transfers to the next brand you take on, far more reliably than a size does.
• Record what she tried and rejected, and the reasonTwo lines is enough: the style and what was wrong with it. This saves the next fitter a stockroom trip and saves the customer a repeat disappointment.
• Note what she wanted and you did not haveThe size, cut and color she asked for that you could not supply. This is the single most valuable line on the card, because it feeds both your reorder list and your next buying appointment.
• Capture what she said about the fitOne direct quote if she gives you a good one. It reads back as a real person at the next appointment rather than a row of measurements.

Follow up and reorder triggers

• Set the wear out dateCount forward from the purchase by the life you honestly expect from that band in her rotation. That date is when a short, useful note goes out naming the style she bought.
• Flag the sizes and cuts to watch in receivingList the exact band, cup and cut she is waiting on. This is the list your fitters should check against every delivery before it goes on the floor.
• Draft the reorder line she would recognizeOne sentence naming her cut and brand, written by the fitter who measured her. Anything that reads like store marketing loses the reason the note works at all.
• Record how she wants to be contactedText, email, phone call, or not at all. Also note if she prefers a particular fitter, which matters more in this trade than in most retail.
• Set the next measurement intervalAnnually for a stable body, sooner for nursing, post surgical or ongoing weight change. It stops both re-measuring a regular for no reason and letting a changed body go a year unchecked.