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So, I'm trained in skincare, but not actually an advisor at the moment. It's sort of the best of both worlds, because I don't have to worry about targets but I can still give all the information that customers need. I enjoy it enough to keep up my training in my own time, so you can imagine that if someone does ask me for advice I'm more than happy to spend time to help them get the right product.
Cue customer. She wants help finding a facewash. Fair enough. I take her over to skincare and ask her if she has a particular brand in mind. Yes: she had one before that was too harsh for her skin and was a pump; do we have any pump face washes? Yes we do! We have several: what kind of skin does she have? She has dry, sensitive skin, and she had a pump before that had microbeads in and was too harsh for her skin. Okay, well, we have these pumps for sensitive skin, and this wash with mircrobeads, but exfoliating everyday will be rough on her skin. Okay, thank you, she's going to look at them.
A couple of minutes later and she's back! She wants more advice! Which wash would I recommend? Well! I would recommend these three, two based off my own experience and customer reviews, and one just off reviews. She doesn't get on with one of those brands, fair enough, here's another really good one. But what about the spot clearing face washes? ...Well, they are facewashes but they're really not designed for dry or sensitive skin and they'll make her skin worse so I'd advise that she avoids them. Okay, so which face wash would I recommend? ...I'm running out of ones to recommend for her skin type, but there's also this one which she could try?
She thinks for a moment, and then: okay, but what about the spot clearing brands. At this point I'm a bit lost. What else do you want me to say? I go through one of them and point out what her skin's going to react to, and say if she has a problem with spots we have sensitive ranges for spots. No, she has no problem with spots, but she thinks the face wash she used before was this brand. The one that was too harsh for her? Yes. Do we have that one? ...No. Well, what about the spot face wash there?
Oh, and she's not going to be in the country for much longer so do we have any smaller sizes? We do have travel sizes, how long is she here for! Six weeks. ...Well, that's about the length of time a normal bottle will last you.
...Okay. So, should she get this spot face wash?
In the end I went through all the spot face washes to find the one that was the least drying and told her she could try that but it wasn't what I'd recommend and she'd probably find it very drying and I saw her heading to the tills with it later so I guess at least she listened to part of my advice if not the majority of it? She was polite the whole way through, just apparently wanted me to tell her that she should use the wash she wanted to use.
Equally annoying, and just as stupid, the other day I was on the tills after closing. We're not allowed to closing tanoys so we always have stragglers, so having people still shopping is normal but there's normally only one person on the tills unless there's a big queue. I was on the tills, and a girl came up to me from the SCOs: she'd brought some nail varnish thinking it was bogoff but it hadn't come up on her receipt? I already knew that they were buy one get one half price but she insisted, so I got to run all the way to the other end of the store and back again to get the sales material, and when I get back, what does she say?
"Oh, I saw the 'buy one' and assumed that it was get another free because that's what it always is!"
So, basically, she didn't read it at all. I'd love to live in a world where bogoff is more common than buy one get one half price too, because it sure as hell isn't this one. But at least she didn't complain about it. Not that she apologised either.
Cue customer. She wants help finding a facewash. Fair enough. I take her over to skincare and ask her if she has a particular brand in mind. Yes: she had one before that was too harsh for her skin and was a pump; do we have any pump face washes? Yes we do! We have several: what kind of skin does she have? She has dry, sensitive skin, and she had a pump before that had microbeads in and was too harsh for her skin. Okay, well, we have these pumps for sensitive skin, and this wash with mircrobeads, but exfoliating everyday will be rough on her skin. Okay, thank you, she's going to look at them.
A couple of minutes later and she's back! She wants more advice! Which wash would I recommend? Well! I would recommend these three, two based off my own experience and customer reviews, and one just off reviews. She doesn't get on with one of those brands, fair enough, here's another really good one. But what about the spot clearing face washes? ...Well, they are facewashes but they're really not designed for dry or sensitive skin and they'll make her skin worse so I'd advise that she avoids them. Okay, so which face wash would I recommend? ...I'm running out of ones to recommend for her skin type, but there's also this one which she could try?
She thinks for a moment, and then: okay, but what about the spot clearing brands. At this point I'm a bit lost. What else do you want me to say? I go through one of them and point out what her skin's going to react to, and say if she has a problem with spots we have sensitive ranges for spots. No, she has no problem with spots, but she thinks the face wash she used before was this brand. The one that was too harsh for her? Yes. Do we have that one? ...No. Well, what about the spot face wash there?
Oh, and she's not going to be in the country for much longer so do we have any smaller sizes? We do have travel sizes, how long is she here for! Six weeks. ...Well, that's about the length of time a normal bottle will last you.
...Okay. So, should she get this spot face wash?
In the end I went through all the spot face washes to find the one that was the least drying and told her she could try that but it wasn't what I'd recommend and she'd probably find it very drying and I saw her heading to the tills with it later so I guess at least she listened to part of my advice if not the majority of it? She was polite the whole way through, just apparently wanted me to tell her that she should use the wash she wanted to use.
Equally annoying, and just as stupid, the other day I was on the tills after closing. We're not allowed to closing tanoys so we always have stragglers, so having people still shopping is normal but there's normally only one person on the tills unless there's a big queue. I was on the tills, and a girl came up to me from the SCOs: she'd brought some nail varnish thinking it was bogoff but it hadn't come up on her receipt? I already knew that they were buy one get one half price but she insisted, so I got to run all the way to the other end of the store and back again to get the sales material, and when I get back, what does she say?
"Oh, I saw the 'buy one' and assumed that it was get another free because that's what it always is!"
So, basically, she didn't read it at all. I'd love to live in a world where bogoff is more common than buy one get one half price too, because it sure as hell isn't this one. But at least she didn't complain about it. Not that she apologised either.
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