Flicking through some magazines at the weekend I found a Laura Mercier card offering a free sample of Creme Smooth Foundation. So, I thought I’d see how easily the card translated to actual product and to see what hoops needed to be jumped through to actually get it. I don’t actually get to ‘shop’ beauty all that much because of my job so I just wanted to be a customer for a change, and I’d never even heard of this foundation nor had samples. It’s my assumption, rightly or wrongly, that ‘coupon’ customers aren’t treated in the same way as customers who look like they might be going to spend something.
My first attempt was in John Lewis, where there were two counter staff, both already dealing with customers. So I waited, and waited, holding my coupon on show in my hand…and eventually one of them said they’d be with me in a moment. Then she decided to do a make over on the customer she was with but told me she thought her colleague was just finishing up doing her customer’s make over so she’d be with me in a minute instead. Well, for the time I had available, she wasn’t finished enough so I literally just left. I wasn’t going to add insult to injury by queueing to be given a hard sell.
Instead, I popped into Liberty, where again there were two counter staff; one free and one busy. So, I was attended to straight away by a really lovely girl, who asked what I normally used, swatched a couple of colours on my face and then filled up a little pot of my chosen colour to take away. No hard sell at all. In fact, it couldn’t have been a more pleasant experience. There is nothing to say that the John Lewis counter wouldn’t have been just as pleasant and just as good an experience, but I couldn’t wait as long as they expected me to.
And, the foundation is absolutely gorgeous. Apart from the John Lewis blip, a great experience all round.
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