Mystery Shoppers

Featured Article June '09

'The best thing is to look natural; to look natural takes mak-up'

The great American film critic Richard Corliss once said that ‘no star is a heroine to her makeup artist’.

The same is true for brands. The customers dealing with one member of staff who is having a bad day will see through the sympathetic lighting and the reputation to the crevices and the wrinkles that lie between promise and delivery.

Why the laboured metaphor? Well, because this is particularly the case for concessions – such as make-up counters.

The impression customer service creates at a concession in one particular department store, on one particular day will shape their opinion of that brand no matter how stellar the service in stand-alone stores or on other channels.

Concessions are particularly troublesome because they impact not just on that brand, but on the department store that provides it a home.

No retailer is a hero to its customers. Like make-up good customer service requires daily application, and pretty frequent checks in the mirror.

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