Extraordinary Rewards Experience

[BeautyInsiderBT]

Hi Everyone,

We wanted to take a moment to let you know that we are hearing your feedback regarding today’s Extraordinary Rewards experience. If we haven’t been able to respond to you personally yet, please know that we have read your feedback and definitely understand your frustration. The rewards sold out much quicker than we anticipated, so we were unable to send out the planned email or post to our social channels. We’re sorry if you missed out on these exciting rewards. The response has been overwhelming and we are happy to announce that there will be more extraordinary rewards coming this year.

If you have specific questions or need assistance, please PM a moderator for help. We appreciate your understanding and value the helpful feedback you’ve provided here on BeautyTalk.

[itscarin]

Let's be honest, Sephora is LOVING the fact that everyone is talking about their rewards program.  It's the same exact garbage that UD pulls with their Naked palettes or their Black Friday deals.  They know how many customers they have and how many points their customers have.  Knowing this, they deliberate create a very limited supply and then watch everyone go crazy over it. 

I hope Sephora's take away from this is that people don't like fighting tooth and nail for perks, and that consumers are dissatisfied with the current reward system.  Also, I hope they're noticing that they're not the only option in town and to stay competitive they're going to have to revamp their rewards system and offer a meaningful apology.

[lucyshnoosy]

It would be wonderful if Sephora could plan extraordinary rewards that weren't competitive.  I understand that such events create buzz and frenzy in anticipation, but the negativity afterwards surely cancels that out for the company.

Even apology points seem to be awarded in a random way as some sort of competitive lottery.  If Sephora regrets the way things played out, you can do better.

How about a special reward available at different point levels (i.e. 1K, 1.5K, 2K, etc.) that would be limited to one per person only, but would be available to add to your basket over a period of a few days?   It might be more feasible to provide greater numbers if the emphasis wasn't on celebrity signatures, etc.  I don't think they are a draw for many of us.

The takeaway: Sephora either wants to reward its most loyal customers or it does not.  If it does, find a way to make it happen across the board.

[scairo]

If Sephora had given everyone advanced notice that the rewards were going live, and they went live during normal waking hours, I don't think their servers would have been able to handle the demand. During the last 20% off sale, I remember the website was either down or you were placed in a queue. With tens of thousands of VIB and Rouge members trying to access the site all at the same time for very limited rewards, surely the same thing would've happened. What I'm trying to say is I think this was all done deliberately for those reasons.

[agenthal]

I agree. I'm fine with the middle of the night drop. I expected it, and I knew they would go fast. If they had sent out an email the website would have crashed, people still wouldn't have gotten anything, and everyone would still be complaining. The only solution is more perks more often.

[heartsmyface]

Cause they can't afford more servers?    Lol.  I hope it's not something this simple. 

[scairo]

Lol! Yeah, can't afford more servers or more perks what with all the thousands of dollars they've made off each of us Rouge members. 

[alltheshiny]

OMG , seriously?

1) The company didn't anticipate selling out of these special rewards? Even though that's EXACTLY what's happened with every single special perk, promo or reward you guys have ever put out? (Let us all take a moment of silence for the Dior lipstick fiasco.)

2) Almost everyone here is telling you that the rewards program as it stands is asinine and needs a head-to-toe overhaul, and your response is "Hold on guys, we hear you - more of the same down the line! Woo!"

3) Something that stresses people out, causes them to lose sleep, and is available to just a handful of people is not a "reward" and certainly not a perk of being a valued customer. Get a grip. And maybe a dictionary.

*Please note, when I say "you", I mean the Sephora executives, not the mods here, who are the unfortunate first line in dealing with the absurd marketing ploys devised by the out-of-touch higher-ups.

[hackneyfl]

I have 4 messages into 4 different mods and Candace and the response I got from Candace said she a moderator and unable to help me. This isn't the first time this has happened and it won't be the last time as Sephora continues to take advantage of its most loyal customers. Shame on YOU!!!

[Geminichilde]

I'm sorry but I don't understand how Sephora wasn't expecting an "overwhelming response" when that's exactly what happened last year! Especially when the very secretive hush hush way you all marketed the rewards just added to the frenzy. For me it's not just about the extraordinary rewards, the entire point system could use a overhaul. I feel like my points are worthless.

[bea0t]

Here's my two cents to all this fiasco.

http://community.sephora.com/t5/Beauty-Insider/Hey-BT-guess-who-got-the-best-reward-I-did/td-p/19904...

[KateLovesYSL]

How to Diffuse a Public Relations Crisis 101:

1. Use existing platforms/social media and don't hide:

Transparency is key. Tell us the truth. Have someone in management show concern and actually communicate with us instead of hiding behind "BeautyInsiderBT/HOSTESS"

2. Apologize, Take responsibility, Action without delay:

Don't go spinning this fiasco as a success in your only communication to the BT community.To be effective an apology must be sincere and as if the organization fully understands what it did wrong. Sephora doesn't seem to grasp why so many people are offended and feel disrespected. 

Don't dangle more rewards in front of us with an unspecified date. What will you do to right this wrong right now that will benefit all your loyal customers?

3. Don't cover up stuff posted on BT/social media: Threads/Posts are being moved,deleted/editted without notice. When we are already feeling like no one is listening, it's even worse when threads/posts are being deleted.

[dioradict]

Well Said Kate..100% I agree wit u...Just got home to see everything in BT after a long day and its really disturbing to see Sephora's way of handling this issue...

[heartsmyface]

Ha, you mean 'not handling the issue';)

[Anonymous]

For different reasons, I was up in the middle of the night shortly after the rewards launched, happened to look at the Sephora site, and was disappointed but not surprised that all but the Atelier were gone in less than 15 minutes (10 minutes is probably more accurate) with not even time to determine what the reward actually was, put it in the shopping cart and checkout.  (I got a couple in the cart, but they vanished at checkout.)

No email advance notice from Sephora, save for the one about a week ago.  

I hate to say it, but I have become accustomed to Sephora's absurd practices.  I should add I prefer to shop online because local Sephoras are heavily touristed and I have seen unspeakable things happening with testers and have opened unsold product to find it has been used and replaced in its box.  Yuck!  (Not the fault of the SAs, but customers who have no boundaries or concern for others).  

As a comparison with other retailers, I ordered $125-150 worth of skincare and cosmetics from Nordstrom's about two weeks ago.  I received a giant bag--seriously, 10" x 10"--full of samples from Living Proof to Coola to Fresh to Burberry to Mario Badescu and on and on.  There were so many samples (none in packets and quite a few at least 1 ounce!!!) that I gave some to my niece and to my mother!!!

Neiman's often has amazing beauty events, as does Space NK and just about any brand like Lancome or Estee Lauder with very minimal purchases, e.g., $35-75.  Pre-sale guarantees you will receive your product AND your gift.  Listening, Seohora?!?

[pixiedust2]

Nordstrom is amazing. I ordered a MAC Lipliner plus my 3 free samples a couple weeks ago. A few days later, they notified me that the liner was on back order but my samples were on the way!  What!? I was completely surprised and amazed. Sure enough, my samples arrived a few days later. They were really good samples too so I'm so happy I got them. Now THAT is good customer service. When I order from Sephora, half the time I get replacement samples. Junk I'll never use. Sometimes I'll place an order specifically because the samples are so good. But I've learned to stop doing this as they seem to be out of requested samples ALL the time. 

[Tracib1981]

I live in Louisiana. And before i became active on here, i never even thought about nordies for makeup. We have dillards, ulta, SiJCP, and drug stores. Funny that we are the 3rd biggest city in the state, but that is neither here nor there, and i went to sephora for EVERYTHING. Now that i have discovered nordies, that has been my only shopping spot as of late. I bought mom perfume at sephora just due to the 3x's points. That i didn't even get! I had to call in twice to get them!

[GwenA]

If any of these tactics were used with anything other than rewards points, sephora would be blatantly engaging in false advertising and bait and switch. The Sephora marketing department needs to sit down and take a long, hard look at the unethical practices in which they are engaged.

First, members of the sephora community are induced to purchase items with the promise of rewards down the line. They buy things up and horde points. As they buy more, they have less need for the free items but more points to use. Sephora is likely aware of this and promises amazing rewards! But in order to make sure people are spending, they have a 3x points promotion right before they release the rewards. When they finally do release the rewards, they don't notify the customer, they make it essentially impossible to obtain the rewards and then they plead limited quantities, a factor over which they are in entire control. 

In most businesses operations this constitutes straight-up fraud. Stop promising things to the consumer that you know you will not deliver, which you completely control, in order to induce them to spend more money. It's not illegal but it's pretty **bleep** unethical. And I do not accept any of their false apologies or claims that they didn't know. You run a multi-million dollar a year business and you are massively successful. You know exactly what is going on. And if you don't then fire your head of marketing and hire some people from your community.

I am personally done with Sephora and will be taking my business elsewhere.

[sp2001]

Nothing new, I've been trying to bring attention to this false advertising for a while now, as soon as things calm down for me i'm going to look into really pursuing the issues

http://community.sephora.com/t5/Lips/Bite-Beauty-Lip-Kits-False-Advertising/m-p/922527/highlight/tru...

[Anonymous]

I think it's time.

[kas045]

Here is my two cents- I totally understand that you had a limited number of rewards and am not angry about missing out on them.. However what I am irritated about is this...   

1. no email to tell me about event.

2. The time.. 

3. from other canadian posts - they had items in their cart but weren't available to check out with. 

4. When asked about why I am not getting emails. I am told that they send them out in waves.. OK but shouldn't I be in one of the waves.- send out to 1 wave one day then the next wave and so on til u message all VIB Rouge.. 

I get your stupid emails about recommended products.. about 3X and 4X the points, and about review your purchase.  Irritates me that i don't get invited to Rouge "parties" or these rewards.. however i did get the email about awe.. too bad you missed it. 

At least be smart enough not to message me.. you missed out on the rewards that we didn't tell you about in the first place. 

Sincerely, Another Pleased Canadian Sephora Customer.  

[heartsmyface]

Just to take everyone's mind off this terrible experience I made a silly quiz! 

http://community.sephora.com/t5/Off-Topic/Sensory-Quiz-A-MINI-SENSORY-QUIZ-JUST-FOR-KICKS/td-p/19913...