A Message to our Clients about Epic Rewards

[sephoraadmin2]

Sephora is committed to offering our valued Beauty Insiders exceptional rewards to thank them for their loyalty and for being part of our community.  Yesterday we held an Epic Rewards promotion, and while we have held similar promotions in the past, yesterday’s promotion was the largest number of Epic Rewards we have made available to date.

Despite our best efforts to predict the response, demand was overwhelming, resulting in our being out of stock very quickly. We deeply regret this and apologize to our Beauty Insider clients who did not get a chance to participate.  

At Sephora our first and foremost priority is to give our clients an exciting and fulfilling shopping experience.  Those Beauty Insiders who were unable to get one of our limited quantity Epic Rewards, please email us by Tuesday, August 25, 2015, to epicrewards@sephora.com and include your Beauty Insider account number or email address associated with your account. 

Beyond that, please know that we are committed to learning from this experience. Thank you for your ongoing support. We greatly appreciate you.

Sephora is committed to offering our valued Beauty Insiders exceptional rewards to thank them for their loyalty and for being part of our community.  Yesterday we held an Epic Rewards promotion, and while we have held similar promotions in the past, yesterday’s promotion was the largest number of Epic Rewards we have made available to date.

Despite our best efforts to predict the response, demand was overwhelming, resulting in our being out of stock very quickly. We deeply regret this and apologize to our Beauty Insider clients who did not get a chance to participate.  

At Sephora our first and foremost priority is to give our clients an exciting and fulfilling shopping experience.  Those Beauty Insiders who were unable to get one of our limited quantity Epic Rewards, please email us by Tuesday, August 25, 2015, to epicrewards@sephora.com and include your Beauty Insider account number or email address associated with your account. 

Beyond that, please know that we are committed to learning from this experience. Thank you for your ongoing support. We greatly appreciate you.

**********************

Updated August 17

Thank you to everyone who has been reaching out to us about Epic Rewards. We value your feedback and recognize your ongoing loyalty to us, and we are working to get back to you quickly.

To that end, please know that if you have contacted us you will hear back from us in direct response to your inquiry during the period between Tuesday, August 25th through Tuesday, September 1st. The timing of the response to you will depend on when we received your initial contact regarding Epic Rewards.

If you haven’t contacted us yet, please email us at epicrewards@sephora.com. We’ve set up this dedicated mailbox to collect the right information quickly and accurately, separating you from the queue for general Sephora inquiries. When you email us at this address, it will generate an automated response that confirms we’ve received the message. You can then expect to hear back from us as quickly as possible with more information.

Please know that our team is listening, and we take your concerns to heart. We value your support, and we will be in touch soon.

With our sincerest thanks,

The Beauty Insider Team

*************************************

Updated September 1

Thank you to everyone who reached out to us about Epic Rewards. We have reached out to all of those members who emailed us on or before August 25th, and are no longer accepting new submissions. epicrewards@sephora.com has been closed. Please contact us at 1-877-SEPHORA (1-877-737-4672) regarding any other questions or concerns. We have reviewed your feedback and are taking it into consideration as we plan for future promotions. Our loyal Beauty Insiders are enormously important to us.

[tiri]

Ugh, you are perfect. ❤️ 

[surfgirlmiami]

In addition to the suggestions other people have made, I'd like to suggest a different HR strategy. This is coming from someone almost done with her degree in HR, who recently interned at a company with stock prices at their record high (50some dollars).

I'm not sure what's being done from a training and development standpoint with your store employees, but it needs work. More than any other company, I've seen inconsistencies in customer service across stores at Sephora. For the most part, though, it seems that people have mostly negative things to say about in-store experiences. I live 3 miles from a Sephora and prefer to shop online.

I know I'm a little scattered but I want to make one last point. I worked for LUSH Cosmetics for 2 years. They don't have a rewards program, but people return because their human capital (aka employees) are unparalleled. I've seen firsthand how they invest in their human capital, and it works. It really, really does. That company knows what they're doing.

The end.

[eelibby]

Agreed. It's the same way with Publix Supermarkets. The prices are higher than Wal-mart and Winn-Dixie, but the customer service is unbeatable. They treat their clientele like kings and queens--that's the key to a consumers heart.

[surfgirlmiami]

That's true, I love Publix!

[Pishimonmishi]

Guys, I got an email from Sephora stating that the last date to send them an email is now the 18th of August and not the 25 as written above. Who knows, maybe now they will retroactively say that it was the 11th? They are not organized (obviously), but to the extent that they seem to consistently screw up is just laughable at this point. Here is the email I received: 

Dear Valued Sephora Client, 

Thank you for contacting Sephora.com. 

We apologize for the delay in responding to your inquiry. If you are contacting us regarding our Epic Rewards promotion, demand was overwhelming. We deeply regret this and apologize if you did not get a chance to participate.  

At Sephora our first and foremost priority is to give our clients an exciting and fulfilling shopping experience. If you were unable to get one of our limited quantity Epic Rewards, please email us by Tuesday, August 18, 2015, at epicrewards@sephora.com and include your Beauty Insider card number and/or registered email address. 

If you are contacting us regarding a different inquiry, please contact us toll-free at 1-877-SEPHORA (1-877-737-4672) between the hours of 6am-9pmMonday to Friday and 8am-5pm Saturday and Sunday, PST. If you’re unable to call in, please reply to this e-mail and we will do our best to address the issue in a timely manner. 

Please know that we are committed to learning from this experience. We understand that this may be frustrating and we appreciate your patience. 

Regards, 

Sephora Client Services 

[LaurenMa18]

Epic Rewards was handled completely and utterly unprofessional and its beyond disappointing. The fact that such a big company can't get things like this right, and STOLE money from their best customers the week before to make us thing we were spending money for some fantastic reward we were about to get is complete crap.

[prettyangry]

How exactly do you evaluate if someone is one of the "best customers"? Are the "best customers" people who spend the most money at Sephora? Then you are not one of them. Are they the ones who have been shopping there the longest? They are used to Sephora's empty promises. 

Maybe you should take some responsibility for the money you spent the week before. Sephora didn't make anybody think that they were spending money for "some fantastic reward we were about to get". You arrived at that conclusion yourself. The money you spent was for the items you bought, not to guarantee yourself a reward. That was supposed to be obvious when they stated that the quantities are limited. 

[BrideSona]

Your reaction is beyond ridiculous. Sephora did not STEAL anything from you. No agent of theirs held up a gun to you and demanded your money. No one forced you to make purchases. No one dragged you to their store and demanded that you buy products. Were you threatened? Was there the threat of bodily harm if you did not buy make up? Furthermore, nowhere in their email did they PROMISE you a guaranteed "reward" for your points. It clearly state that the "rewards" were EXTREMELY LIMITED and could be redeemed. There are tens of thousands of people going for rewards that maybe numbered in the low hundreds (total). Please be realistic.

[Aurora071]

Interesting service recovery strategy.

Sephora is sending unhappy people to this link, (so they can find the email address buried in the third paragraph) and then see a slew of comments by OTHER unhappy customers. 

Why not just respond with the email address individually? Or, if you must send everyone to a catch-all page, why not create a separate, stand-alone page without comments?

Seems to just add fuel to the fire.  

[veronika23]

I kinda find it funny (but not) that your CEO can't even get his info straight.  Shows the lack of proper communication in the company.  It's rewards NOT awards.

[hydee77]

An award?  Hmm

[notcreative]

Thanks for posting this. Tweeted Calvin to see if he wants to do lunch. Looks like he is in my hood. If he takes me up on my offer (I will likely be ignored), I will talk to him about converting the program into one that mirrors Ulta's.

[notcreative]

You're coming to Vegas?

[chocopudding]

LOL I love that you did this!

[greenchilli]

NC, if you do talk to him....would you ask him what happened about my job offer?

[notcreative]

Will do. He's going to respond! 

[veronika23]

Please mention your friends to the north 😉 I'm available to chat about that! 😛

[greenchilli]

They said they would make me a forehead and earlobe model.

They lied! 

[notcreative]

Haha. Your forehead and earlobes are beautiful, but I was going to suggest you as The (yes, I used the definite article) lipstick model.

[greenchilli]

Thank you NC.  I want to be paid in lipsticks and cashews.  Not the spoilt kind either....they don't taste that good.

[notcreative]

I thought you owned ALL the lipsticks. Maybe, they can pay you in points. Wait!!?! Bad idea!