Recently, I shared all about my experience at Ulta and how you’re losing patients without even realizing it. (If you missed it, you can check it out here.)

Still empty-handed from my visit to Ulta, I decided to check out Sephora to see if I would have better luck.

So… I let the Sephora sales lady know I was in the market for a new face powder.

Lo and behold she noticed the same thing as the lady at Ulta… That I had really dry skin… 

Seriously?? Is it every salesperson’s goal to sell me exactly what I don’t want??? Here we go again… (Or so I thought.)

But… Instead of recommending a powder she actually recommended a tinted moisturizer. She took me straight to a couple of tinted moisturizers that she thought would be really good for my skin based on the explicit concerns I had.

Those didn’t seem quite right. So then she recommended an exfoliant to smooth out my dry skin.

You see, the exfoliant would allow the moisturizer to go on my skin like silk. 

Ooohhhhhhhh…. Silky skin??? Now I’m listening…. 👂👂👂 

Mind you, this exfoliant is one of the new trendy clean brands. I mean, who doesn’t love trendy and clean?? My fear of FOMO is getting very real by this point.

So, naturally, I do what any reasonable girl would do… I put the exfoliant in my basket. 

The Sephora Saleslady skincare savant then recommended a couple of tinted and heavy-duty moisturizer samples for me to take home and try. 

2 stores later and still powderless, I walk out with a new (expensive) trendy and clean exfoliant, a few moisturizer samples, and some mascara just for fun.

And… She gave me a 10% discount to come back next week and get the recommended moisturizers. A light tinted one for day to replace the powder I “thought” I wanted and a heavy duty one for nighttime to really deal with that dry skin.

This gal is no joke!! I’m like putty in her hands… Sell me some more stuff please!!!! 🙋

It’s an evil genius plot that I’m helpless against really… 

🤩 Enough time to try out what works best for me.

🤩 I get 10% off at Sephora so no incentive to go to another store.

🤩 Timeline of next week so I’m coming back quickly (not sitting around trying to make a decision)

What’s the difference between the 2 shopping experiences?

Both customer service reps:

✅Had a lot of knowledge

✅Wanted to be helpful

✅Made the same diagnosis

✅Recommended against the product I “thought” I wanted

✅Tried to direct me to a product that was better for me

One experience left me overwhelmed and empty handed.

The other left me empowered and excited to take the next step and do business – and then more business – with them.

What I learned at Sephora about serving patients and referring doctors:

🔸Meet customers where they are.

🔸Give customers just enough information to take the next step (too much leads to overwhelm).

🔸Make a recommendation they can act upon.

🔸Give a specific time limit for follow up action items.

Give your patients and referring doctors the Sephora treatment to keep them coming back for more! (Ha! See what I did there 😜?)