Cosmetic dept. service training reaches management levels - column

Cosmetic dept. service training reaches management levels

There is more of a chainwide commitment this year to training both the people responsible for covering the cosmetics department, and the store managers and district manager they report to, according to interviews with cosmetic buyers, merchandisers, and directors of cosmetics.

Not only are there more cosmetic supervisors, or cosmetic consultants as some chains call them, in the employ of chain drug stores, but cosmeticians, consultants/supervisors, store managers and even district managers seem to be getting much more training, with vendors actively helping retailers achieve this goal.

Buyers and merchandisers tell us that manufacturers today are staging more training schools for cosmeticians and are allocating increased promotional dollars to help subsidize cosmetic service programs or, if retailers prefer, to be used as incentives to reward clerks who perform well during sales drives.

Some manufacturers are even hiring their own part-timers to help retailers create extra excitement at grand openings or other special events. In many cases, these part-timers liven up an event by doing makeovers, handing out free samples, or spritzing on fragrances.

In some cases, manufacturers are even sending out their own trainers to meet with retail cosmetic clerks and supervisors on a "one-to-one" training basis, or they are spending more money to bring the cosmeticians to their own headquarters for training seminars.

Max Factor, for example, recently hosted a four-day intensive training program for the cosmetic supervisors employed by one major regional drug chain.

At their own expense, Factor took the supervisors to San Francisco for what their boss described as "an intensive four-day training program."

This source, who said her goal is to get enough training opportunities incorporated into her program so she can feel confident that at least 95 percent of her stores have someone fully qualified on duty in cosmetics at least 40 hours a week, says the Factor seminar "really motivated our people.

"It's really good," she said, "to see a company like Factor invest time and effort in training."

As far as Drug Store News can discover, Factor is the only manufacturer, so far, to actually fly in supervisors employed by retailers for cosmetic training seminars.

It is much more common for cosmetic, fragrance and toiletry companies, to fly down to the retailer's headquarters, as well as to districts or regions, to help sponsor local vendor training schools, and this is happening more often this year than ever before, buyers say.

In addition to these regular training sessions, some companies like Cosmair and Coty are now sending training specialists to chain drug store headquarters to conduct intensive "one-on-one training sessions with supervisors who, in turn, go back to their stores and pass on the training given to them."

Buyers and merchandisers who have used these programs say they have all "worked well" for them.

Vendors are hiring their own staff of part-timers whose main function is to go into chain stores on special occasions to supplement the work of cosmeticians.

"Revlon has paid for models who come in and work our grand openings, and it's been very exciting for us," said one source who added that she wants to do such events more often because they make her stores "seem more like department stores to shoppers."

But most retailers hope that manufacturers won't end up funding their own service programs at the expense of retailer service programs.

"Some companies take their money and hire their own part time people to do my work," said one merchandiser. "But that's not the best way to use the money. These people do not know my programs. And they can be more of a problem than a resource."

In many cases, chains are asking manufacturers to expand their training sessions to include store managers and district managers as well as cosmeticians. The goal, several retailers said, is to get these key operational people more involved with cosmetics.

For many chains, the attitudes of district managers and store managers toward service is critical. "If they support the idea of having a full-time girl in that department and they give her the training and the hours she needs to take care of cosmetics, the program works," said one buyer for a company in the Top Five. "If they don't support it, then you only have a partial program, and it's much harder to see results."

COPYRIGHT 1990 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group