What Would Mary Kay Do?
Written by Parsons Green
Dee Ann Horst has a dilemma. She was approached by a customer in a Ross check out line and gave her a look book. Unfortunately, she’s been a headache ever since. The customer is using the Microdermabrasion set every day instead of twice a week. She’d like to use retinol daily. She argues with Dee Ann that she’s sending her the wrong products. She’d like a new foundation but doesn’t want to be matched in person or by the foundation tool. Dee Ann does not want to pass her off to another consultant but she is at the end of her rope. She reaches out for help in Let’s Talk Pink on Facebook.
When Patty Goepfert thinks the customer needs an in person facial. Dee Ann shares that in addition to Mary Kay that the customer also uses Clinique!
Shelley Jones thinks she should block the customer. Move ON! Ellen Becker recommends giving her one more chance. Give her detailed instructions on how to use the products. Ask the customer to check in daily. If the customer doesn’t want to follow the recommendation then it’s okay to move on.
Betty Osborne agrees that she should get one more chance, with an in person appointment. Getting to know the customer better in person could lead to a new best friend! If that doesn’t work out, find her another consultant.
Cynthia Lyles asks how the customer is paying. (That doesn’t come across as judgy, does it?) She could be difficult on purpose to get product for free! Dee Ann shares that she pays in cash and only orders when she has money.
Kelly Elizabeth says that Dee Ann should sell the customer whatever she wants. She can go online and do that anyway.
Robbie Berry says to release the customer. He’s had too many team members that have behaved the same way. It’s too much time and energy. Lorena O’Brien wishes this customer was close to her. She’d love to take on this new client. You never know what someone is going through.
Cathy Crook thinks that this customer might have once been on her team! She finally had to ghost her.
Jewell Mull then asks “What would Mary Kay do in this situation”. Sadly she got no specific responses to her question.
What do you think Mary Kay would ask Dee Ann to do?
Visit the
I’m sure Her Royal Pinkness would have something pointed to say about how Dee Ann needs every paying customer she can get, given how poorly overall her business is going. She hasn’t recruited anyone or done anything else to line MK’s pockets lately.
I’m with the “ditch her” brigade. She can buy stuff off My Shop if she’s hell bent on using the stuff.
This customer needs a Dermatologist. Start there before recommending anything.
Another day, another reason I don’t miss my Mary Kay “business.” When you’re desperate (as you must be if you’re stalking disabled people wandering around discount department stores), you’ll accept any treatment from any crazy person who might buy something. It rarely occurs to you that you can simply walk away. It’s too “mean.”
Right, a real business has the right to fire customers because they don’t need the aggravation, and their other customers will appreciate the business getting rid of the problem customer.
When you have so few customers that you’re trying to figure out how far backward to bend to accomodate them because you can’t risk losing one… maybe it’s time to do some heavy thinking.
“We are the professionals with knowledge and training…….”
No you are not. You are participants in a pyramid scheme regugitating whatever claims are listed on your marketing materials.
Mixing brands is not “chemical warfare” on your skin. Why?? Because most brands use the same ingredients in their products. (I mix Clinique with Rhonda Allison and The Ordinary.)
IF this person’s skin is as bad as it sounds, she needs medical advice and not suggestions from MK huns in a pyramid scheme who don’t understand how the skin works and how to treat it.
(Who remembers the body scrub/polish thing in the blue and white tube? Before the microderm set came out, I had a client who used the body scrub on her FACE. She loved it. She bought the crap out of that microderm set — like one every six weeks.)
Me too. I can mix Garnier and Inkey List together without a problem. The only problem would be with incompatible actives, but manufacturers, sellers et al warns against incompatibilities (don’t use BHA serum with niciamide serum for instance) on their sites and in the packaging so even non-skincare trained customers get adequate warnings. As an ex cosmetic seller I am clued up on ingredients and what my skin needs. MK doesn’t give that training – product knowledge is limited to a 2 page PDF buried on InTouch rather than multi-hour training sessions from Dior, Clinique, et al reps that go deep into skin biochemistry, ingredients, etc as well as colour theory for colour cosmetics (anyone remember the MK cotton candy eyeshadow of Barbie pink and baby blue? Some colours just don’t go together y’know! Unless you’re a high schooler in the 1980s, but even they’d run away from cotton candy).
Shade matching wasn’t a case of “take a selfie, run it through a bad AI and end up looking like a ghost and/or a minion in renal failure” a la MK’s new foundations. Undertones, skin type and skin texture are actually a thing y’all. MK seems to only have liquid foundation so if you want a lightweight powder for summer or a no-makeup-makeup look you’re SOL. The luminous finish foundation is too luminous, it looks like an oil slick due to the high silicone content. It’s supposed to be a dewy glow, not a monsoon over Deepwater Horizon.
Frankly I wouldn’t recommend abrasive microderm, use an acid serum (BHA absorbs better than AHA and is ideal for oily skin as it penetrates rather than sits there) as it does much less mechanical damage. Scrubs can cause microtears, increase inflammation as well as introduce microplastics into the water and food chain. Doing a face scrub daily is just a recipe for disaster, that skin will be sandblasted raw. Add to that retinol and that’s one VERY angry tomato. My face hurts just thinking about it.
The whole hoo-haa about “chemical warfare” is to scare customers into solely using MK so more money is made. In truth most people use various brands and rarely stick to one brand. My customers always bought a wide variety – Dior eyeshadow, Clinique lipstick, Lancome foundation, an Urban Decay here, an ABH there.
If MK is that volatile it should be reformulated and pulled from sales until it’s safe. The actual problem is that MK use harsh ingredients, hence the multitude of people reacting badly to it. Timewise in particular is known for it’s skin irritancy, hence the posts in Directors groups about customers with red and swollen faces.
The customer is always wrong and it’s never the MK product to blame with it’s harsh overdriven formulations. There was one poor woman on r/AntiMLM who had her face wrecked by Timewise and it’s unlikely to ever repair fully despite the dermo visits and the endless money thrown at it. Acid mantle gone, barrier destroyed, endless outbreaks of whiteheads that she never had before in her life that won’t go away.
Add untrained IBCs with little to no product and biological knowledge and harsh ingredients and you have a recipe for disaster.
What a headache. Microderm daily is a recipe for disaster. When you have limited customers it’s hard to fire one that’s causing aggravation as they may make up a large proportion of your income. I’d ditch her sooner rather than later in case she sues the consultant for frying her face (despite it actually not being IBC’s fault that she’s microderming daily and ODing on retinol – ouch!) despite not heeding warnings and instructions. It often happens sadly.
The woman who said,”Tell her you are training on some new skin care techniques” has definitely succumbed to the pink fog. IBCs are not skincare technicians or estheticians. That’s a money grab. The corporate world is far from perfect. I know, however, that within reason, my direct supervisor would step in if I needed her and/or would tell me to stop investing in this customer.
MK’s product training is a 2 page PDF on InTouch with a superficial listing of ingredients with the focus being on what the product does rather than what it contains. It doesn’t warn about incompatibilities between different ingredients, just “it contains retinol x% of our sample noticed a reduction in fine lines and wrinkles after 6 weeks.” There’s a 10pt warning about not using with microderm buried in there on the retinol PDF, easy to miss in the wall of text. Skin biochemistry isn’t touched on. Acid mantle, wut’s that?
Real cosmetic sellers get in depth regular multi-hour training from product reps that goes into a LOT of detail.
Most cosmetic companies have moved away from abrasive scrubs as they cause more harm than good, causing microtears and increased irritation as well as releasing microplastics into the food and water chain. Acid serum peels are where it’s at now so you exfoliate without tearing your face off.
And Vitamin C is getting old hat, Inkey List have just released a more potent alternative using Brytenyl(TM) that they developed instead of Vitamin C for undereye brightening which is more stable, has a longer shelf life and doesn’t disintegrate under air and light. As I look like a sleep-deprived racoon I’m going to give that a try.
Reading MK’s latest and greatest products they seem old hat and not that revolutionary. The 1:1:3 barrier restore a lot of brands have been doing that for a while. I don’t doubt you can get something cheaper and of the same quality at Target. They finally came out with PHA & AHA serum, which has been on the market for a long, long time. 36 foundation shades, Fenty have had 41 since they opened, Haus Labs by Gaga 51. Late to that game too, but the cynic in me thinks it’s less about diversity and inclusion but rather a money grab as a lot of the shades look redundant and a demo set (MK don’t do samples now) sets you back $1008 for all 72 (36 matte, 36 luminous). Read into that what you will.