Since mid-2013, the popular and stylistic discounter has expanded its test of the "Target Beauty Concierge" within the Beauty sections.
Next time you hustle through Target, you might notice some helpful additions to the Beauty & Baby areas: advisors.
Since mid-2013, the popular and stylistic discounter has expanded its test of the "Target Beauty Concierge" within the Beauty sections. These are highly trained, beauty knowledgable staff available to answer guests’ questions in-store. About 200 more are planned by the end of the year. Following this concept Target also launched a test of "Target Baby Advisors" in 10 Illinois stores. The Lempert Report feels the chain has cleverly picked two of the more emotional categories to test the effect of personal attention on sales.
For both beauty and baby care, education is helpful…but only if it's credible. And this is where we think Target may need to take pause. Wrong or misunderstood advice on beauty products can be frustrating, but wrong or misunderstood advice on baby care can be dangerous.
It seems as if baby care advice is dispensed via iPads, which show expanded product assortments with user reviews, plus content at Johnson & Johnson’s online BabyCenter resource. Here’s our concern: Even though Target may have trained its Baby Advisors not to go off-script from what’s on-screen, it is simply human nature to talk. It seems unrealistic for the chain to expect advisors to not converse or relate when babies are the topic.
Now, to be clear, we applaud Target and their efforts to provide elevated service for the customer, however we are simply pointing out a potential liability risk for retailers, and a potential health risk for babies, if communications go astray.
In any retail setting, we see the risk for advice to be lost in translation. So while we see the benefits of the services offered, we think retailers should be aware of the risks and try to address them.