L'Occitane reviews

-Working by yourself. I got used to it after a while, but I find that when we get a wave of foot traffic, sales are lost even when I try and do my best to sell to multiple people at a time. I would love for our store to consistently keep high sales! I also feel safer in the mall having a co-worker with me. -I've been working over 32 hours pretty consistently (L'Occitane's full time is 32 hours)...and yet at 26 years old, I'm still considered a part time employee with no benefits. ?? -I'm not sure about our current store manager. She's a great sales person, but as a manager it remains to be seen. -In continuing with the working by yourself issue...it's unfair to market "free mini-facials" around to customers without appointment when you have just one employee on the floor. You could be very slow, but the minute someone else walks through the door you basically have to stop doing the facial and sell to other customers as well. Facials require your undivided attention for the service to be most effective for sales. I shy away from throwing around the idea of facials unless I know we're dead slow, or there are at least two of us on the floor. -Basically they really should have two people on the clock most, if not all the time. -The company has recently been pushing "lease-lining", that is, standing at the entrance and handing out samples during periods of low traffic. Sometimes this works, and gets people into the store, and sometimes it doesn't. The problem I see, is that you look like an annoying kiosk person. I get a lot of people turning down samples (they're free...who wouldn't want a FREE sample?!) but it's because they don't want to be harassed. That's not our aim, but it is what people have been conditioned to expect when they see that sort of thing. So sometimes I think lease lining has the opposite of the intended affect. I guess they figure you lose some, you win some. -I keep seeing the software issue brought up on here. It's true, the computers are slow and not only that, the computers have quite a few issues. If there is one thing I'd tell corporate to get right on...it's software. Not only does it make processing sales slower at times, which is annoying for the customer, but if you're the only one in the store (which is quite often) then it's inevitable that sales will be lost. As a L'Occitane employee, you are trained to multi-task and sell to multiple people at a time. BUT, there's only so much you can do when there is a computer issue. It takes your undivided attention to process a sale in a timely manner so that you have a customer who isn't frustrated.

Lots of politics at the corporate level. There is a real sense of disconnect between many corporate employees and the business that happens in stores. I would like to rate overall employment at a higher score than 2 stars, but the reality is that many managers who work at the corporate level, especially senior management, manage their employees based on feelings or on a single interaction with employees (if you have one bad day and it happens while a senior corporate employee is around, you'll be looking for a job in short order). Feedback is rarely given in a direct fashion, it is often given second hand. A boss or supervisor will say, "so and so told me this was their experience with you." Unfortunately employees are not allowed to receive that feedback directly, it's always given through a filter - which excludes many facts or truths. Lacks lots of room for advancement. Advancement opportunities are improving as the company grows, but growth with the company is slow.