Secret Shop CSE scores aka foolishness - Product Consultant Sephora Employee Review

3.0
Mar 6, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Nice coworkers (Depending on location of course) - In most if not all Illinois locations the pay starts out at least $2.00 more than minimum wage. - One can receive paid time off( even though it takes about a year). - Discounts on products, gratis(free beauty products each month), and free samples. - An opportunity to be educated on various brands, learn techniques for makeup and skincare.

Cons

-SECRET SHOPS!!!!!!! CSE customer service evaluations at least 4 per month at the Sephora Inside JCPenney location I work at, I believe locations outside of JCPenney receive surveys instead. The CSE scores are taken way too seriously, even though they are just suppose to be learning/training tools. They store wants you to remember and perfom at least 20 different things for the customer as well as show them around the whole store. This means every customer that comes in, we have to constantly bug and check up on, and this actually annoys many customers, it doesn't help them. If a consultant receives a CSE score of less than 86 out of 101 or 85% they have to be put through embarassment by having it showed around to each coworker with comments written on it by the management as well as have their job is threatened by a stupid questionarre filled out by a stranger that is not trained to be a professional secret shopper.A completely unfair/unneccesary evaluation. - The management does not like giving time off if it is inconvenient for them or clashes with time that they want off. - Sephora Inside JCPenney locations don't redeem the birthday emails, or give out Sephora brand gift cards, only JCPenney location gift cards, and the store carries far less brands than an outside location. This pisses some customers off.

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5.0
Jun 2, 2026
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Pros

Support, Benefits, Growth, Community, & Skillfulness

Cons

Pay, Customers, Hours, Uniforms, & Management at times

3.0
Jun 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

fun getting gratis and hosting in-store events, meeting brand ambassadors/managers, socializing with clients

Cons

manager created a weird environment -- coaching moments were sometimes extremely aggressive for a retail environment; strict on not applying makeup to clients unless they purchase a service. once made me move from a disabled client quickly because I was "spending too much time with them" and to further boost the store sales. felt extremely unethical.

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