The Customer is Queen

We are quite excited (steady now) here at Queen as we may soon be dipping our toe into the anti-wrinkle market. We have to date been very wary of adding such a product to our range because so many of the anti-wrinkle or anti-ageing ingredients cause irritation to sensitive skin. In order to remain truly hypo-allergenic, our philosophy is to use only the fewest ingredients possible per product while most anti-ageing or anti-wrinkle creams contain a cocktail of so-called active ingredients.

Still, we recognise that many of our customers do want a product which can smooth the appearance of fine lines and which will give their skin 'a lift' so we have for some time been researching a means of creating such a cream which can do this while adhering to the Queen philosophy. We are currently trialling a new cream which includes a peptide which has a botox-like effect. The peptide itself has been shown to cause no adverse effects on sensitive skin but we are, of course, carrying out our own testing. We look forward to posting our results here soon. We will then need a name. It's difficult to come up with something new as there are endless combinations of the likes of boost, age, defy, smooth, time, delay, lift, tighten, perfect out there already. If anyone can think of anything snappy (someone has suggested Shrinkle Cream but we feel that's a bit too frivolous or Quinkle Cream which is just silly) do let us know.

We've had rather a traumatic week with two customer orders and accompanying cheques getting lost or delayed in the post which resulted in irate 'phone calls. One lady called back the next day to apologise, saying she felt awful for the way she had spoken to us and that she had heard some bad news about a friend and had taken it out on us. How many companies can say that their customers apologise to them? That is entirely representative of how lovely our customers are and of the good relationship we have with them. We do maintain that, however unreasonable their issue or complaint may seem to us, the customer is always right and we will do everything in our power to solve any problems, accepting that the issue is our fault (even when it's the postal services's which it usually is).

When it's your own business, you do take things very personally though and, on the rare occasions we do get complaints about the products or our service, I do slope home feeling rather disconsolate. Why is it that a negative comment always has more of a dampening effect than a positive one does a lifting effect? One negative comment can undo 10 positive ones. Obviously, we are far too fragile here at Queen. Or too sensitive, should I say.

So, who was out and about in the West End this week? Well, when I arrived at John Bell & Croyden, I heard a stage-whispered 'Penelope Keith's over there'. Thinking she might like a sample of Queen Moisturiser I approached stealthily only to find Susan Hampshire browsing the surgical goods section. She was rather diminutive and wearing a man's tweed cap and jacket and glasses.

A lady called Patricia Bailey also came in. She is an author who has recently appeared in the press because she had an unpleasant experience with an expensive non-surgical cosmetic procedure called Isolagen which purported to be a 'do it yourself' facelift. Needless to say, she is now a devoted Queen customer. She gave me her latest book called 'A Dream Premonition in a Life Less Ordinary'. In return, I promised she can be the first to try our anti-ageing cream when it's ready.

Work aside, I am recovering from a bit of a scare when a driver-less car rolled into mine whilst parked in a local car park earlier this week. I had been grovelling around on the back seat trying to find my mobile phone when i was thrown forward. Given it was dark and I hadn't heard anything, I was completely stumped as to what had happened. When I emerged, a bit trembly, I found an estate car had smacked into mine. The driver, who had been doing Tai Chi in a building nearby, appeared (after a fellow motorist shouted through a few windows) saying 'well, it's been fine for an hour' as if I had somehow dislodged his vehicle on purpose. I think he needs a lesson from Queen in accepting responsibility.

Writing this reminds me when, many many years ago, I was awoken in the middle of the night by two police men who thought they had found a bomb under my car which was parked outside in the street. They had taken the registration, made enquiries and found it was registered to Queen Cosmetics which had led them to the conclusion that I was being targeted by anti-animal testing campaigners. I reassured them that Queen is one of the only 'old' (nowadays, of course, it is the norm) cosmetics companies which has never tested on animals, that being one of our differentiators until most firms thankfully ceased this horrible practice. The suitcase was dragged out and found to be...... just an old, empty suitcase.

On that random note, it's time to sign off.

Have a good weekend.