One thing being a busy mum has not left me with, is much time to pamper myself or make myself look lovely. I know plenty of people manage it, but given a choice between make up, clothes and bling or 5 more minutes in bed on Animal Crossing, I’m all about the duvet and virtual gardening. I do like jewellery, in fact I have a love of things to wear which ‘mean’ something and that tends to mean wearing the same necklace an awful lot of the time. I rarely have the right thing for a ‘do’ and then, being muted at best when it comes to such things, I never have the right thing to hand anyway. So the offer from Beaverbrooks to spend a £100 voucher in my local store seemed like a great opportunity; I had a wedding coming up (the wedding-of-the-century-kate-and-william-who?… namely my brother 😉 ) and I really fancied some earrings for a change; my ears have been hosting empty spaces since Fran arrived.
I popped into the store on one of the last Xmas shopping nights before Christmas, in a space of time I had while two of the girls sung at the cathedral. Having had a look at their website before hand, I had been slightly awed by the choice and impressed that it had a price sorter that went up to £25,000! (I’d lose something that price, it wouldn’t matter what it was, I just know I would lose it….) Arriving at the store, I browsed the window, which was suitable twinkly and pottered about at the front for a while. All the staff were engaged with customers and I earwigged slightly to see how they were being treated – very well, as it turned out. Seats, bottled water, earnest attention to helping – and not just for people spending lots of money but for everyone. Having my own shop, I have a keen ear for attentive customer service and I really like to see people being treated in a friendly, respectful and honest way. I definitely got that impression.
I was offered help as soon as someone was available and decided to ask for some help with a ring first, just to see how Maryam did in helping me. My brief was quite specific, in that I wanted an eternity ring with 7 stones for no more than £100 and she did all she could to help me. I always think that showing off expensive and locked away in cabinets goods must be tedious and worrying but she did it well and with no irritation at my indecision; all this came after I had been seated and offered tea, coffee or water. Changing tack, I looked at necklace and earring sets and here again I got several to choose from and she listened to my needs thoughtfully and did very well at finding suitable options. I loved the rapport between M and the shop manager; it was clearly a professional but friendly working environment and they were chatty and friendly and made it all feel fun and pleasant. I finally settled on this.
My photos are terrible – you can see them better on the page for the earrings.
That chosen, M helped me to find another gift to use up my rather splendid voucher – I do recommend these, they come in a rather fab gift box that opens very magnificently! I settled on a gift for one of the girls later in the year and they helped me use up the last few £££’s with some cleaning kits. All very efficient 😉 Throughout we chatted like friends – it was all very lovely and rather a jolly pamper. I hope I cheered them up at the end when I said I was a reviewer and they had definitely passed!
One thing I loved about them both was how passionately they spoke about their business; I asked them about Beaverbrooks being one of the top 100 companies to work for and they immediately talked of a family feel to management, a sense of being part of a wider team and a love of the company in general. M told me she had worked for them for 3 times as long as any other company she had been employed by – seems pretty good to me. I know I work hard to try and make my staff feel valued and cared about and hate it if team spirit flags; it’s always good to see another company doing that well.
If I was any sort of a decent blogger, I’d have an artful wedding photo of my sparklies – however, I’m rubbish, so you’ll just have to have this of me being happy to be wearing earrings for the first time in 15 years – silver earrings which also kept my ears healthy, which is quite a first! So thank you, Beaverbrooks of Peterborough – loved you 🙂
Disclosure: we received a voucher for this review – opinions are my own 🙂
Sounds like you enjoyed being a mystery shopper.
I have one set of expensive stuff but only get to wear maybe annually. Can’t wear rings at work and invariably forget to put back on at the weekend.
My problem is having to re-pierce my ears each time. Perhaps this is the year to invest in some plain studs? Wouldn’t dare wear the good stuff daily – definitely would lose it.
Jewellery looks lovely. Hope you get to go to some great places to give it an airing.
What a lovely pamper idea. I love Beaverbrooks, my nearest store has great staff who have always been very helpful.