COSA 101

Feature Story

by Heather Marrin

Our 2009 COSA winners.

COSA 101:

How to fill out an award-winning nomination.

Do you know a beauty expert whose customer

service is so exceptional, he or she deserves to be celebrated at a gala dinner in Toronto before 550 industry professionals?

Do you know someone who truly deserves to receive $1,000 cash, a trip to Toronto, $1,000 worth of beauty products, and a beautiful crystal award? If so, you need to fill out a COSA nomination (on the page following this story) and send it to Cosmetics magazine.

But you need to put some thought into your nomination form to give your nominee the very best chance of being selected a finalist. Last year, we received a record-breaking 48

There’s $19,000 cash, trips for two to Toronto, professional photo shoots and $16,000 worth of beauty products to be awarded at the 2010 Cosmetics Outstanding Service Awards. Here’s how to impress our judges with a stellar nomination form!

928 nominations for our 8th Annual COSA Awards ceremony, held in November. Of those, approximately 300 entries consisted of one or two lines. We couldn’t possibly learn why these nominees are special from such little information. Unfortunately, they were disqualified. But don’t dismay, we’ve surveyed all our COSA judges and spoken to past winners on their advice for creating award-winning nomination forms. Here’s how to get our judges’ attention. Learn about our process and take a few tips and perhaps this year the person you nominate will have a seat at our winners’ table at the 9th annual COSA awards!

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JANUARY 2010 COSMETICS

THE COSA JUDGING PROCESS: A TIMELINE • J an to June: nominations are accepted.

• J uly 1st: The entries are read, some are disqualified, and the rest compiled in three large binders for the judges.

• J uly 10th: Each COSA judge receives the COSA entries and reads every single one making notes. The judges select their top 5 choices in each category.

• J uly 6th: First judge’s meeting. The judges meet and pick five finalists in each category. This is kept top secret.

•A ugust 1: Each finalist is mystery shopped three times without knowing it. They are marked on the same questionnaire across the country in English and French.

The evaluations are sent to Cosmetics magazine.

•A ugust 25: The finalist scores and evaluations are sent to each judge. They then make their top two picks.

•S eptember 1: COSA finalists are announced in Cosmetics Magazine.

•S eptember 4: Second judge’s meeting. The judges meet to discuss the mystery shopping results and choose the winners.

•S eptember 10: Jim Hicks personally calls each winner to tell them they have won. He tells them they and a guest will be flown to Toronto, stay at a lovely hotel and attend the COSA gala awards dinner. He also tells them they have won $1,000 cash and $1,000 worth of beauty products.

•N ovember 11th: The winners fly to Toronto.

•N ovember 12th: The winners attend the COSA Awards dinner attended by 550 people.

•N ovember 13th: Each winner attends a Cosmetics magazine photo shoot.

• J anuary: The COSA winners are featured in Cosmetics magazine.

JANUARY 2010 COSMETICS

Hint 1: If you think your nominee is the best, tell us why. Write beyond the space provided on the nomination form.

As part of our administrative team at Cosmetics Magazine, I personally receive all of the required forms you send nominating your beauty advisor/trainer/sales representative. As I sift through the paper that piles up around the walls of my cubicle, I can tell you a few things about the ones that catch my attention, and those that don’t make the first cut.

The application needs to stand out from the crowd in the same way the advisor you are recommending does: Simply telling our judges that they are always on time, or compassionate towards their customers in three lines or less does not give them insight into how outstanding they are in the service industry. Personal stories and examples that provide clear and detailed pictures about the beauty advisor, and their interaction with their customers prevent them from being overlooked. Feel free to add pages of specific examples to your entry. There’s no limit on the number of pages you can submit. (Hint: Past winners have often had lengthy nomination entries.)

Hint 2: Provide unique examples After eight years of award winners, the customer service bar has been raised – by you. And that is wonderful. While personally delivering product to a senior might have made a nominee a finalist in the first year, it’s common now. Our judges want to hear really unique examples. Tell us about how your nominee offered a school class career advice or helped apply makeup for a wedding party at the last minute. Tell our judges an interesting story that will get their attention.

Hint 3: Don’t get repetitive! You could be nomination 289, so make sure the judges read on!

From the hundreds of nominations we receive, all qualifying entries are selected and sent to our seven COSA judges.

Once the judges receive the first binder, they are given one month to read through the nominations and select their top five in each category. Then, armed with these top five, their “favourites,” the judges then meet in person. Becoming a favourite is a little harder than separating yourself from the piles and being stuck to the walls of my cubicle.

According to Mickey Tortorelli, one of our seven COSA judges, “winning nominations should describe in detail the behaviours of the nominee, and how they ‘go beyond the call of duty’. Nominations should also be concise and to the point, while providing enough detail. Writing legibly also helps a lot!”

Continued on page 50

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Feature Story

by Heather Marrin

Exerpts from winning COSA entries:

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JANUARY 2010 COSMETICS

COSA 101: continued from page 49

Hint 4: You never know who may come to your counter! Pick someone who consistently impresses you!

So now we have our finalists, but at this time, they are not aware that they’ve been selected. Next, we enlist the help of a mystery shopping company in Vancouver that is not affiliated with the industry, providing them with the names and store addresses of each finalist. The advisor is then visited three times by secret shoppers from across the country. The secret shopper compiles detailed answers to a series of questions we have outlined and provides us with a score. They send us the completed forms and voilà, we have another binder.

Within the demonstrator/trainer/sales representative category, each finalist is notified and asked to have 20 colleagues fill out detailed questionnaires about the nominee.

For this questionnaire, both quantity and quality count.

Hint 5: Does the secret shop reflect the nomination? They are given a few chances – the judges don’t believe in three “off” days.

So the mystery shop results are in, bound, and in the hands of the judges, along with the finalists’ nomination forms.

Within two weeks the judges must review all of the information, weighing up the mystery shop results and the nomination forms equally. After careful review of both, the judges meet again, and this time with their top two finalists.

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COSA JUDGING: A TOTALLY FAIR PROCESS The COSA judges take the process very seriously and read every single nomination. Many of the judges are not in the beauty industry but work in customer service in other industries. The addition of mystery shoppers makes the judging process completely unbiased. Everyone is asked the same questions and scored on the same scale. Our winners are truly provide the best customer service in the country

All of our judges agree that it is surprising how many times a great nomination form is accompanied by poor mysteryshopping results. It’s best to really believe in the person you are nominating!

And the COSA Award goes to...

17 COSA Awards are presented the night of the ceremony, but that’s not all. The winner receives: a flight to and from Toronto for themself and a guest, up to four night’s accommodation at the Harbour Westin Hotel, a cheque for $1000 for individual awards (or $2000 for a team award), and a bag full of beauty products from all of our sponsors valued at over $1000.

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