That day, I dropped Caetano — now almost one — at daycare so I could, for the first time in what felt like forever (a time that sometimes seems endless and, at others, too brief), simply be me for a few hours. Without guilt. Only care.

Normally, I’d leave the house with plenty of time to soak up the warmth of the sun on my skin as I walked down Burrard St., silently amused at the thought of everyone stuck in traffic while I strolled toward my favorite spa (at least for now). I’d walk down the hill admiring the mountains — still dusted with snow at the peaks this time of year — still in awe of this city even after six years of calling it home. I’d sip a coffee from Giovanni, perfectly brewed and silky, before heading up to the fifth floor, arriving with my now-Canadian punctuality: 15 minutes early.

But not this time.

Caetano needed to be dropped off later than planned — because, among many other lessons, motherhood has taught me that making plans is a cosmic inside joke. I hit traffic on the Lions Gate Bridge both ways (as expected), which irritates me just as much as it mesmerizes with that breathtaking view. I texted my husband to wait at the door so we could swap: he’d hop in the car, and I’d head off to the hotel.

No morning walk under the sun. No silent smugness. No poetic mountain views. No coffee. But I got there. Took the elevator up to the fifth floor and, as quickly as I rushed to the spa reception, I was gently slowed down by the receptionist. She sensed my frantic energy, softened her tone and pace, called me by my first name like she didn’t need to look it up, and handed me a cup of tea that tasted like it had been brewed by someone who understood my emotional state.

The spa at the Fairmont Pacific Rim is always calm, but never dull. Every detail is designed to engage your senses: towels and robes that caress your skin, scents that balance citrus, herbal, and woody notes in perfect harmony, playlists tailored to your intention (relaxation or renewal), elegant little bites, and a structure that goes far beyond a massage — think saunas, sensory showers, and magnesium-rich jacuzzis with mountain views.

Whether you’re a spa veteran or a blissful first-timer, the staff at Willowstream are always gentle and informative. They walk you through what to expect, how to get the most out of your visit, and make everyone feel welcome — not just in the space, but in that whole world.

In the women’s locker room, you get a designated locker with a robe and slippers (and yes, they have sizes for those of us whose feet stopped growing at age twelve). The facilities are so complete — with showers, fully stocked hygiene stations, and a vanity area with Dyson tools, brushes, flat irons, and curling wands — that all you really need to bring is your swimsuit to enjoy the common spa areas.

After changing, I walked to the waiting area and met my therapist, Taylor. She called me by name, looked me in the eyes, and asked how I was — like she truly wanted to know, no matter how short or, more likely in my case, long-winded the answer might be. She led me to a spacious treatment room softly lit by indirect light, offered me a choice of scents and playlists, explained how to settle in, and gave me a few moments alone.

And in that brief silence, taking in every intentional detail of the room, I closed my eyes and, for the first time in months, felt genuinely seen and cared for.

The massage followed the same rhythm of care. Every touch felt deliberate, like part of a silent ballet of movements and pressure — guiding each exhale back to its natural, unhurried pace.

Being immersed in so much attentiveness — both in grand gestures and subtle details — did more than relax me. It reawakened me. And there, lying on one of the outdoor loungers, letting the sun warm my legs still tired from months of cold, flipping through a few local magazines, I realized how much inspiration was still alive inside me.

As much as my head was telling me to stay and enjoy every second of this rare solo day, my heart wanted something else: to put it all into words.

So as a small tribute to that spark, I dedicate this first review to a place that, from my first to my fourth visit, has given me everything — and more.

Because sometimes the greatest healing isn’t rest.
It’s the spark that reignites.

It was six years ago. I wasn’t in Manhattan — I was deep in the heart of Minas Gerais, Brazil, heading to a music festival at Inhotim. My budget? Let’s just say it was more back-alley vintage shop than Bergdorf’s. So I booked the only place I could afford: a tiny wooden house on Airbnb, tucked an hour away down a dirt road, somewhere between the mountains and nowhere.

The house was… modest. One bed, a miniature bathroom, and cold — the kind of cold that curls up next to you at night because there’s no heater to keep it away.

But on the first morning, something happened.

I opened the door and there it was: a small thermos of hot coffee, a paper bag with goiabada, doce de leite, and queijo de Minas — and a handwritten note from the elderly couple who owned the property.

They hoped we’d slept well. That we were warm enough. That we felt at home.

It wasn’t room service, it wasn’t a spa robe or a champagne welcome. But in that moment, it was the most luxurious gesture I could’ve imagined.

So I went on a quest — not for love this time, but for something just as elusive: truly great customer experience.

I read books. I watched movies and TV shows — from The Bear, with its kitchen chaos, to Home Alone 2, where even the concierge had enough heart to make a lost child feel seen.

And of course, I found every excuse to spend money on spas, hotels, salons, and shops I’d always dreamed of entering. For research, only.

I spoke to people. I was completely ignored. I received a generous amount of empty compliments from retail staff who didn’t even look me in the eyes. I answered more than enough mid-bite ‘How’s the first bite going?’ questions with my mouth still full.

But I also met people who listened before they spoke. I got massages in places where every detail was intentional — from the playlist to the towel temperature. I drank unforgettable coffees. I was impressed by thoughtful packaging, warm greetings, and spaces designed to slow me down.

And just like that…

I decided to come back to my Substack. Not to sell anything — but to tell stories. To prove that customer experience lives in the details, in the intention, and in the moments that say: you matter.

Because the truth is… the price tag? It has very little to do with it.

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The brand started as a digital native, and despite securing major clients like Nordstrom and Equinox, Joanna decided to sell exclusively DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) so she could "offer a more personalized service to her customers."

Today, in 2024, she has beautiful stores with a visual identity that’s tightly aligned with the brand’s concept, located in major Canadian cities, and is beginning to expand into the United States.

When Joanna talks about the brand, whether on her website or in interviews, she often emphasizes the importance of listening to what people want and bringing revolutionary solutions to life. She always highlights the significance of customer connection and product and service personalization.

This type of brand story moves me: unique products in the market made with top-notch quality, a clear brand positioning that attracts a well-aligned and mostly loyal audience that roots for the brand, beautiful physical stores with a great fitting experience, sustainable growth with autonomy, free from reliance on large multi-brand purchases to close the books, and a bright future ahead if they manage to stay relevant in the market.

***

When I returned to Canada, heavily pregnant, a friend recommended that I visit one of Joanna’s stores to try on their nursing bras and pajamas.

Being a lover of a good shopping experience, I made sure to visit their store on the busiest street in Vancouver, located in one of the most expensive retail spaces in Canada.

The store is indeed beautiful and offers a great fitting experience. For those unfamiliar, in Canada they work with two measurements for bras: bust size and back circumference. Since I had no idea of my measurements, they measured me accurately in a charming fitting room and brought me the sizes I needed. I chose a black bra that didn’t cost less than $50 and asked them to hold it for me.

Three minutes later, the sales associate returned, still very friendly, to inform me that they didn’t have the black one in my size but suggested I check the website as delivery was quick.

That weekend, the store was running a 20% off promotion, so I asked if the website had the same offer, to which she replied, "I’m not sure, but you can use my code for free shipping."

I then decided to ask about the pajamas. The ones on display were all very colorful, so I asked if they had any in more subdued, solid colors. She said, "I think so, but they’re stored in the back; it’s easier to check the website to see if you like any."

As a consumer, I wasn’t too upset about leaving the store without spending any money. It wasn’t a product I was desperately wanting, so I let it go. But my retailer’s heart felt sad for Joanna, who, despite creating a digital-native brand that values personalized service, lost out on a lot of potential sales and customer acquisition costs.

Yes, customer acquisition. Let me explain:

All the money invested in renting a store is to ensure that the brand can place itself directly in the path of a qualified audience. She then invests more to set up an impeccable store that gets noticed by this audience. In other words, beyond being a point of sale, the store becomes a billboard for the brand—a piece of media.

But all the customers she pays to attract and manages to draw into the store receive this level of customer experience—friendly but with no commitment to conversion or using omnichannel tools—resulting in missed opportunities to sell to or capture the lead of every new person who comes in to learn about the brand.

Joanna’s story is real, and unfortunately, it’s the rule rather than the exception. Like her brand, many others suffer from the same systemic retail errors:

• Lack of store team training on sales, customer experience, and omnichannel usage.

• Brands that associate 'innovation' and 'customer experience' solely with retail architecture and technology, without paying attention to the quality of in-store interactions and how they drive performance.

• Omnichannel strategies that exist only in theory and technology but fall apart when they reach the brand's most significant and meaningful interface with the customer: the physical store.

This is why I continue to encourage brands to consider human interactions as the starting point for customer experience and performance, ensuring that this is done well before rolling out technological projects, believing that they alone will increase sales and the brand’s NPS.

When I moved back to Brazil to kick off the retail operations of an Australian brand I remember having an interesting conversation around wages for retail staff.

When I asked my Aussie VP of retail at the time what the payment structure would be like the answer I got was: ‘let's do whatever the rest of the market is doing.’

Having lived in Australia I knew that retail jobs there pay by the hour and there were very few places that added a commission package back in 2010-14. 

Which meant that the job was mostly focused on customer service and being somewhat passive to customer's wants and wishes.

Whereas in Brazil there's a quite generalized practice of paying retail staff personal commission over their monthly sales. In some places that is all they get and in other places they also have a base wage. But the sales performance dictates about 80% of their salary.

What this meant to me at the time was that this was the root to a culture where the need to close the sale overshadowed the needs of the client - even if that happened in detriment of the customer experience - and it unfolded into several negative aspects of organizational climate:

• a highly competitive environment amongst salespeople and a feeling of 'owning' a customer, failing to understand that the customer belongs to the brand and not to a specific store or person.

• excellent high performing store managers willing to climb the corporate ladder but having their promotions blocked by supervisors that would rather have them bringing sales on the floor.

• biased salespeople that would pick and chose the customers they were willing to host based on assumptions of how much they would spend, causing a terrible damage to customer experience land a basic human value called respect)

• schedule staff based on who deserved to be selling on the most profiting days and punishing all the rest that would always get Mondays and Tuesdays on the roster.

• high staff turnover rates as the salespeople would easily leave your brand for the store next door that was offering 0,05% extra in commission.

and the list went on...

So when I was told that we would pay whatever the market was paying - at a brand that highly valued customer experience and teamwork - I couldn't help but challenge the status quo in the industry.

I gathered all the information I could, educated them on the retail customer service situation in Brazil. benchmarked salaries, created an alternative that would reward staff equally while also incentivizing team work and store sales (rather then individual sales), projected the impact on costs of the alternative vs the standard pay and built my case to the GM of the Americas at the time.

In this specific situation all it took was 'it hurst the customer experience' argument to convince him to do things differently.

And as a result I was able to build a team of incredible retail associates that had strong focus on customer experience while keeping an eye on Conversion Rate and Average Transaction Value and at the same time increasing Customer Retention.

The team work in the stores was remarkable: everybody worked with the same effort to help each other and maintain the store operations, we constantly had customers sending thank you notes and compliments on the service, we almost always hit sales target  and when one person won - everybody won. Not to mention we had an unprecedented staff retention rate.

By simply challenging one very basic status quo we had set the bar very high by creating a customer centric culture built on respect and relatedness. 

I’m not saying that all brands that reward staff with personal commission suffer from all the side effects listed above. If you have a great company culture and a solid hiring and training process and strong leadership amongst your store managers, you can certainly make this system work for you and secure both customer experience and high sales performance.

The message here is simply to challenge the status quo in the industry every time you sense that 'there must be a better way to do things'.

We can't get different results if we keep doing the same as everybody else (it's a big cliche, but so true).

Never have I seen a messy Aesop store (even on the back of house) or a window display that was too busy.

Everything they do is intentional and so is their approach to displaying their products in the store and creating attractive, intriguing and beautiful window displays that speaks to their current product launch or campaign.

As most things, I could ramble about it for hours. But for the purpose of this post I will keep this short-ish. Here’s three points of some of Aesop’s perspective on VM.

Store Design

Aesop's approach to architecture is quite unique in the sense that no two stores in the world look the same. The reason why they create different concepts, within the same guidelines that will always make you recognize an aesop store, is to pay a homage to the city and neighbourhood that is welcoming them in by creating something unique with regional inspiration and at times with local architects. Many times they choose to keep one or more original parts of the building such as a ceiling, a floor tile or even a laundromat signage like this store in the Upper East Side in Manhattan, NY.

Product Display

Aesop displays its products in rows of uniform, not priced and odd numbered SKU's. All of these aspects combined reinforces many messages that is at the core of the brand: confidence in its products and prices, organization and an intriguing interpretation of the space that requires an aesop staff to guide the customer through the experience.

Product Design

Aesop's packaging has all the information that legally needs to be there to avoid using excess boxes and papers when selling their products. Which is why the packaging is at the same time consistent across most products and heavy in content but in an elegant and sustainable way.

Comment below if you want a whole new post of Aesop’s most inspiring campaign displays and communication and follow a retail-specific instagram account that is newly launched - if that's your thing.

“In the brands that I've worked in the past the store managers weren't involved in this kind of discussion, this was reserved for corporate, all they had to do was trust the process and be in the store to drive the sales"

If you agree with this statement, then today's post is an invitation to challenge that.

In this specific case the ‘discussion’ he was referring to was the decision around product mix and the inventory depth each store was set to receive for the new collection.

In his perspective the retail teams should trust that the people behind the computers can run the numbers and numbers don't lie. Well, don't they? And aren't we missing an extremely relevant aspect here, which is the subjective aspect of customer behaviour?

In a relatively small brand that produces low inventory, so much so that it risks selling out of a new product in the first days of the launch if they didn't bet on its popularity when it was time to run production, or that frequently runs out of sizings because of the production turnover time, putting all of our trust in numbers can make you very vulnerable to errors.

Back when I was working in the beauty industry the production and distribution of the inventory were quite intuitive and a lot of trust could be deposited on the numbers:

Look at the 200 SKU's available, analyze your previous 6 weeks’ sales average per door and take your forecast from there. For a new store you would find a comparable store - both in demographics and volume - and use it as a base to your forecast.

But when I moved to the fashion industry many layers of complexity were added to this process. Not only do you have to take in account the quite complex calendar of launches and productions, as you also have to beware of not over or underproducing betting on the pieces that will become more popular in the new launches.

And what happens to your forecast when you have prolonged periods of time that your stock is disrupted in several combinations of sizing x colour x fabric?

Different than selling hand soaps, that you can take the period of time of stock break and fill in the blanks with what you would have sold if you had them in store; with clothes it takes a complex architecture with the numbers to try and fill in these blanks. And even when you do, you can't ensure it's 100% accurate. Especially for new launches that has unprecedented new colour and modelling with no historical data.

And that's when your store team comes in.

The frontline staff are the people that best know your customers, their wishes and wants, and they will know which one of your new product launches will succeed in the stores. More than that, they also know better than anyone their specific store demographics - their behaviour, colour, sizes, preferences and even their names and favourite nearby restaurants - and are able to articulate in your customers’ behalf what they want to buy.

They also know which combination of sizing x fabric x colour tend to fly off the window and which ones will last until the end of your sale season, making it crucial for them to be involved in early stages of the definition of the inventory depth they will receive.

Not to mention that they are the people selling it and being held accountable for the sales performance of all your new products. They have a sales target, a lot of the times their salary depends on it, and if their size isn't available then there's simply no way around it and the sale will be lost, no matter how many times your operations team calculated the stock coverage by value times the sell thru rate to ensure the store target gets covered.

What they normally don't have access to is the analytical perspective of this inventory. And that where the collaborative work comes in.

There must be a moment when everybody gathers in a room, or a 40 min zoom call, to go through the inventory selection per door and combine the objective and the subjective aspects of the products sale forecast to make more certain and personalized shipments to your doors.

This simply shift will also bring your both objective and subjective results: a better product performance per door, a healthier sell through rate and NPL sales, less customers who get frustrated for not finding their sizing in your store and a more collaborative environment where the frontline staff starts to enter the corporate doors - which frankly is long overdue in the retail industry.

This is just one of the areas where we can start to challenge the status quo in the retail industry and get better involvement of the store managers in more strategic decisions.

Follow my Substack to get updates on other ways that you can involve the frontline team in strategic decisions and foster collaboration in your brand.

Do you work in retail and was this text helpful to you? Let me know in the comments below and keep the conversation going. You can also subscribe to get updates in your inbox every time I publish something new:

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I'm a self-directed multi skilled leader with solid experience in strategy and operations of upscale retailers across Brazil, Australia, United States and Canada in the fashion and beauty industries. An ambitious leader and passionate creative at heart, I help upscale retail businesses deliver unique customer and employee experiences.

Currently working as Head of Retail for Haight Clothing in Rio de Janeiro and consulting independently for other upscale retail businesses.

Based in Canada + Brazil, available worldwide.

LinkedIn

If you haven't managed a store but you're the person running the numbers, there's a chance you already realized that when your staff turnover rate is high you are likely spending a lot more than what was budgeted on staffing costs - on training time (specially when considering the time a new sales person take until meeting the performance KPI's of the rest of the team) or on contract termination packages. And if you haven't run the numbers yet, I strongly encourage you to calculate the cost of your turnover rate.

The point is that staff turnover is at the same time stressful and costly.

Years ago during my time managing a store in Sao Paulo I came across Drive, the book by Daniel Pink, and it was the first time I read about the Self-Determination Theory. I was obsessed.

The idea - to summarize it in a very simplistic way - is that intrinsic motivation is both more stimulating and sustainable (and, in my opinion, a lot cheaper) than searching for extrinsic motivators, such as internal competitions, prizes, gifts, etc., blew my mind and I read everything I could on the topic.

If you're unfamiliar with the Self-Determination Theory, let me borrow someone else's words (and that's wikipedia) to give you the run down:

One mini-theory of SDT includes basic psychological needs theory which proposes three basic psychological needs that must be satisfied to foster well-being and health.^[23] These three psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness are generally universal (i.e., apply across individuals and situations). However, some needs may be more salient than others at certain times and be expressed differently based on time, culture, or experience.

Pink uses the SDT to build his argument on intrinsic motivation as a sustainable path to ensure productivity, engagement and, in my experience, staff retention. Which means that a company should offer their employees the ability to keep developing their competences and pursue personal growth; the autonomy to do their work - in any way autonomy can be applied - and the human connection factor.

Pink, Goleman, Newport, Sinek and the whole crew that writes the Harvard Business Review books were some of my best mates during my years as a store manager and gave me the ground to test my best learnings in real life.

Tested them I did in multiple teams - and I'm here to tell you that there's no better tool to ensure high levels of customer service, engagement with your brand, commitment with their peers, performance in sales and retention rate than giving your store leaders the pathway to applying the Self-Determination Theory in their leadership systems.

Competence is feeling both competent and challenged in your role with the adequate support to your personal and professional growth. Surely - and luckily for managers as this isn't sustainable - not everyone that works in the shop floor wishes to pursue a vertical growth in your business. A lot of your store staff just want to pay their bills, go home and keep pursuing their degrees, dream job or just a different career path. Regardless of what's on the horizon for them, the feeling of developing oneself, pushing knowledge boundaries and growing on skills that will be later applicable wherever they wanna go will definitely ensure engagement.

Relatedness speaks to the most innate human need of belonging. In a store this means ensuring teamwork and camaraderie despite the silent competitions or the fact that they are each working for their individual sales goals (something quite common in countries like Brazil where retail staff work for commission over personal sales).

Autonomy, since Covid, is often associated with remote work flexibility. But differently than their colleagues that work in the corporate retail office, the autonomy for retail staff over space and time tends to be more limited. Which is why I invite you to think of autonomy in how they complete their tasks and take charge over their own self-development plan. Let go of micro-management or excessive task lists. Instead, allow them to earn your trust into letting them do what must be done in their own way and time, within the given guidelines, and let them take ownership for their deliverables.

As business managers it is our job to give our store staff the tools to keep growing, relating with one another and earning ownership over their jobs. Once you have this framework top of mind across all your store leaders, rest assured that your store team won't just quit for the store next door that offered an extra dollar for the hour, or a whole weekend off every second month.

Do you work in retail and was this text helpful to you? Let me know in the comments below and keep the conversation going. You can also subscribe to get updates in your inbox every time I publish something new:

Subscribe now

I'm a self-directed multi skilled leader with solid experience in strategy and operations of upscale retailers across Brazil, Australia, United States and Canada in the fashion and beauty industries. An ambitious leader and passionate creative at heart, I help upscale retail businesses deliver unique customer and employee experiences.

Currently working as Head of Retail for Haight Clothing in Rio de Janeiro and consulting independently for other upscale retail businesses.

Based in Canada + Brazil, available worldwide.

LinkedIn