My summary of Prose before using it? I’ve heard some venture capital friends talk admiringly about Prose and their approach to personalisation. All I know is that Prose sells hair products, but being 100% bald myself :) that’s as far as my knowledge goes.
How does Prose explain itself in the first minute? When I go to the Prose website, I’m welcomed by a strap-line that states “Your best hair starts with custom care, inside & out”, flanked by a number of hair products.
Intrigued as to what “custom care” means in the context of Prose, I click on the “get your formula” call to action.
How does Prose work?
When I click on “Let’s go”, I land on page which asks me about my age bracket. Helpfully, there’s a nice “Why we ask” popup to explain why Prose needs this information.
Similarly, when I have to indicate my hair style, the purple popup is used to offer a visual guide to the different hairstyles. Because the irony isn’t lost on me, I select “Type 3B — Very Curly” as my hairstyle :)
Again, I really like the visual cues provided to help users make their selection. What I see as “short” hair might be considered “chin length” by the next person!
Prose’s quick online consultation consists of four main sections: “hair & scalp” (see examples above), “treatments”, “lifestyle” and “preferences & goals”. The questions in these sections vary from whether you colour your hair to the area you live in.
At the end, I get my ‘results’, telling me about the support I need for my hair, covering ‘sensitivity’, ‘flakes’, ‘sebum’ and ‘dryness’. Again, the purple popup helpfully explains what terms like ‘sebum’ mean.
Did Prose deliver on my expectations? Naturally, I had to submit my email to get my results. That’s expected behaviour. I then expected an email with my results and recommended products. Instead of getting such an email, I received a more generic ‘welcome’ email without specific product recommendations. Perhaps I’ve missed something, but I expected customised recommendations on the back of the process that Prose had taken me through.
Main learning point: Instead of treating haircare as just another ecommerce product, Prose really personalises the haircare experience, supporting consumers in first understanding their hair and specific needs. The flow that enables this understanding is comprehensive and self-explanatory, but could do a better job on delivering clear outcomes for the customer, post-survey.
