The customer is off on some adventure or vacation. Indulging their senses on some cruise to a foreign destination. Strolling through the local port city they find the perfect gift! Such a rare find! The merchant presents them with this “high end, high quality, limited supply” delight they can get for a fraction of the full retail price!
This particular customer, now standing in my shop for a repair, had been given this gift from his wife. She was so proud to present him with this huge fancy watch. She told him it was very high-end, similar to a Rolex but more affordable, but she had purchased it at even greater discount and paid just $300 for it. I smiled at the customer and tried not to cringe when I saw the brand name inscribed in huge letters across the side. Once upon a time they were indeed a great high-end brand, but that was several ‘going out of business brand name for sale’ ago.
This customer wanted to know how to get the ‘motion activated winding’ thing to work. I told him it needed a new battery. He had tried to adjust the band himself. The end result was several of the pins were mangled and some were completely missing. He wanted to know if I could fix that. I told him we don’t stock any parts for watches and don’t have the myriad of specialty tools required to work on watches. Even something as simple as changing the battery or band requires tools we don’t have. I am very clear with our customers that we do not sell, service or repair watches.
For some select customers, I have offered to send their sentimental treasured timepiece off for service or adjust the band for them. However, for this customer, I just didn’t have the heart to tell him that his wife’s $300 treasure was replaceable by an Amazon purchase for about $70 and buying the replacement would be less than the cost to fix his mangled band and replace the battery. Although, the replacement could very well need a new battery also.
Years ago I worked at a shop that frequently got customers coming in with these same watches. All of them were sold at a local discount store for $65 each with a completely dead battery… but that’s a story for another time.
This may have been the first of this brand of watches I’ve seen come in the door to my new shop, but it’s certainly not the first of these ‘cruise ship treasure finds’ that have come in. Another, on my bench now, is such a delicate ring. It’s so incredibly thin and ultra-lightweight. Its owner bumped it a few times and it bent completely out of shape. It’s her high-end affordable luxury. She was convinced she could never afford to pay full price for such a beautiful piece set with real rubies and diamonds!
These customers and countless others are all looking for the same thing. They want to feel they are getting the very best, yet at a price that they can afford. With so many online sellers generating the ‘pretty looking’ jewelry at a cheap price, how do we compete with that? We don’t. We are not in the business to sell cheap mass produced junk that takes a pretty picture. We make REAL high-end, quality jewelry, that is stunningly beautiful, customized to the customer’s taste, and keeps the price reasonable.
It’s easy to look at those customers looking for that ‘Affordable Luxury’ piece as just cheapskates that don’t want (or can’t afford) to pay full price for something. The reality is that everyone looks to save a few dollars where they can. The simple fact that they brought this cheap luxury looking item sitting on your repair bench in to be fixed should speak volumes about how much they value the luxury. This is a GREAT customer to have in your shop. You don’t have to sell them on the luxury of the items. They already want and are looking for that! You just need to educate them and sell them on the VALUE of the QUALITY you can provide that won’t have them coming back for this sort of repair!
It’s time the jewelry industry as a whole shifts to educating the customer on the value and quality of true craftsmanship. Mass produced pieces with cast in place gems that fall out, ultimately cost the customer more to replace the lost gems and repair. Educating your customer on the value of quality craftsmanship could be the key you need to turn that ‘affordable luxury’ shopper into a lifelong customer who will come back to you again and again.
