Be Special! With special orders
Aleah Arundale and her dad, Jim Siegel.How is the little guy going to compete when Amazon starts selling more jewelry? SERVICE! We all know to smile and remember their dogs name, but maybe there is an extra area of service you have yet to consider.
“I really don’t stock silver charms here at Siegel Jewelers, but let me tell you what, there are so many choices out there online, could I be of service and order it for you?” Jewelers, what if your new helpful service is ordering online for your customer?
Hear me out. Almost daily someone comes in with a request that you don’t have in stock and needs to be ordered – usually under $300. As jewelers we have sent the customer off to wander the confusing, predatory internet in search of the item.
Here is why you should order it for them instead. Even if your profits are small, the cost to get someone in the door is national average of around $100. You get feet in the door, which leads to referrals and often unexpected sales. The good review alone is worth your time to order it for them. In an internet world, small businesses have to give excellent service. Special orders are a way to give that excellent service.
Jewelers, you’re the ones sending customers to the internet when they walk out of your store without a purchase simply because you don’t stock what they’re looking for. How many times a week does someone come into your store looking for something you don’t carry but that can be easily ordered? Stop sending those customers away with only an apology. Order it for them! No matter how small the profit from an online sale, the customer will be grateful that you took the hassle out of the confusing internet search for them. Now that’s service! The good review alone is worth your time and effort. Beat Amazon at their own game!
For the customer the benefits are endless. They are blind on the internet. You save them from getting ripped off. You know quality. You have better connections. The money stays local. You can make sure the item that was sent was the correct item. You can service it down the line. These are all VALUE statements you should tell each customer.
“Sally, we don’t have a 18 inch figaro chain, but to show you we’re the best jewelers in the world, we would love to special order it for you. If would be faster than you going online and with our 35 years of wholesale jewelry connections, I can assure you our quality will be better. We can even solder on that pendant you love for only $40. Does that sound good to you?”
Many of you already do special orders, but my guess is you are not driving home how incredibly helpful you are being.
Jewelry is difficult to shop. Every diamond is different, every cut and every manufacturing detail. If you see two 1ctw white gold eternity bands, 4 grams, each with 12 diamonds in them they can still be vastly different prices. It’s often hard for a jeweler to spot the small differences – well its darn well impossible for a customer.
Not to mention too many choices is bad. Studies show if you give people a choice of 3 chocolate bars or 30, they are less happy picking from 30. They are always 2nd guessing their pick and people know less about jewelry than chocolate.
The level of help you are giving the customer every time you order for them is tremendous, and this should be part of your pitch. If you don’t remind people why they would buy from you they forget. Even when cleaning a ring you should say, “Here you go Beth. It’s important to us at Siegel’s to keep your jewelry looking gorgeous, just something we do that the internet can’t to let you know you are important to us.”
Every time you do any service tell the customer how it benefits them and you will have more loyal shoppers.
Next time you are tempted to say, “we don’t have that,” even for the small stuff, take a second and order it for them.
