[Jewelry making - Article 01141] - [Orchid] Handling Repairs During Christmas Season

[David Geller]

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3 Ways to handle jewelry repairs during the Christmas season

    This Christmas is on route to be a good one for many jewelers. After
    catastrophes many stores do well. Christmas was good for many after
    9/11 and now that the hurricanes are over, gift giving as a "healer"
    is a good thing.

    Selling is now your focus but for many customers THEIR FOCUS might be
    different. Still, many are on a budget and "recycling" old jewelry
    as gifts is a great idea to give treasured gifts to loved ones and
    save themselves some money. But just because they save money doesn't
    mean you can't make good money from it. 

    Many of you polish rings for customers for free. Always a good "P.R."
    idea but think about what it can do for your bottom line as well as
    the customer's inner feelings to get this added income. 

    Customers have three things that can be done with old jewelry this
    Christmas: 

    1. Refinish the item: 

    Simple. Round out the ring, emery out scratches and refinish like
    new. Charge $15.00 to do this to any item without ANY stones in it.
    i.e. signet rings, bracelets, etc, 

    Charge $35.00 and up to do the same thing but when the piece has
    stones in them. You'll still refinish but also check and tighten the
    stones and guarantee them from loss as long as everything is in good
    shape (see our price book for the details) for 1 year. 

    This is easy to work into your work load. Just like there's "always
    room for Jell-O, there's always enough time to buff rings. And you'll
    make good money while making your customers happy. Who knows, maybe
    you can sell them additional items to match the pieces you polished
    for them to give away. If you have our version 4.0 book, the counter
    mat that comes with the book has these polishing options all laid
    out, in color. 

    2. Reset an item: 

    Another easy thing to slip into the work. Suggest taking a major
    stone from their piece if jewelry and reset it into a mounting that
    you'd buy from a supplier. Easy enough to reset 1-5 stones in heads
    when you buy the mounting. Taking mom's smaller diamond from her
    original engagement ring and remounting it into a pendant and selling
    a nice chain makes a reasonably priced necklace. 

    A triple key markup on the mounting and easy triple key on setting
    from our price book. Another cool thing to make customers happy and
    this is easily a $200-$600 (or more) sale without any great expertise
    or time involved. 

    3. Custom Design 

    When I had my store we cut off custom designing for Christmas
    delivery around December 5th. This is probably one thing you won't be
    able to do a lot of, it's a time consuming sale in the front and back
    of the store, especially closer to Christmas. 

    If you can do it in time, great profits. For some of you a Stuller
    mounting is a custom design and that is indeed true. But to us
    carving a wax was custom. I have found across the country as well as
    in my store that a custom design is easily 2-4 times HIGHER than a
    typical product sale. If you can do this for the season, great
    profits. 

    Number 1 and 2 are the things to push. You'll be surprised how many
    folks at $35 to give a present of meaning to someone they love will
    just say "Is that all? O.K." 

    Last subject: Repairs in general for Christmas. We cut off repairs
    for Christmas delivery on December 10th. Big sign in the showroom
    stating that fact and all repairs taken in during Christmas would be
    delivered December 10th. 

    But want another money maker for Christmas? Many folks either want
    their stuff fixed for Christmas, to wear and enjoy or again they
    want to FIX things and give as a present. In our price book we have
    always charged 50% more (called "Express Service") for same day
    service. During December you may not want to, that's why we promise
    non-essential repairs for January. But to accommodate customers (the
    reason we opened our doors) who need it done we will CHARGE EXRESS
    SERVICE DURING DECEMBER BUT DELIVER THE REPAIRS ON DECEMBER 23RD FOR
    PICKUP. 

    So we charge more to slip a repair into our already busy schedule. If
    they want to pay, we'll do it. At 50% more, you can afford to pay
    the jewelers overtime to get it done. 

    One more thing. We advertised in the newspaper on Christmas Day and 3
    days before New Years Eve: 

    "Was your Christmas present the wrong size?" 

    Our ad went further to state that we could size their presents the
    same day, slight additional charge (our Express Service"). I didn't
    care where they bought it; many other stores were promising sizings
    in January. Yuk! Women want to wear their rings, necklaces and new
    watches NOW. They also want to be dressed up for New Years and show
    off the gifts they received. Be there for them, offer the week after
    Christmas while you wait or same day service at Express Service
    prices (separate column in our price books). 

    I hope you have a great holiday season. Would love to hear reports
    from you after the season is over how you did, increases/decreases,
    etc.

Sincerely

David Geller
Director of Profit

JewelerProfit, Inc.
510 Sutters Point
Atlanta, GA. 30328
(404) 255-9565 Voice
(404) 252-9835 Fax
david AT JewelerProfit.com

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