10 Ways to Give the Same Great Customer Service in the Shop as You Do for Product Sales

“Customer Service” is a widely-used, but usually “not actually done enough” phrase. Extraordinary service gets people talking about your store, lowers your advertising costs and increases sales. How? Your customers come back to you rather than a competitor - and they send their friends. In addition, repair sales are trust-sensitive, therefore people will allow you to do higher end repairs and custom work.

10 ways to improve shop customer service

1. Have jobs done on time. If a job can’t be on time, it’s better to have the staff call the customer rather than your customer making a trip into the store. Adopt some type of system to assure this will happen. Most POS systems have a shop tracking module. Some stores use a calendar on a board with customer’s names on a due date. You can buy “day of the week” stickers and put them on the envelopes before given to the jewelers. You can buy these here.
   
2. Deliver all repairs and custom jobs back to the customer in a suede or leather pouch. Even inexpensive jewelry is a treasure to customers.
   
   
3. When taking in or delivering jobs, handle them with care as you would an expensive fine piece of jewelry. Have a pad on the counter when handling items.
   
   
4. After delivery put the delivered envelopes in a “week from now” box. Have the staff call each customer a week later to check up on the repair or custom. Can you imagine? “The store called me to check up on my ring I had fixed. I spend $1000 for car service and they didn’t acknowledge me”. After calling, file the envelopes away in your normal fashion.
   
   
5. Make yourself a calendar system and on the anniversary of the date the customer’s custom design was delivered send the RING a Happy Birthday card. “Happy Birthday Jennifer’s Ruby Ring! Another great year helping to make Jennifer smile. Be sure and come in this month for your free Clean & Shine so you’ll look great all year.”
   
   
6. In the process of custom-making pieces for a customer, take pictures and email them to the customer. “Here’s our jeweler Marvin making the design on the computer.” Then later: “Here’s your ring having the stones set by Marvin. Next he’ll detail the ring and polish it to a great shine.” People love the TV shows “How do they do that?” It will cause excitement and better yet they will forward the picture and email to their friends, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and other social sites. You’ll get exposure for free and an excited customer.
   
   
7. In the showroom, have brag books with pictures of things you’ve made in the past. Or better yet have a constant slide show on a separate computer screen running all the time.
   
   
8. If possible, have the shop seen through a window from the showroom so the customers can see where the work is done.
   
   
9. Shop staff should have dress codes, as they usually are seen in the showroom. It can be as simple as the jewelers wearing the same-style polo shirts with a logo, or aprons with the same.
   
   
10. Send a thank you card in the mail, even if you send out email or text thank yous.  Yes, even for watch batteries. It’s a nice touch and can you think of how many thank you cards you received this year with all of the money your family spends? Almost zip. We sent postcards for any work under $249; above $250, a hand written thank you note in an envelope was sent.
    
    

David Geller
Director of Shop’s Profits