Just Trying to Keep my Customers

Like the song says, “Just trying to keep my customers satisfied!”That alone is no easy task today and keeping them loyal is no picnic either. I’m guilty too. I try to use the local island hardware stores, but sometimes I wind up in Lowe’s or Home Depot. Is it only about convenience or am I just too lazy to walk or even drive the distance to stay loyal? Or are we as a whole simply not loyal? I shop in Winn Dixie but my wife prefers Publix; to each his own is still alive and well, at least for this island couple.

In the old days (just in case my readers haven’t noticed, I intentionally like to harp on and on about the good old days, mainly because I was born in the mid-1950s and I qualify as a dyed-in-the-wool “Baby Boomer”). I honestly and truly miss those wholesome and simple times. Here’s one example: back then when you had a disagreement about a certain subject, you ran to a shelf for a certain volume of the family’s collection of Encyclopedia Britannica’s to prove that either you were right or the other person was wrong and the results of that archaic fact finding process did not end up with one or both of you never speaking to each other again, either that or a black eye and even worse in today’s world, a disagreement can lead to a trip to intensive care.                             

In Rocky’s modern world, you Google it and find out immediately. Lately, I question if the truth is really the truth considering we now live in a world with “alternative facts.” Regardless of a proven fact or not, both parties of the argument will still disagree anyway.

In the small town “good old days,” everyone had their own jeweler (I do occasionally hear the “my jeweler up north made this” spiel). That along with a butcher, baker, ah no, I’m not that old, I have no need for a candlestick maker. One thing is for sure here in the States is that it’s hard to find an independent butcher or baker or fishmonger (those of us living on Marco are fortunate to have two out of three, still no independent butcher shop though).

The jewelry business was way different then. Jewelry was made a certain way, namely the right way, and quality was an especially important thing here in the States. Most shops were Mom and Pop, brick and mortar where everybody knew everyone, and it was rare that folks were always in a hurry the way they are today. My mentor and master during my apprenticeship as a young goldsmith, who also happened to be my Uncle Ernest, totally refused to do rush work for anyone, including the hoity-toity high-end Boston jewelry stores he serviced and made handcrafted jewelry for. He was an old-school artist and a craftsperson and he worked at his designated pace, simple as that! If you did not accept that fact, he did not create a piece of jewelry for you. Ernest remembered most of his customer’s finger sizes and even what so and so gifted his wife the past few Christmases to prevent him from buying the same gift twice. Now that was pride in personal customer service that today has all but vanished with the sands of time.

The advent of big box stores like Service Merchandise brought in mass-produced cheapo poor quality jewelry that fell apart in a matter of months. This was the writing on the wall and a sign of things to come. 

After that came television shopping networks that offered poor quality on an even lower level to late night insomniacs with credit cards. Today we not only have television shopping but even bigger box stores - add insult to injury we now have the advent of the World Wide Web, where you can add internet shopping to the whole jewelry buying debacle. So as you can see, It has become even harder to keep loyalty alive, at least in my industry.

Loyalty works two ways. It’s not unusual for a “regular customer” to purchase a memento piece of jewelry while traveling to the islands or abroad. I have my own family members doing it all the time. (Guess who has to repair it when it falls apart two days after they return home?)

Several years ago, a couple who frequented my shop presented me with a diamond ring they purchased in “the islands.” They paid well over 20K for the ring. It wasn’t on her finger two days after they returned to Marco, and several small diamonds fell out, and two of the main prongs holding the two-carat center diamond were already missing, and a large crack had developed on the inside of the mounting. Remember now, she only wore it for a few days, not years!

On close examination, there was no way, even with the help of the angels above to repair what was wrong here properly and permanently, there was no substance to the white gold feather light ring mounting holding one of the worse quality diamonds I have ever laid my eyes on. (The number one place for the worst, most horrible diamond I have ever seen belongs to a certain unmentionable someone who continues to bad mouth me on social media).

I suggested they call where they purchased it from and demand either a new ring or a full refund. They told me that was not to be, it was a final sale, PERIOD! “Can you please do something? we know only you can fix this!” A heaping spoon full of flattery and a crap ring they gave somebody, somewhere twenty-some odd thousand dollars for … Oh, this make it right project is gonna be just swell! 

By some miracle, I was able to secure the center diamond. The problem was that during that M.A.S.H. emergency procedure, more of the tiny micro diamonds (and I mean tiny - it would take fifty of them just to weigh 1/20th of a carat!) were falling out of the ring like the summer rain hitting the sand. What in Hades have I gotten myself into here, and for what? I spent several days putting that Humpty- Dumpty ring back together, and I charged them largely for my time and according to them, my expertise. To this day I am blamed every time one of those little diamonds refuses to stay in that galldurn ring. 

Lesson learned. Never ever again.