David Squires

A Pep Talk: Do You Love Your Customers?

Published

11 years ago

November 13, 2012

David Squires

AS THE HOLIDAY SEASON approaches, let me put on my coach’s whistle for a quick pep talk.

Do you love your customers?

TWEET! That was sad. What are you – a jewelry store, or the Department of Motor Vehicles? I don’t think you love your customers at all. And I bet they don’t think you love them either.

Let’s try again. Do you love your customers?

TWEET! Better. But only a bit. What I’m feeling is the kind of love where you might think for a second before adding “xoxo” to the bottom of a letter you’ve written. What I’m looking for is real love, true love, holding-a-boombox-at-dawn-outside-your-customer’s-bedroom-window-love.¹

Like this:

So give it to us one more time …

DO YOU LOOOOOOVE YOUR CUSTOMERS?

That’s more like it. It sounds like you’re just about ready to offer some seriously extreme service in your store this holiday season. TWEET! Now get out there and just love the whiskers off of everybody who walks through your door.

¹ Are we actually recommending that you go full John Cusack outside the bedroom windows of your customers? Naw. We were using the former teen icon as an example more for the intensity of his feeling than the means he used to express it. Though wearing a trenchcoat and holding a boombox in your store’s parking lot to promote your big sale or party isn’t a bad idea!

When There’s No Succession Plan, Call Wilkerson

Bob Wesley, owner of Robert C. Wesley Jewelers in Scottsdale, Ariz., was a third-generation jeweler. When it was time to enjoy life on the other side of the counter, he weighed his options. His lease was nearing renewal time and with no succession plan, he decided it was time to call Wilkerson. There was plenty of inventory to sell and at first, says Wesley, he thought he might try to manage a sale himself. But he’s glad he didn’t. “There’s no way I could have done this as well as Wilkerson,” he says. Wilkerson took responsibility for the entire event, with every detail — from advertising to accounting — done, dusted and managed by the Wilkerson team. “It’s the complete package,” he says of the Wilkerson method of helping jewelers to easily go on to the next phase of their lives. “There’s no way any retailer can duplicate what they’ve done.”