July 2-8
MERCHANDISING Move your birthstone display to a more prominent spot to remind your clients of this fun tradition. This should become a periodic exercise and July is a great time to start, as ruby, in addition to being a really cool birthstone, is a favorite alternative for the center stone in engagement rings.
OUTREACH Things a bit slow at your store? Olympian Diamonds’ Aleah Arundale recommends going to retirement homes and giving talks on gold buying. “It’s tough when business is slow. The most important thing is to keep trying different things.”
SALES Have a brainstorming session with your staff about what data need to be tracked in order to measure productivity and to find areas that can be improved. There are the obvious ones such as sales to goal, average sale and closing ratio — but look at casting a wide analytical net to capture those hidden indicators of performance, such as add-on as a percentage of sales, phone calls made, Instagram chat interactions and anything else they can come up with.
July 9-15
MANAGEMENT Here’s something time-management experts are always recommending: weekly reviews of your week — a habit, yes, but one that involves stepping out of the daily habitual stream to gain perspective. And now is the perfect time to implement it.
BENCH Consider purchasing a gold and diamond tester. Some jewelers put it off because they think it might be complicated or take time learning to use it. But they’re really simple to operate.
MARKETING Schedule repair clinics in the slow summer months for those customers who love jewelry for the handiwork involved.
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July 16-22
PLANNING June is the month for weddings, right? After all, that’s the origin of the popular term, “June Bride.” Well, Hallmark doesn’t agree. According to its figures, August has become the most popular wedding month over the past four years. June comes second. What’s that mean? Tweak your wedding marketing plan and try again.
ONLINE To stay relevant, you should refresh your website every two years and fine-tune it every six months. That six months is up. Customers will visit your store only if they like your website and think it looks modern. Does your site have simple lines, motion, huge photos and at least a hint of prices? If not, get busy.
July 23-29
REPAIRS Go through finished repairs for jobs that haven’t been picked up. Then the day before payday, call the owners and suggest they come and pick up the piece (while they’ve still got the cash).
EVENTS In a lifestyle center, strip mall or downtown location? Take the lead in organizing a community block party. Loads of fun and a great crowd generator.
PLANNING The idea of living on in perpetuity in digital form has some appeal, but it could be a headache for your surviving family because they may not be able to access many of your online accounts. The answer? Appoint a digital executor — a tech-savvy person who will be able to close or manage accounts in line with your wishes.
