The need for repairs remains strong, but many jewelers are overlooking this source of revenue

This article originally appeared in the June 2015 edition of INSTORE.

Is your repair business off? Do you think it’s your pricing?

The answer is, it’s not your pricing. Just about everything in the last five years has increased in cost for the consumer (OK, let’s hear it for the gas station!). Although gold is $500 off its high it’s still double what it was before the Great Recession. So jewelry customers pay more for jewelry and the parts that go into jewelry repair. Labor has gone up as well.

For many, shop sales are still strong but if yours are not, remember what you did the last five years:

You melted and bought all of that “worn, broken, worn-out jewelry.”

There are plenty of consumers who have not melted, sold or pawned their precious jewels and this gives you two opportunities:

➤ Repair it.

➤ Remake it.

To get more repair business, like any other part of your business you want to improve, you have to advertise and market it.

➤ Devote a part of your radio/TV budget to repair and custom.

➤ Send direct mail postcards to your customer list.

➤ Post signs in the store.

➤ Send email blasts.

➤ Add partial monthly campaigns via your Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts.

➤ Distribute to customers who come in the store a zip-lock bag with a nicely printed form that says, “Did you know we can repair and remake your old jewelry? Put it in this bag and bring it in for a free consultation on repairing or redesigning it.” Advertise this service prominently on your website.

Now let’s talk about the website. I get emails about this subject all of the time. So I visit the jeweler’s website and many times I’m quite surprised at the lack of excitement there.

Many sites on the first page have moving photos, galleries, clickable links, and great information on buying a diamond.

But setting it or retipping it? Blah, boring. So often there’s no more than a paragraph saying something like, “Our experienced jeweler can do great things!”

People love pictures of how things are done. Not one picture but many!

One site I visited this week was beautiful. I searched for a place to look at jewelry repair. I finally found it, but it was at the very bottom of the page. It was down there near the “copyright” warning and it was in one-quarter the font size of everything else and all it said was “Services.” When I clicked on it: paragraphs of text.

With your cellphone you could take a short movie of a jeweler working, post it on YouTube and link it your website. Just go to youtube.com and in the search box type “jewelry repair” and see what others have done.

If your jewelers have the capability or you can use an outside shop you should be marketing and selling custom design. The average custome sale is at least 10 times higher than a repair and that’s where the big shop money is today. But be sure to advertise it and use your website to “haul ’em in.”

David Geller is a consultant to jewelers on store management. Email him at dgellerbellsouth.net.