Nearly Half of Jewelers Surveyed Don’t Follow Up Engagement Ring Sales for the Wedding Band

Question: Do you follow up with engagement ring clients about wedding bands?

Yes: 52%

• We offer 20 percent off wedding bands, and we send them emails and texts with this info. — Dianna Rae High, Dianna Rae Jewelry, Lafayette, LA
• We offer a $250 gift certificate for the band. We follow up a week or two later. — Bill Jones, Sissy’s Log Cabin, Pine Bluff, AR
• We make sure that the engagement ring was a hit, and then let them know about future bridal promotions. We do at least two Tacori events per year and one for our other brands. Always a success. Clientbook will make it easier in the future. — Michael Rumanoff, Rumanoff’s Fine Jewelry and Design, Hamden, CT
• We have a diamond band special twice a year and we call, text or email engagement ring clients for these. — Dorothy Vodicka, The Gem Collection, Tallahassee, FL
• I always let them know that I would love to meet the fiancée after they propose. When they come in, I start showing them bands. If they don’t come in, I follow up to see how the proposal went, if she loved the ring and ask them if they set a date. I then will tell them to come in and check out the wedding bands, so we can get ideas of what they want. — Elizabeth Saba, Presley Co. Fine Jewelers, San Diego, CA
• The wedding band sale is part of the engagement ring sale. — Charles Wallace, Curt Parker Jewelers, St. Louis, MO
• I send them a text message with a reminder that if they want custom bands, we need to start that eight weeks before the wedding. — Stacey Horcher, J. Reiss, Lincolnwood, IL
• With every engagement ring sold, we give away a $100 gift card for both the gent’s and lady’s wedding bands as part of a whole elaborate “swag” package. We have a card printer in house, so we can customize the cards as we wish. — Jon Walp, Long Jewelers, Virginia Beach, VA
• I ask if they want the band because it’ll be a perfect match and might be hard to find later. — Laura Pool, Laura’s Jewelry Designs, St. Robert, MO
• We encourage young men to bite the bullet early in the process and get the wedding band out of the way since nearer the wedding there are so many other demands on his budget. We encourage them both to get sized at the onset of our initial meetings, creating a “we’ve got your back” relationship for either the bride-to-be or the groom of choice! — Denise Oros, Linnea Jewelers, La Grange, IL
• Start giving some ideas and options to the bride when she comes in for sizing, cleaning, pick-up, etc. — Cathy Miller, Caleesi Designs Jewelers, Austin, TX
• We are texting pretty much everything these days, and if we have not heard from an engagement client, we text them with a hello and how are you doing. — Lee Krombholz, Krombholz Jewelers, Cincinnati, OH
• I usually start before the groom-to-be leaves with the engagement ring, or when the bride-to-be comes to have it sized (why do men never know their beloved’s size). Most of my custom engagement mounts need custom bands to match or fit against them nicely. — Jim Doggett, Doggett Jewelry, Kingston, NH
• We remind them that most engagement rings require a band to be made to fit, unless it came as a set. Here is where the expertise in 3D printing and design scores big. — Joseph Delefano, Regency Jewelers, Rotterdam, NY
• We call and ask them if they’re ready to look at bands. Very simple. — Marc Majors, Sam L. Majors, Midland, TX

No: 48%

• Tried that once. Got really burned. The bride-to-be saw the message, which gave away the surprise. We will never try that again. We also tried once to follow up on a birthday purchase for the wife. Unfortunately, the purchase wasn’t really for the wife. It was for the girlfriend, and the wife found out. He is no longer married to the wife. I do not know if he ever married the girlfriend. — James Sickinger, Sickinger’s Jewelry, Lowell, IN
• Not enough hours in the day to follow up. I hope when we made the engagement ring, we did a great job to bring them back for the wedding bands. — Frank Salinardi, Linardi’s Jewelers, Plantation, FL
• We find that over 80 percent of the guys that buy engagement rings come back to us for the bands. — Donnie Blanton, Brittany’s Fine Jewelry, Gainesville, FL
• Absolutely should … no excuse for not doing so. — Tom R. Nelson, Nelson Jewelry, Spencer, IA
• I would not want this to be done to me so I will not subject that to my customers. — Craig C. Curtis, Belfast Jewelry, Belfast, ME
• We are not aggressive about chasing business. Life is too short. We have more than enough. — Steven Wardle, Forest Beach Design, Chatham, MA
• Part of designing an engagement ring is consideration of a wedding ring. Traditionally both. Sometimes one ring serves as both. We don’t push. We offer. — J. Mason Cutchin, J. Mason Custom Jeweler, Chapel Hill, NC
• No excuse, just very busy. — Bob Richards, Bob Richards Jewelers, Germantown, TN
• Most of our bridal is custom, so we usually do both bands along with the engagement ring. If the groom and his family are our clients, sometimes the bride prefers her jeweler to do the bands. We get nine out of 10, and I am happy with that. — Jo Goralski, The Jewelry Mechanic, Oconomowoc, WI
• We just don’t. Maybe hoping they will remember it when the time comes. We definitely need to follow through with that add-on purchase. — Brenda Hefner, Oz’s Jewelers, Hickory, NC
• I don’t pursue follow-up contact as a sales tool because as a retail customer, I hate to be bombarded with follow-up sales pitches. — David Phelps, John David Jewelers, Durham, NC