Shane Decker

Shane Decker: Repair Rewards

Shane Decker offers ways to wow customers with super repair service.

Published

17 years ago

January 1, 2008

Shane Decker Instore January 2008 Issue

IF IT’S MORE important to you to make a customer than a sale, you may be missing out on golden opportunities every day — your repair customers.

Think about it: Most stores have at least 10 repairs a day dropped off, and another 10 picked up. That’s 20 repair customers in your store every day. They come to you for one reason: They trust you. Why not do everything you can to make sure they trust you with their other purchases in the future?

Here are a few ways that you can not only satisfy your repair customers, you can wow them.

Add-On

Chances are, if an item needs one repair, it needs more. If you give it to the jeweler, and he says it needs shank work in addition to a repaired prong, or a melee ruby needs replacing, you look like an idiot when you have to tell the customer you didn’t notice it. Or worse, she thinks you’re trying to pull a fast one on her.

Examine the item carefully and note each needed repair before you hand it to your jeweler. Sure, it cost more, but your customer will be happier knowing everything that needed to be fixed got fixed.

File It Right

After a repair is quality-control checked, file it correctly. If the customer comes in to pick it up and sees everyone scrambling around trying to find it, she won’t be impressed. Ensure your system for filing sales is straightforward, so that any salesperson can find it when the customer comes to pick it up.

Call If It’s Late

If the item’s not going to be fixed on time, don’t make the customer waste her time coming to the store to find out. Call and tell her that it won’t be done on time, but that you will deliver it as soon as it’s fixed the next day. She may be a little disappointed at worst, but she’ll be amazed that you’re willing to take the time to drop it by.

Follow Up

One week after they pick up their item, call or leave a message saying you wanted to check the repair was good, and there’s no need to call back. Often, you will receive a call back from a customer who was so impressed with your call, she just had to let you know. Once in a while, you’ll get a complaint. So, turn it into an opportunity. Tell her, “I’ll come by and pick up your item, take it to my jeweler, and we’ll get it fixed right. I’ll then return it to you, at no charge.” That kind of service doesn’t go unnoticed, and it shows your integrity as a store.

If your repair customers get that kind of experience on a repair, they’re going to be thinking, “Wow, imagine what they’ll do if I actually come in and buy something!”

This story is from the January 2008 edition of INSTORE.

Looking for a Seamless Sale? Call Wilkerson

After almost 60 years in business, Breakiron Jewelers in Erie, Pennsylvania, was closing its doors. And the store’s owner, Linda Breakiron, was ready for it. She had run the store as its sole owner since the beginning of the millennium and was looking forward to a change. Of course, she called Wilkerson. Breakiron talked to other jewelers who had used Wilkerson and was satisfied with their response. “They always had positive feedback,” she recalls. With the sales, marketing and even additional inventory that Wilkerson provided, Breakiron insists she could never have accomplished her going-out-of-business sale without Wilkerson’s help. She’s now ready for the journey ahead, but looking back, she’d be sure to recommend Wilkerson. “They just made the whole process very seamless.”