Tip Sheet: July 2004

Published

19 years ago

July 1, 2004

Instore presents ideas for better business

[componentheading]CONNECTIVITY REVOLUTION[/componentheading]

Want to get the maximum benefit from the connectivity revolution? Centralize your company’s data (sales stats, order status, customer contact information and data, etc.) on a private network. When you or your staff log in from home, you’re taken directly to a personalized home page with easy access to all data. This will allow all of you maximum productivity … wherever you are.

Source: Tom Peters, Re-Imagine!

[componentheading]GET OUT YOUR PARTY HAT[/componentheading]

Connecting your female customers to each other connects them to your brand. How can you encourage this? Host parties. Ask people to exchange telephone numbers. Have them share their email addresses … or log into an online forum on a given night each week. Let them make friends, not with you, but with each other. (Sure, they can make friends iwth you, too.) There you go, instant connection.

Source: Faith Popcorn, EVE-olution

[componentheading]GET EVERYONE IN THE MIX[/componentheading]

Do you have a bench jeweler and/or gemologist on your staff? Why not schedule them to go out on the sales floor once every week or two to sell? The benefits go both ways: additional skills and personal development for them, greater flexibility with scheduling for you. (And believe us, you’ll need every bit of it when those summer vacations come around. Not to mention the big Christmas rush.)

Source: Instore

[componentheading]WATCH WHICH MAIL YOU GET AT HOME[/componentheading]

Are you having Instore — or gasp, any other industry publication — sent to your home? Don’t do it. You’re identifying yourself as a member of the jewelry industry, and making yourself a target for a potential robbery. Instead, have all jewelry mag subscriptions and other business-related mail sent to your place of business.

Source: Jewelers Mutual

[span class=note]This story is from the July 2004 edition of INSTORE[/span]

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.”