Two Pricing Changes on Services That Can Add Big Money to Your Bottom Line

HERE ARE A COUPLE of small service moves that add to your bottom line with almost no cost.

Watch Batteries

The book has three prices to change a watch battery: one with 1 year of guaranteed replacement, one for 3 years, and one that we replace free for life. It’s the same battery; the only difference is the guarantee.

Screwbacks, for example — for $37, we replace the battery now, and again for free if it dies again within 1 year. For $49, we’ll cover it for 3 years, and for $87, for life.

Nine people out of 10 are going to go for the 3-year guarantee. Some will splurge for lifetime replacement, and practically nobody takes the 1-year.

Every “upgrade” to the 3-year battery is an extra $12. How many watch batteries do you change in a year? Whether it’s 100 or 1,000, that’s $1,200 or $12,000 right to the bottom line, and the only cost is maybe a few more batteries — but each one is another store visit and another upsell opportunity.

Staff simply goes from “the battery costs $X” to “we offer 1 year replacement for $X, 3 year for $Y, and lifetime for $Z. Which one would you like?” 30 more seconds at intake, and you’re adding to the bottom line every time.

And it’s not just the extra bucks — it’s an extra 2 years a customer has a reason to come back to you. The guy who dropped in just because you were the closest jeweler is now sure to come back to you for that free battery. Every time he does, you’re building a relationship and getting a chance to sell.

Check & Tighten

In the sizing chapter of the Blue Book, price varies by a few factors: type of metal, width of the shank, and number of stones on the shank. For rings with more than five stones on the shank, a charge to check and tighten stones is built in: $47 as shown above.

What’s the power of $47?

When you touch a piece, you take on the liability of lost stones once it leaves your shop. Whether you commit to replace them or not, whether you made the piece or not, that customer is coming to the last person to touch it.

Say you lose a 10-point stone after the fact. At $800 per carat, that’s $80. Any way you account for it, that’s straight out of your bottom line — an expense that generates no income and cuts net profit. The check & tighten charge isn’t just extra cash, it’s insurance.

Let’s say you take in 4,000 repair jobs per year, around 75 a week, and guess around 60% of them have 5 or more stones. That’s 2,400 jobs. Add the $47 fee to those jobs, and you’ve got $112,800 straight to the bottom line.

Everything that walks through the door is an opportunity. Keep yourself covered, stack wins over time and build healthy habits that keep you on track for a sustainable, profitable business.