Building Customer Relationships One Gemstone At A Time

There are lots of ways to attract customers and make sales, if you have an unlimited advertising budget and are willing to spend it freely.  Chances are, however, that you don’t have this kind of tremendously large budget so it’s critical for you to take a smarter, more efficient approach to attracting customers, keeping customers, and getting them to buy.

Advantage:  Relationship-based sales

As a small to medium sized business you have a tremendous advantage over your larger competitors, and that is the opportunity to build customer relationships and create long term customer loyalty.  You see, instead of just being a “number” walking in the door you have the ability to spend more time with each customer, getting to know them better and learning more about what they like, dislike, and are interested in knowing more about.

The more you get to know a customer, the more you can personalise the gemstone buying experience for them.  You can offer specific gemstones that match their preferences (and their budget), and you can also offer suggestions for gemstones and combinations they might not otherwise have considered.  The goal is to satisfy each customer so completely that they leave your business with strong positive feelings about the entire purchase process.

Even if the person decides not to make a purchase at that time, the time and attention you pay to a customer (and the personalised service you provide) is well worth it.  Why?  Because when that customer eventually does decide to make a purchase, the friendly and personalised attention they received from you makes them far more likely to come back to you to make their purchase.

Relationship sales is a long term investment

The most important thing to remember about relationship sales is that it is a long term investment in your business.  The goal is to make the ongoing relationship a priority, building it up and strengthening it one gemstone at a time.  If you can capture the loyalty of a young customer buying their first gemstone, as they move through life they’ll tend to come to you first the next time they are in the market for a gemstone.  And each time they buy from you it’s a fresh opportunity to strengthen that loyalty further, thereby increasing your long term prospects for keeping them as a long term customer.

The key to successful relationship sales is to find ways to strengthen the relationship between sales opportunities as well.  For instance, make it a policy to provide free cleaning of rings and other gemstone jewellery, anytime and with no questions asked.  This encourages your customers (and even non-customers) to visit your store often.  They appreciate the opportunity to keep their jewellery clean and sparkling, and you have the chance to treat them in a friendly, helpful manner.  What’s more, they have a chance to browse around the store for a few minutes while their jewellery is being cleaned.

The bottom line is that relationship sales is a long term investment, serving each customer one gemstone (and one encounter) at a time.  Each customer should be treated in a friendly and personalised way regardless of whether they are there to buy an expensive gemstone, an inexpensive gemstone, or simply to browse and look around a bit.  This is the kind of investment that will set your business apart from your competitors and keep it going strong for years to come.