Classy all the way - customer for life!
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Fox's Gem Shop is a real gem (ha-ha), in that they may be one of the few shops that truly know what customer service and professionalism mean. All I can tell you is that I'll be going there for all my jewelry needs for as long as I live in Seattle.
I personally believe that the class of business is determined by how they treat each and every customer, no matter how small, big, or troublesome the transaction may be. Businesses that know this are in for a long-term relationship with the customer, and Fox's Gem Shop is such a place.
Here was my example: I needed to re-size and engrave a couple of rings which were bought overseas in Japan - we didn't have the time to fix them while we were there. One of them was tricky because of its unique tension setting of the diamond, the other was a pretty simple band, but we needed to try sample bands with different width and shape, since bands with different widths and materials felt different on my fiancé’s ring finger even if they are officially the same size.
When we brought this up to another store (Studio Porter Jensen in U Village), they were short and dismissively said, "Try taking it to where you bought it." (We were asking because we couldn't!) When we went to Fox's, they said, "Of course we can do that for you."
Most jewelry shop wouldn't even have sample rings in different widths (they usually just have one set of standard sample rings). Fox's not only has that, they even have Japanese sized rings to compare and adjust sizes with. (They have premium and somewhat unusual platinum rings by Suwa, a Japanese brand, and Varna - my personal favorite in Western world – among others.) I bet they have European sized rings, too.
We were first helped by Jean, who was nothing but professional, pleasant and helpful in helping us determine the right size with the width of the band we were working with. My ring came out beautifully, even seemed better than before, and we felt assured they knew what they were doing. Then we later worked with Melissa for the other ring, who is a true wizard - just by looking at my fiancé’s fingers and holding his ring finger for a brief second, SHE KNEW which size he'd probably need. After trying out several rings, it turned out she was right. Now that's a professional.
They make you feel good about doing business with them every step of the way - the person you worked with would personally call you, leaving pleasant messages like "your beautiful ring is ready... (And I didn’t buy it from them!) …you can come pick it up whenever you'd like." And when you go in, even in your most casual outfit, the person who worked with you will come out and treat you like the most important person, giving you their undivided attention. (And they offer to clean your ring each time you come in for free.)
I *know* IF I spent thousands of dollars on something, every shop would treat me nicely. I didn't need to spend thousands at Fox's for them to seem as though they were most delighted to help me. Because they treated me with the utmost respect for the little things we came in for, they earned my business for life.
That's true customer service.