Cupid's Calling

So Valentines day is just a little over one week away. How long is your shipping time? With AuraStella its 7-10 days, but I find everything ships sooner, we can also pay a little more than the standard $4 direct ship to the customer to have it shipped faster. That being said, what are you doing to capitalize on Valentines Day.

For every person that even like a piece of jewelry in your catalog you should be offering a gift registry. Not the kind of gift registry where they give out cards to people who then go look at what they have selected and pick of gift. You are not Nordstrom's. What sets you apart from Nordstrom's is your customer service. Nordstrom's isn't going to catalog their customers special occasions (birthdays, anniversary, children's birthdays, valentines day, Mother's day, winter holidays, etc.) and make a personal phone call to the people on her gift giving list to remind them they have 2 weeks to that special event and if they would like you can help them select and wrap the perfect gift.

It all starts with offering a service. This is my Gift Registry Service:

Each customer fills out a wish list (as long or as short as they like) and I call them to come to a special open house (just to add to their wish list) when the new catalog comes out (We have a great customer appreciation brunch, and the focus is on the customer not on the sales).

Once the wish list is complete I ask them about events in their life when they will be getting gifts - birthdays, anniversaries, if they have children, their children's birthdays, valentine's day, Mother's Day, Winter Holidays, if they are in school (college or high school) I write in their graduation date.

Then I ask for each specific occasion who gives them gifts on those occasions (name and relationship). When I am gathering information I ask permission to send a post card 3 weeks prior to any gift giving occasion to the gift giver. Usually the post card will say, Just a Reminder Jewels birthday is date and that is only three weeks away. If you haven't had the time to shop for something special I can help, I even gift wrap and deliver. Please call me at or email me to find out what is on her wish list.

I also ask permission to email and phone them to follow-up. Jewel I would like to send an email reminder as well, because some people are email people, and my email reminder will say the same as the post card, but it will also ask them to let me know if they do not want me to email them in the future. I don't use the emails I get from my wish lists for any other purpose.

Lastly, Jewel I would love a phone number for each of you gift givers, this way one week after the reminded I can call and follow-up. I am only going to call them once. When I make a follow- up call its usually something like this "Hi Gift Giver, I am calling about Jewels birthday. Its coming up fast. This is Tree with AuraStella did you get my postcard? Great. Can I help you select that perfect gift for Jewel? There are two ways we can do this. We can do this right now over the phone. You can tell me about how much you are looking to spend, and I can give you a couple of suggestions, if you have access to a computer you can sign on to my website and see the pieces we are talking about. Otherwise we can meet in the next day or two, I can come to your office, and you can see some of the pieces in person as well as the full catalog." (If I have all the pieces on her wish list I take them with me with gift wrap and a silk flower - so I can leave them with them and order a replacement).

This works for a variety of occasions, when it comes to a child's birthday, if you have the husband's contact information you could call and suggest that the darling child give mom a gift on the child's birthday to say Thank You.

If you have a person who doesn't want to give you the email or the phone information go ahead and do the postcards, make sure when you do the post cards (for either method) that you include some items (in all price ranges from her wish list) as they might order them directly from the website.

You can also offer to print wish list card for the recipient. These are postcards personalized to the recipient that she can hand out to anyone she would like, and the people she hands them out to can contact you.

So now everyone you talk to should have a wish list with you.

I computerize my wish lists.

For every contact I create an electronic (and paper file) with all of her information, her original wish list and the date she created it, and date all add ons. I enter into a paper calendar and an electronic calendar reminders to send the post cards and do the follow up calls. I also track who gave what gifts for what occasions so I can suggest a complimentary piece the next time around.

Always remember that we provide more than Fine Steling Silver Jewelry we provide outstanding customer service.