Aussie jewellers share industry musings

Michaelangelo Grimaldi
Michael's Showcase Jewellers, Mount Isa, Queensland

Best sale?
“Throughout all the years in the trade, the best sales for me have involved seeing the look on a customer’s face when you hand them the piece that you both custom-created. As for money value, probably the large engagement ring I was commissioned to make for a client on the Gold Coast – it was nice and healthy, just not consistent, damn it!”

Best customer?
“My best customer was a young lady who had inherited quite a huge amount of diamonds that she eventually remodelled. She was a lovely friendly soul but has since left town. She used to bring her friends in and we all had a great time.”

Fondest memory?
“There are so many I really cannot pinpoint any one time. I have been on the bench since I left hairdressing, so let’s just say it’s been a while. I do remember meeting Commando Steve at the Garmin stand at the Sydney fair last year. We had a really good laugh and chat...not about jewellery; however, it was one of those great times that the industry brought to me. I have made life-long friends in the industry and also have some really great people with helpful insights and ideas from my membership at Showcase Jewellers. It’s a great industry.”

Noah Gattea
Gattea Jewellers, Sydney

Best sale?
“An Argyle pink diamond. My customer had already purchased a Christmas present for his wife on the same day I received a deal on a beautiful pink that I had to have. I took a stab in the dark and emailed the client, and lo and behold he replied back on Christmas Eve that he was interested. I booked tickets to New York for my wife and I, purchasing the diamond in person. Partly because it was a trip to Manhattan and that it was spontaneous, but it will surely live out in my memory.”

Best customer?
“My best customer entered the store in 2004. He came in abruptly, all 6 feet, 5 inches of him, and said: ‘If you talk straight with me and give me a good deal I’ll come to you for every occasion.’I sold him a gold bracelet that day and I’ve seen him at least once a month for the past 13 years. He kept his word and was loyal. Can’t put a price on that.”

Fondest memory?
“Looking back at all the times I worked in my family’s stores – it would have been at least nine locations around Sydney from when I was 14 until I opened my own. Every store had a different vibe and I remember one having a large workshop where I’d make a lot of noise tapping up a ring on the mandrel. It sounded like I was beating someone to death but funnily enough customers would look over and giggle; I like to think they enjoyed the ruckus of a real jewellery store.”

Russell Steele
Inkas Jewellers, Busselton, WA

Best customer?

“That 3-carat diamond sale was the greatest ‘dollar wise’ sale I have made and the woman who bought it was also my favourite customer. She had been to the opposition in town and was dismissed as perhaps an inconvenience and came to us a little bit annoyed – similar to the scenario in Pretty Woman. From that day on she ran a constant layby for about 10 years until she left town. When something was paid off she would pick out or request something even nicer. I think retailers should treat everyone individually and not judge them by appearances.”

Fondest memory?
“The sale of a 3-carat diamond in my little country store was a highlight but a greater highlight was that sense of achievement knowing they had the confidence in me to do it.”

Cameron Marks
Percy Marks Jewellers, Sydney

Fondest memory?
“My fondest memory from working in the trade is making a very large sale to an overseas customer and the travel involved in making them happy with the final piece.”

Sandra Greenberger
Leske's Jewellers, Port Fairy, Victoria

Best customer?
“We have several ‘best customer’ scenarios and these stem from trust and respect, something I strongly believe is important in the process of a sale. Our best customers
trust our advice, and are open to options and suggestions; our best customers validate our work and become ambassadors for our business; our best customers send new clients our way.”

Fondest memory?
“When our ‘best customers’ return to show off their babies – that’s always the highlight of our day because it indicates that they consider us part of their lives and are important enough to share those special moments.”

Ian Pattison
Ian Pattison's Jewellers, Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria

Best sale?
“It’s always exciting being a part of the process of designing and making an engagement ring or a piece for a significant birthday.”

Best customer?
“We are fortunate enough to have a very supportive local community over the 43 years we have been in Ocean Grove.”

Fondest memory?
“I’m proud to now have three daughters in the family business, including a gemmologist and an apprentice jeweller.”

John Miller
John Miller Design, Yallingup, WA

Best customer?
“We did a silver bracelets calendar in 2013 and gave an expat visitor from Singapore a copy. She emailed to say she kept it by her bed and looked when she couldn’t sleep – they were all pretty elaborate and significant pieces. She eventually bought one of each of the bangles from the calendar (and quite a lot more) and continues to be a wonderful customer. When people fly over from Sydney or Melbourne, just to order a piece or pieces, then fly back to pick them up, you have to feel you must be doing something right. We also have large and extended families that look like walking JMD Christmas trees. All of our customers are special, even the impossible ones.”

Fondest memory?
“Tough question! So many wonderful years of laughter and tears, ups and downs. I kind of live through my staff, so being able to take them to Bangkok and Hong Kong for the big jewellery fairs and a few good soups has to be up there.

“The industry has been very good to me – from my entire workshop in the back of an old $100 Holden HR station wagon on the Great Northern Highway through to the small empire we are today, it was all great.”

Catherine Pevy-Trewartha
My Jewellery Shop, Gold Coast

Best customer?
“When I started in retail more than 15 years ago, I had a lady that changed my whole perspective on customer service. She came in asking to try on a very large diamond ring and was dressed in her casual grocery shopping clothes. As I went to the window to get the ring I remember thinking ‘Oh, yeah right’... a typical time waster. The ring fit perfectly and she said she would be back with a deposit. When she walked in with a bundle of old $20 notes I felt mixed emotions; I was thrilled that she bought the ring but guilty that I had judged her. The rest was paid in cash that she had been saving for more than 10 years.”

Fondest memory?
“Growing up in the trade I have made so many life-long friends and I belong to a very large ‘family’ of wonderful people. Trade fairs and conferences are like a big reunion.”

Chris Hood
Metal Urges Fine Jewellery, Hobart

Best customer?
“Depends how you take the meaning of the term ‘best’. It might be the single high-end customer for some but at Metal Urges it’s a more complex answer. I’d say my best client is the one that spreads the word the most. Two or three in particular spring quickly to mind, and all came in after poor to horrible service elsewhere. We made a point of  fixing the problem at either cost price or no charge at all. Customers won this way almost always become super word-of-mouth people, bringing countless new clients along!”

Fondest memory?
“Without a doubt my entry into the world of coloured gemstones and travelling the world to source them. Nervously buying my first sapphires internationally in a dark central Sri Lankan hotel room is a stand-out moment! I still regularly visit the same trader and share a family meal before selecting gemstones – it’s been fantastic to see that family grow and prosper as a result (at least in part) of my purchases and support.”

Masis Agopyan
Brilliant Diamond, Sydney

Best sale?
“It would have to be when the customer jumped with joy and gave me a hug and a kiss because they absolutely loved the piece.”

Best customer?
“We have had some very loyal customers for about 20 to 30 years who always come back and also always refer new customers to us – they are the backbone of our entire business.”

Fondest memory?
“My fondest memory has to also be my earliest memory of ‘working’ in the trade in my father’s workshop in Perth. I was about three years old with a little metal hammer and my sticky tape ‘fixing’ the bits I found on the floor in the workshop.”