We’re kicking off repair month with some helpful tips and tricks for repair intakes.
Welcome to Repair Month at Stuller! We know that January can be one of the busiest times of year for jewelers as you receive lots of orders that require a large portion of your time. It can be a lot to handle, from resizing rings and resetting stones to repairing chains and replacing earring posts. All month long, Stuller is celebrating this busy season with back-to-back content to help you prosper. This includes a web page full of products and information to help you with all things repair. Visit the Stuller.com/Repair web page for more information.
As well as the helpful content page, correlating articles revolving around different parts of the repair process will be posted on BenchJeweler.com every Tuesday for the rest of January. These articles will give you tips and tricks that we know you’ll find helpful. To kick off this month-long campaign, we want to start at the beginning of the entire process —repair intake. Repairs are the ticket in the door and the experience that could lead to more repairs, future sales opportunities, and more.
Pricing Repairs
One of the things that a jeweler has to do when starting a repair is to decide on a price for their services while also estimating labor time into account. We recommend taking a look at Geller's Blue Book. This packet is an excellent guide for repair pricing with adjustments for your competitive market. Never be unsure of how much to charge a customer, no matter the simplicity or complexity of a repair.
Protect Yourself With Documentation
When inspecting a repair, jewelers also have to make sure that every stone and metal is screened and tested. You can address this task with the help of diamond and gemstone testers, screeners, scales, and more gemological equipment and measuring tools. Inspecting the pieces thoroughly in as much detail as possible is incredibly important and vital for the busy repair season when multiple jobs require your attention.
Stay Organized
After pricing a repair, it’s important to keep yourself organized. If a customer brings in an item that is broken into pieces, these smaller parts can quickly get misplaced. That’s why we recommend having a variety of sizes in bags, forms, and organizational tools to make sure everything is documented and stored correctly. By using convenient envelopes and forms, and various bags, staying organized is simple and easy.
Remember, the jewelry your customers bring in for repairs will most likely be sentimental to them. So, when you have a customer's piece, it's then in your care and ultimately your responsibility to make sure the entire process goes smoothly.
Check out Stuller’s variety of repair intake tools and more when visiting Stuller.com/Repair. We can’t wait to dive even deeper into the busy repair season to make what may seem like a stressful time more enjoyable. Next week, be on the lookout for another article that breaks down ring repair.