Toddwaz' Take on the Four C's

We all develop our own ways to explain different things to our customers.  This weekend I worked on a succinct explanation of the 4 C's for a piece of software I'm working on.  I tried to write it the way I would speak to a retail customer.  I always try to start-out as dead-simple as possible, and then go deeper as the client requires.  Let me know if you have any words or phrases that make it simple for your clients.

The four C’s of Diamond Quality 

CARAT

Carat (when spelled with a ‘C’) is a unit of weight equal to 1/5^th of a gram.  Nature produces small diamonds in greater quantity than larger ones; therefore the higher the carat-weight of the diamond, the more rare it is.

CLARITY 

The purest and rarest diamonds have no imperfections visible even under 10X magnification.  As these inclusions become increasingly large or numerous, the rarity and value decreases. 

FL/IF   – Flawless and Internally Flawless

VVS1   – Very Very Slight inclusions – visible with 10X binocular magnification

VVS2              

VS1     – Very Slight inclusions – difficult to spot with a 10X (monocular) loupe

VS2

SI1      – Slight Inclusions – easy to spot with 10X loupe, but invisible from above with the naked eye

SI2

I1        - Included – minor eye-visible inclusions.  Mostly transparent.

I2        - Obvious eye-visible inclusions.  Transparency partly obstructed

I3        - Very obvious eye-visible inclusions, little or no transparency and possible structural weakness

COLOR

In order to separate the modern color scale from the old “A-B-C” quality scale, the GIA (American) color scale begins with the rarest and most colorless diamonds at “D”.  The equivalent color grades in the CIBJO (International) scale are shown below for further clarity.

D         - Exceptional Rare White+

E          - Exceptional Rare White

F          - Rare White +

G          - Rare White

H         - White

I - J      -Slightly Tinted White

K - L    -Tinted White

M         -Tinted Color 1

N-R      -Tinted Color 2

S-Z       -Tinted Color 3

Beyond “Z” are rare diamonds whose color is so magnificent that they are considered “fancy” colored diamonds.

CUT

This category actually refers to two different qualities of a gemstone.  The cut can refer to the shape and pattern of faceting.  Most diamonds are cut as round brilliants.  Secondary cuts are princess (or square brilliant), radiant-cut (octagonal brilliant), emerald cut (octagonal step-cut) pear, marquise or oval.  Thirdly are a wide variety of proprietary specialty cuts.

Cut can also refer to the effectiveness of the diamond cutter at revealing the maximum brilliance or dispersion of a diamond.  Crafting a diamond for optimal beauty often means cutting away more of the raw material, so a premium cut diamond will come at a higher cost.

The day of reckoning is near…

When I first started in the jewellery business in 1987, many of you will recall two very popular jewellery trends.  One was the infamous herringbone chain.  Because these flat shimmering beauties were so popular, manufacturers were competing to make them thinner and thinner, while making them more and more flexible.  The result?  Kinks, kinks and more kinks.  The more they were repaired, the worse they looked and the closer they got to the scrap-gold bin.

The second big-thing were cluster rings.  There were the little 7 stone mini-diamond rings, the 17 and 25-stone engagement rings, and the ever popular “total gem weight” scheme featuring really bad colored stones and a hand-full of microscopic diamonds adding up to quarter, half and one-carat total weights.  Claws, claws and more claws.  Outraged client: “You want $300 to repair the claws on a $199 ring???”

Are you starting to see the writing on the wall regarding micro-pave bridal designs?  I once tried to talk a young lady, and her soon-to-be fiancé out of a fragile micro-pave ring with delicately-set marquise diamonds.  I was assured by both of them (and her friends) that this was a young lady who did NO manual labor, and had NO activities that would put this fragile ring in any jeopardy.  An engagement ring should be something that withstands daily-wear for many years to come. 

For most young ladies, I’m afraid that elaborate rings with a million miniscule claws or beads are going to lead to frightful service costs, and a frustrating jewellery experience.  Many rings promoted en mass to young brides are virtually impossible to size without affecting the security of the accent diamonds. 

I suggest you start planning with your goldsmith how you’ll handle service on such rings.  How do you explain that the security of accent diamonds cannot be guaranteed once the ring is sized-down?  How do you answer client complaints when the third, fifth or tenth small diamond falls out?  What do you say when that fragile setting is at the end of its’ useful life.  I’ve done hundreds of restyles: trust me, there are only so many ways of restyling something with 40 or 50 tiny diamonds and the price is quite high.

I’m not suggesting that we stop selling these popular styles.  I am suggesting that you ask a few “lifestyle” questions to your clients and advise them of the limitations of highly embellished designs on active hands.  I do recommend paying attention to what a goldsmith can and can’t do when it comes to repairing micro-pave.  If you plan on being in this business for another 5 or 10 years, you’re going to have to deal with these issues.

Work with suppliers to understand serviceability and warranties.  Show these designs to goldsmiths and learn what problems might develop, and if or how they can be remedied.  Honestly advise active young ladies about the future consequences or benefits of different designs.  Let them make their choice fully-informed.  It’s not a matter of covering your butt; it’s a matter of expertly advising people whose lifetime value is worth so much more than the current engagement ring purchase.

Saturday Story Time - Bipolar Edition

It was about 1995.  I had been doing jewellery insurance claims for some time, and believed that I was doing a great job for my clients and for the insurance adjusters.  It’s a difficult balance.

I seemed to strike the right chord with a lady who called my business partner and raved about the service she received.  Most insurance claimants came to me under a lot of stress; having had their homes broken into.  I prided myself on being compassionate and doing everything I could to make a difficult situation a little easier.

Because we had a small inventory and people kept on losing a wide variety of jewellery from every era, I was the special-order king.  I had a Columbia catalog from the 1950s with bridal designs that Libman was sometimes able to supply.  I often had to source items from multiple suppliers to settle an insurance claim. 

Among our inventory were some older cluster rings that the previous owner had bought.  My raving fan had chosen one of these cluster rings as part of her insurance replacement.  A couple of weeks later a diamond fell out of this ring.  She called and blasted me on the phone for selling her inferior product.  When she dropped the ring off, she once again “ripped me a new one”.  Once I had my goldsmith repair the ring and tighten all of the claws up, I offered to hand-deliver her ring.  In her entry-way I had to listen to her complaints all over again.

At the end her husband looked at me with sympathy and apologized for her behavior.  My only consolation was that he appreciated my handling of the situation.

I did learn a couple of things from that situation.  The first was that even though I was glad to get rid of that dinosaur from my inventory, it was not particularly well-built.  Selling anything that you know won’t last is going to bite you in the butt sooner or later.  The second thing I learned was to beware the bi-polar personality.

Have a great Saturday.

Carpe Diem

 Reprinted from my “Road Reflections” Blog – Sept. 15, 2011

Okay, I admit it… I sat and watched the Home Shopping Channel for about 20 minutes last night in my “not so fancy but clean, cheap motel room” in Farflung, Saskatchewan.  Now to be fair, I turned there when I saw the listing show “Ammolite”.  Some of you know that “Korite Ken” is my cousin, so I just wanted to watch long enough to have something to bug him about.  The thing I found interesting is that everything they were selling was in silver.  I’m sure they still sell gold, but like all of us, they’re trying to keep price points down to reasonable levels.

Here’s the thing about price points.  Trying to chase them down the scale is what Wallmart does.  Wallmarts’ suppliers have a price-point and a look in mind.  In order to make those two factors happen, they make jewellery cheaper, thinner and with lower and lower quality gemstones in order to fit the price-point.  I’m not equating Korite’s product with Wallmart at all.  I’m simply saying that jewellery is and should be more expensive today than it was 10 years ago.  Vive la difference.

All of this talk about making 6kt and 8kt gold, the silver bead phenomenon, stainless steel, titanium and other alternative metals reflects irrational fear.  What if home-builders decided to make houses out of cardboard in order to keep price points the same as they were 10 years ago?  What if Detroit, Japan and Korea decided to start making cars without airbags, without ABS brakes and with Firestone tires? 

Homes are being built to a higher standard than ever.  Cars have more features than ever.  They’re fetching higher prices than ever.  More money is being spent than ever, so why are we reducing features?

Some aren’t.  We have retailers selling more caraters than ever, more 2ct diamonds than ever and more one-off pieces than ever.  This is the time to not only carpe diem, but it’s time to carpe diamond!  Seize the diamond!

Trade Deadline

The NHL trade deadline passed on Monday.  My team, the Oilers, made a last minute deal that sent a 29 year old defenseman to another team for a 29 year old defenseman.  Those of you unfamiliar with hockey might find that a bid absurd.  The reason that trade made sense is that Edmonton was seeking a stay-at-home defensive player and the other team had recently traded away one of their more aggressively offensive D-men. 

What if independent retail jewellers were like the NHL.  What if out staff were so highly specialized that we could say to a guy in Ontario, “hey, I’ve got a 29 year old sales clerk who’s strong on diamond sales but weak in administration.  I’m looking for a mature salesperson with all-around product knowledge including high-end watches, who can be an assistant manager.  I’m willing to throw-in a George-Brown trained bench jeweller who can do basic watch repairs.  Are you interested in a trade?”

Why doesn’t this happen?  Well, I guess the NHL is a big business with each team a franchise within.  We all tend to be in business for ourselves and develop our own talent.  If you’ve ever heard of such a trade being made in our industry, let me know.  I’d be eager to hear about it.

Meanwhile, we notice that NHL franchises focus a lot on developing teams that require very specific, diverse and complimentary talents.  It takes a lot of fine-tuning to assemble an effective play-off contender.  So does your store.  One of the best retail teams I worked for included a charismatic male manager who many of our female clients just loved, an older motherly salesperson who had young couples eating out of her hand, and a well-rounded salesperson who eagerly performed many tedious administrative chores.  The rest of the staff, just seemed to find their niches, and we all helped others as the situation required (including cleaning-up and locking showcases behind our motherly sales lady.)

Take note of the talents you have around you.  If you’re hiring, craft your help-wanted ad to attract the type of person you need to round-out your team.  If that doesn’t work, maybe try making a trade or two and let me know how it goes.