ARE CUSTOMERS ASKING FOR CERTS?
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Chorthip serpent engagement ring.
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The 4Cs are not the only things that make a piece of diamond
jewelry a sales winner. In an ongoing series, Rapaport Magazine explores the
“3Ws” — what’s selling, what’s not and why — by going straight to the people
who really know — jewelry retailers. Each month, we ask a sampling of retailers
to comment on the important issues that are facing the industry today. Here is
what they had to say when asked: “Are certificates important to your customers?
Do they ask for certs from specific labs? Are certificates a selling tool?”
BRAD KOEN, CO-OWNER
JOE KOEN AND SON JEWELER
AUSTIN, TEXAS
“Customers are studying up on the internet and being more
conscientious before they come in, and they feel they already know all the
answers. And it’s very important to have certified diamonds on hand for them to
look at when showing them a live stone. They all know that Gemological
Institute of America (GIA) is more strict and that some of the EGL labs are not
as strict as some of the other EGL labs. It does help because we don’t have to
teach people what they’re looking at and what they’re getting.”
OLEN LAUGHLIN, SALESMAN
STRAUSS JEWELERS
MOUNT VERNON, WASHINGTON
“Yes, they do, sometimes. But most of the time, they don’t.
It’s not an everyday thing where someone says, ‘No, I don’t want to buy this
colored stone or this diamond unless I get a cert with it.’ We broker most of
the diamonds we get now because it’s the only way we can compete, and most of
them come with a cert. But when we’re educating our customer and we get a stone
without a cert from vendors we’ve dealt with for many, many years, and trust
highly, and they tell me it’s an SI1 stone, G color, then it’s an SI1, G color.
They’re not certing every one of them. And we can do the table percentage and
depth percentage and determine that it’s a well-made, well-cut stone. And we’ll
teach our customers those things.
“But there are some customers who will ask, ‘Do you have a
cert with that?’ And a lot of the stones do. But here’s the difference: If I
have a noncerted G, SI1 stone and I do the comparison with a certed stone for
the customer, normally they can’t see the difference. But it can be $1,000 less
in price for the noncert stone and so that is what most will opt for. But every
customer is different.”
DALE FERBER, OWNER
FERBERS JEWELRY
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI
“Absolutely. They do come in asking for certs.
“If they’ve read enough, they ask for GIA. If they’ve read a
little more, they ask for EGL USA.”
FRED WEBER, OWNER
WEBER JEWELERS
DAYTON, OHIO
“For the most part, customers ask about it more than they
ask for it, which is a slightly different perspective. I think they sort of
expect it. But there are very few who have an understanding that there are
different types.
“I don’t think a cert closes a sale. Some people who are in
our store are here because of us. And a certificate isn’t required. But if it
is a three-quarter carat or larger, for the most part, it would be very unusual
for us not to have a certificate. So it’s an extra — kind of like gift
wrapping. ‘Here’s a document you can have and keep in case you’re not in Dayton
in your future, so you can verify what you have. As long as you are in Dayton,
you have us, but this is something nice for you to have in your possession.’”
LEEANN JACOBS, MARKETING MANAGER
STEVEN SINGER JEWELERS
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
“A lot of customers rely very heavily on the cert and what’s
written on paper. And you do have to educate them on the differences between
certs and the different gem labs. They definitely come in asking for certs. GIA
is the brand that everyone knows.”
JEFF ALEXANDER, PRESIDENT
ALEXANDER’S OF ATLANTA FINE DIAMONDS
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
“I think it’s primarily the younger people who are looking
for certs; the older folks, not so much. The younger people are used to
researching things on the internet, so they’ve heard the term; they know to
ask. They might not necessarily know enough to ask which one or what’s the
difference between them, but they will ask if a stone is certified. Most
everybody wants F, SI2, GIA.
“We approach certs from the standpoint that this is an
independent laboratory’s opinion of what the stone is. And of course, they’re
graded by humans at these labs so there’s a slight deal of variation even
within the same lab. But there’s a hierarchy of certs as well, with American
Gem Society (AGS) and GIA labs being at the top and then working downward from
there.”
PHILIP DUPUIS, OWNER
DUPUIS ET FILS JEWELERS AND GOLDSMITHS
JACKSON, MICHIGAN
“It used to be people were asking for certs — three or four
years ago. It was a big thing. But I’ve noticed that trend seems to be dying
off a little bit. Customers don’t seem to be so concerned about a cert. We
still have some who do want them and a lot of the stones are available with
certs. But as far as the customers coming right out and asking if a stone is
certed, I’m not hearing that like I used to. I’m thinking that a lot of them —
and I’m hoping it’s a trend — are going back to trusting their local jeweler
again.”
JAMES JESSOP, OWNER
JESSOP JEWELERS
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
“Very rarely does the customer ask for a cert. I think we,
in my store, use the backup, the secondary documents, as something to support
the value that we are telling out clients that a piece of jewelry has. So we
offer them the documents. All of our diamonds will have documents, either by
GIA or AGS. And I think for diamonds, maybe some people do ask, but for colored
stones, we have to explain to people the value added in having the document.”
ANDREW LEFTON, SALES MANAGER
J.R. DUNN
LIGHTHOUSE POINT, FLORIDA
“It is important to our clients. In particular, GIA certs
are important to our clients. I’d say maybe 25 percent of our clients actually
come in asking for certs. And we carry diamonds with certs from EGL,
International Gemological Institute (IGI) and noncerted stones, a little bit of
everything. But the cert that people do ask for is GIA. Certs are a selling tool.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - September 2012. To subscribe click here.