“Our cocktail service starts at noon, but in the meantime, can I offer you a glass of champagne?” Ah, music to my ears and, frankly, words I don’t hear often enough. It was a tough job, but someone had to go scouring the jewelry shops of the north of England to discover how British retailers measure up against their American counterparts and that lucky someone, was me.

 

The aim of the assignment was easy. Take three jewelry shops, a top range store, a middle range vendor, and an entry-level retailer, go into each with the same story and see just how far the sales people’s knowledge, ability, and powers of persuasion measure up.

 

Step One - The Story

Enlisting a childhood friend of mine as an accomplice on this fantasy shopping trip was easy. I just mentioned the word diamonds and there she was, quick as you like. We met up in town for a pre-shopping coffee and tried to come up with a good cover story. Although I had initially wanted to pretend that the expedition was in my honor, you know, just for being me (well, a girl can dream can't she?), with our youthful looks hinting at our lack of moolah, we decided it would be much more convincing if we pooled our “resources”. After much debate we came up with the idea of posing as sisters out looking for a gift for our mother’s birthday.

 

Then came the tough bit; the question of how much to spend. As much as I wanted to swan around the posh retailers, trying on pieces that simply dripped with sparkly stones and were priced exorbitantly, that wasn’t the point of the trip. Even when fantasy shopping it is necessary to keep within the bounds of reality, to an extent, and so we settled on £500 (around $800) as a good figure, though as this was virtual shopping, we agreed that we had the power to increase the amount should it become necessary, which pretty early on, it did.

 

Step Two - The High-End Retailer

Ok, so Liverpool, a city in the north west of England, is no London, Paris or New York when it comes to jewelry. Truth be told it’s not known as a shopping mecca, but it has a decent enough range of shops; from low end, mass market stores to more upmarket retailers catering for the increasingly wealthy population of the city.

 

The first hurdle we hit was that just a few days before Christmas, it seemed that the entire population of Liverpool had chosen that very morning to do their holiday shopping. No matter, we ducked out of the heaving main street and headed to the hushed and glamorous interior of what is widely considered the best jewelry shop in the city and in fact, the best in the north west of England, though the independent, family run company also has stores in London.

 

Before we even went into the recently renovated shop we stood outside and gawped. This was one retailer who had made the most of their window displays. In stark contrast to the gaudy Christmas decorations that had engulfed the whole city, this jeweler managed to put on a Christmas display that was elegant, tasteful and stylish. The green and baby-pink baubles that were hanging in the immaculate windows displayed the retailer's name. The jewelry was displayed on glass tables centered in the windows but, unlike other stores that had merchandise displayed on two levels, this shop had covered the bottom of the display windows in pink, sparkly paper, which served to increase the glittering of the to-die-for merchandise in the window. The displays were beautifully conceived and executed, with only a few pieces in any one window. The overwhelming feeling of spaciousness was enhanced by the space of the shop and the many windows it has facing on to the street. For music fans, the shop is located right around the corner from the famous Cavern Club of Beatles’ fame.

 

Unfortunately, the magic spell cast by the exterior of the store dissipated almost as soon as we crossed the threshold. Ok, we look and in fact are youthful, ok; we weren’t dressed to the nines, but so what? There is nothing more irritating than being ignored. Don’t do it. Instruct your staff to serve people even if they don’t look as though they belong there. Remember, appearances really can be deceiving and for all anyone knew, we may have been a couple of lottery millionaire winners, heiresses or high-tech millionaires.

 

Assuming that we weren't any of those things, every single member of the sales team gave us a wide berth. After walking around the store for a good few minutes, talking quite loudly about what ‘mum’ would like for her birthday, we were approached by a good looking young salesman, who was wearing a pink tie, which seemed to be the company’s signature color of choice.

 

“Is anyone looking after you?” asked the, very, handsome young man whom I admit I had spotted while gazing at the jewelry outside. Pleased that somebody had at last come to rescue us from jewelry ignominy we answered that they had not. He thought about this for some time and then asked if he could be of help. When people imply that they need help, help them, don’t just stand there looking good. This guy, however, was forgiven very slightly because he had looking good down to a fine art.

 

After explaining that we were looking for a present for our mother’s birthday, he looked around the shop for inspiration. We were standing next to a display of J-lotastic gold and diamond letters. He seized on this and asked if we interested in taking a closer look at them. My ‘sister’ and I both looked at each other and made a face that clearly expressed our disinterest. This seemed to throw him. And he didn’t have any further suggestions for us. As we would discover, this young sales guy seemed very nervous and did not have the easy banter that salespeople should have.

 

We took pity on the youngster and rescued him from the silence by saying that we were interested in a pendant we had seen in the window. Propelled into action, the sales guy went to look for it, but then he let himself down by not seeming a hundred percent sure of where to find it. Grrr. Salespeople! Know thy stock.

 

After much opening and closing of drawers and windows, our salesman eventually found what he though we were looking for and brought it over to the immaculate table where we were sitting on immaculate white chairs and placed it on an immaculate jewelry roll. My friend and I looked at each other and with one voice told him that this wasn't what we wanted. Was there anything similar that he could bring us perhaps? So off he went, across the shop, and seemingly disappeared for a while. My accomplice told me afterwards that the young man had veered over to the champagne bar and fiddled with the glasses, unsure of whether or not he should bring us a drink. Of course he should have! Even at ten o'clock in the morning we would have gladly supped on some bubbly. Always, make the customer feel special and how better to do that than with a glass (or two) of champagne?

 

Mr. Salesperson returned brandishing two further items, both of which were among the cheapest items that the shop offered, though no mention had been made of budget. We didn’t like these so off he set again for something a little different, something classic and elegant suggested my “sibling”. It’s important that, even in an expensive store, such as the one we were in, that sales assistants don’t automatically assume that their customers can’t afford the stock; on the other hand, it’s important that they don’t automatically assume that they can afford the most expensive pieces in the shop.

 

When he returned, again, our salesman was carrying a beautiful set consisting of bracelet, earrings and a pendent. “Well,” I said huffily, maintaining the deception “mum’s not getting all of that on the one birthday.” He saw my eyes light up and offered to let me try on the tennis bracelet; a good sales tactic as every store assistant should know it helps bring the consumer closer to the piece. As soon as he closed the clasp, I wanted it. Not for my virtual mother, not even for my real mother though I would, I suppose lend it to her but for myself. Had it not been for the sinister looking security guard hulking by the door, I might have been tempted to make a run for it. The piece was magnificent but, at £8500 (around $15,000) just a little bit out of our price range, so points must be taken off for our sales person overestimating what we were prepared to spend.

 

Reluctantly, and with genuine tears in my eyes, I took it off and sent junior on a hunt for some more reasonable pieces, but not before I asked him about the stones. Each stone in the store, he had repeatedly told us, was certified by the GIA. Great, I enthused, what’s the GIA? Uh oh, that stumped him. “An independent company that values diamonds,” he said. Oh really? But what does it stand for? He seemed reluctant to give me the full name of the Institute and for good reason - he didn't know it. “The geological institute of, of, of...” he stuttered. “Hang on, I’ll ask someone" and he called out to a passing salesperson. Oh, said the second character after a good thirty second of thought, it’s the Gemological Institute of America, his ears turning bright red. “That was a bit of a tough one for so early in the morning,” he joked. Oh for heaven's sake; ensure that your staff members know what they are talking about. The GIA is an important entity, and in an up market store, buyers are likely to want to know that their diamonds are certified.  

 

It took a long time, but eventually our salesperson got the hang of what we were looking for and returned with two beautiful pieces. The first, a diamond and morganite pendant, priced at £1200 ($2125). The second, a reversible circular diamond necklace, which was priced the same. One side was set with small white diamonds; the second side could be encrusted with either black or pink stones. This was it, I decided, this is what my ‘mother’ would like for her birthday.

 

But I wasn’t going to let the sales assistant get away that easily. “Are they real diamonds,” I asked of the black stones. “Of course they are,” he reassured me. “They come from Africa.” Well, of course they do...

 

However, this insider knowledge opened up the way very nicely for me to be able to ask about conflict diamonds. “No,” he said adamantly, "none of our diamonds come from conflict areas.” “But how can you be sure?” I pushed "The store’s name guarantees it,” he said, but I wasn't prepared to let it go. “How can you be sure?” I repeated. Once again he got up and toddled off somewhere. Some minutes later he returned proudly displaying a table display with a printed piece of paper in it declaring that the company guaranteed all the diamonds were from reputable sources. Did he just print it off there and then, or is this something that is usually displayed? If so, why was it not on display on that particular day?

 

We told the guy that we would have to go away and think about the piece. At this point, rather illogically, junior finally offered us a drink, maybe he though this would make us buy the necklace. As he started to put the jewelry away, he began to confide in us. “I guess you can tell that I am a bit of a fledgling here,” he said, “I only started four weeks ago.” Retailers; don’t send out ill prepared and untrained staff.

 

To be honest, I was under whelmed by my experiences at this store. The service was slow and disappointing. Our sales person made no real attempt to sell anything to us. I understand that he was new to the job, but even so. It’s a high end retailer, and customers should receive high end service.

 

Step Three- The Mid Range Retailer

The small dead fly in the display was annoying. After all, the rest of the window was clean, bar one piece of plastic that the staff kept missing when they opened and shut the window, and, of course, for the fly that had gone to its eternal resting place in full view of every passer-by. But, on the whole, the window was orderly and logical, if a little overcrowded, however, it lacked the stylistic value of the first shop.

 

We rang the bell to the shop; the door was opened by a friendly security guard who wished us a good morning. In contrast to the palatial splendor of the first shop, with its light and airy interior and princess-like glass staircase, the inside of the store was a little dark and austere. Partly because it was so very small. From the door to the display counter was barely a couple of steps. There was a small ‘holding’ area with a few items on display, but other than that there was nothing to look at, nothing to examine and nothing to coo over. The merchandise was all displayed in the outside cases so that you have to have a pretty good idea of what it is you want to look at before entering the shop.

 

Once again, we were initially ignored and, because the shop was so small, it was a tad on the intimidating side. However, once the shop assistant came over we forgave them the wait and got right back into our story. We spun her the same yarn we had told in the first shop, and received an obligatory “ahh”. She asked what we were looking for and listened as we told her what we wanted, a pendant and why we wanted it. She suggested that we showed her the sort of pieces we like so that she could get an idea of what we wanted, a subtle way of discovering our budget. Unfortunately, the way the shop was displayed meant that we had to go back outside, into the cold and rain of a typical northern English winter day to show her what we wanted. However, this is a design style typical of English retailers and not something that can be specifically blamed on this particular chain, though changing this particular layout is something that storekeepers should begin to think about.

 

Once back out in the blustery wind, the shop assistant waited patiently while we looked. As she listened to my friend and I murmur between us, she subtly suggested an item that, at more than £600 ($1060), was over our imaginary budget. “That’s really pushing our price boundaries,” said my accomplice, in a fake whisper. The salesperson immediately took note and suggested a piece under £500 ($885). "Lovely," we chorused.

 

Hurrying back into the warmth of the store we sat down at one of the tables and waited for the salesperson to return with our choices. She brought two pieces with her as well, as a third that she had chosen as her piece to wear that day, something the sales staff of this store is expected to do. Again, whether it was a subtle or subconscious move, it meant that we could chat to her about the piece she was wearing. The tactic also allowed us to see a piece that we would not have chosen ourselves and seeing it on a real person, as opposed to laid out on a jewelry roll makes a real difference.

 

Alongside the pendants, she had also brought out a pair of earnings that I had exclaimed over when we were outside and placed them directly in front of me. They lay there, willing me to take them home. With great strength of character I overcame the desire to get out my credit card there and then and turned my attention to the task at hand. 

 

My friend and I oohed and ahhed over the two necklaces that we had picked out of the window display. One, the salesperson explained, was part of the company’s signature collection, which meant that we would not find anything similar elsewhere. The other was a generic piece of jewelry. Though once again she was extremely subtle, she was definitely pushing the first piece, which was the slightly pricier of the two.

 

She tried them on for us so that we could see what they would look like; though if we had asked I am sure she would have let us try them on as well. As we sat there discussing the relative merits of the items, and chatting to the sales assistant in general, we could see a lot of action going on in the back of the store. There was an open door with some machinery. In answer to our questions about this rather out of place scene, the salesperson explained that the man wearing a white coat we could see was a Rolex engineer and the person to whom he was talking was the company’s head goldsmith.

 

It turned out that the branch of the chain we were in was actually, despite its relatively small stature, the main store and the place where the designs were mocked up and examined by the goldsmith. The salesperson was clearly engaged by the process and enjoyed explaining it to us, telling us about the history of the chain and referring to the founder by name. She obviously felt like a “member of the family.”

 

I hesitantly mentioned that I knew little about diamonds but what I did know consisted of the four c’s. Was it possible, I asked tentatively, that she explain exactly what this meant? She did this gladly bringing over a visual display to make sure we understood it more clearly, explaining that the company only sold diamonds that were VS + and grades D to G in color. Again, the ease with which she gave this explanation made us feel that not only did the sales assistant know what she was talking about, but that she was also interested in what she was selling.

 

Drawing the conversation to a close I said that I had just read something about conflict diamonds and wanted to make sure that the diamonds I was buying were from reputable sources. She answered immediately that the company did not buy diamonds from disputed areas and that the name of the store was the consumers guarantee in this situation. Though, as in the first store, there was nothing explicitly stating this.

 

We said that we would have to go and get a drink and talk over what we were going to do. At this the salesperson took out her card, wrote down the names, numbers and prices of the pieces and also drew them for us so that we would be able to remember which piece was which when we talked about them. Seeing that I kept looking at the earrings that she had also brought out, she offered to write down the details of them for me, just in case, which was a great sales tactic. 

 

As we were getting up to leave my friend pointed out a framed poster of a back necklace. That was, I said, similar to the one that Nicole Kidman was wearing in the current Chanel No. 5 campaign. The salesperson knew exactly what we were talking about and even told us something about the necklace. She was informed, persuasive and articulate. She was extremely well put together in appearance and demeanor. As we left she told us it was a pleasure to meet us, she hoped to see us when we made our decision and she saw us to the door. Fantastic service. Even the security guard wished us a good day, rather than just standing there like part of the furniture.

 

We left the shop and about ten minutes later I realized I had left my scarf behind. Uh oh, not only was I not going to buy anything but now I had to return to the scene. Shamefaced I approached the store. Even before I mounted the steps the security guard opened the door and told me that he had run after me but he couldn’t see where I had gone.

 

The sales assistant thought I was back to make a purchase. ‘Have you made a decision? Do you mind waiting for a moment?” she said. “I’m just with another customer.” I told her I had just come back for my scarf. Taking this in her stride, she told me that she had just sold the necklace we were looking at to someone else, but she hoped to see me again soon.

 

Had I been making a real jewelry purchase, I would definitely have bought from this store. Ok, the shop lacked the glitz and glamour of the first store we went to, but so what. Beauty is not only skin deep and the reception we received here more than made up for the frosty welcome of the first shop. The sales person was bright, articulate and enthusiastic about what she was doing. She was experienced and professional and knew how to make us feel comfortable. She also picked up on my penchant for the beautiful earrings I saw and half persuaded me that I should buy them. Our experience here proves that high end retailers don't always have the upper hand.

 

Step Four- The Entry Level Store

The thing about Liverpool is that it is not a wealthy city. There are plenty of basic chain jewelers around and the one on the main shopping street in the city centre is a generic example. Unlike the quiet calm of the other two stores, with the discreet security and weeding out system, this shop is an open free for all. There is no visible security, though there are plentiful signs telling you that CCTV cameras are following your every move. Not exactly conducive to a pleasant shopping experience, but a sensible precaution, I suppose.

 

The layout of the shop was also quite different to the two other stores we had visited. The windows, which sweep into the open store, were jam-packed full of merchandise. There was so much that I didn't know where to begin to look. Serendipitously, we found ourselves on the side of the store selling 'real jewelry'.

 

The shop was absolutely heaving. Whereas the other shops had emitted a low-level buzz of activity, this one let out a positive cacophony. Between 15 to 20 salespeople were serving, all of them busy when we initially entered the store. This gave us time to look into the displays as we waited. We managed to position ourselves by a sales assistant as she was wrapping up her sales pitch. “Why don’t you get something cheaper so you can spend more money on your Christmas shopping?” was her advice to the gentleman ahead of us. Not the best sales pitch perhaps, but certainly considerate of the gentleman’s hesitancy to part with his money and a possible sign that the girl wasn’t working on a commission basis.

 

We made eye contact and again spouted our alibi, which was now beginning to sound, and feel, extremely natural. This time there were no niceties and she asked us straight out what our budget was. And this time, we had nothing to feel ashamed off. £500 ($885) in this store was certainly nowhere near the bottom of the merchandise scale.

 

We looked in the crowded display cases and, overcoming the temporary blindness that came from the sparkle and glitter of so many pieces crowded together, chose a piece that we said we wanted to see.

 

Wearing one grubby white glove, our sales assistant took a pendant out from the case and laid it out on a jewelry roll that had seen better days. Retailers, make sure your staff don’t use the rolls as placemats; this one had not one but two coffee rings on it, which certainly didn’t show off the jewelry to the best advantage. The graying glove, however, at least covered up her scuffed and broken nails. I might not celebrate it myself, but even I can see that Santa Claus nail designs are part and parcel of getting into the holiday spirit, and could even be sort of sweet when well applied. But they are just plain inappropriate when you are showing jewelry, especially when the nails in question are chipped and scuffed.

 

Probably thinking, not unreasonably given the reputation of the city, that if she let us anywhere near the jewelry, we would be likely to run off with it, she didn’t offer to let us try it on, in fact, she kept pretty tight hold of it all the time. To give us some indication of what it might look like she held it up to her neck to allow us to see the effect. The only problem was, she was already wearing a necklace, which made it hard to see what the true effect should be. No, we said, it wasn’t really what we were after.

 

In this type of store, no means no and rather than leaving it out for us to consider further she immediately put the piece away - though this made me feel as though I couldn’t be trusted to keep from pocketing it and fleeing the store and after some thought took out two more pendants. The first she told us was part of the company’s signature range. The second was a piece of generic jewelry that we could pick up anywhere. 

 

What did it mean, we wondered, that it was part of the company's signature range? She explained that the stones in it were mined in Israel, because that’s where the best stones come from, shipped over to New York where they are hand crafted, sent to the company’s warehouse and then dispatched to the shop. “Really?” I said, to give her a chance to rectify her error about there being diamond mines in Israel. Oh yes, she reassured me and told me that she thought it was good to know a little bit of the background about what you were buying. Later on in the conversation I asked her once more to tell me about the signature piece. With all her scuffed nails, dirty glove and well used jewelry mat, I enjoyed talking to her and saw that she enjoyed her job and wanted to hope that it had all been a bit of a mistake that she could rectify given the chance. But no, she hadn’t made a slip of the tongue. But at least she was interested in the process and eager to engage the customer, albeit with misinformation. 

 

This salesperson was also, strangely, in many ways the most effective sales person of the three that we dealt with. We told her that we weren’t sure about the items we had picked. Focusing on the store own brand, she came up with an idea. Why didn’t we downsize the stone and use the rest of the money to buy a pair of earrings in the same set. The price would be more than we wanted to pay, £400 ($708) for the necklace and £225 ($398) for the earrings, but she could have a word with the manager and get it down to an even £600 ($1062) for us. Top marks for trying to get us to purchase more than one piece and spend more than we were intending to. But, unfortunately, marks must be deducted for immediately presenting us with a discount. Though we had said that our budget would, at a push, stretch to £600 she should have given us the opportunity to break our price limitation before offering us a discount.

 

We agreed that it might be a good idea to take the necklace coupled with the earrings and asked what the size of the stones were. Though again this is where she let herself down and showed a real difference between a sales assistant in a jewelry store and some one who really works in a jewelry store. She simply didn't have that information to hand, didn't even known how to estimate the size of the stone and had to put in the barcode to the computer before being able to tell us.

 

Moving into the final part of my story, I said I had heard something about blood diamonds and wanted to make sure that these were not. Confidently she launched into a speech about how every diamond is a diamond, which are formed beneath the earth’s crust and how the company would never sell any diamonds that had any inclusions in them. Open mouthed, we let her continue and eventually she said that the company would never sell anything that harmed people or animals. It was, I have to admit pretty embarrassing. Even my friend who until that day had never heard of the term ‘conflict diamond’ had a clearer grasp of the conflict than our sales assistant.

 

Obviously, a salesperson in a low priced store is not the same as a trained salesperson in a top end retailer, though as we discovered, even they cannot be guaranteed to know what they are talking about, but even so. Give your staff a few training sessions so that they can be made aware of the big issues in the industry. Despite the frumpy uniform she was forced to wear and the bad nails and the sparkly make up - another no, no, you want your staff to look elegant not like they are on a night on the town - she was engaging and persuasive She was exceedingly friendly and personable. She had plenty of ideas and tried to steer us towards making a purchase.

 

Companies should make more of people like this, train them properly, make sure they adhere to a certain level of appearance, and, always, always, check for Santa Claus nails.

 

Moving the merchandise constantly away from us, as though she didn’t trust us, is understandable in a city such as Liverpool, but all the same, it is not the best sales approach. Unfortunately, during the course of finding us a different piece to look at, she was interrupted by another customer and spent a number of minutes dealing with him instead of with us. Again, this is the fault of the training that staff receive. Retailers, instruct your staff to spend time with one client at a time, even if it means that there might be some small waiting time for the other people. 

 

On the way out we saw some diamond and pink sapphire pieces, which we assumed must be cubic zirconium because they were so cheap. No no, she assured us when we asked if they were real, they were expensive because the sapphires were so rare. Ah well...

 

Though the salesperson in this store was bright and engaging, she simply didn’t know what she was talking about. Alright, most people who come into this sort of store will probably not ask about certification, conflict diamonds and so on, but they might and staff should be able to easily answer their customers’ questions and queries. Appearance is also important; don’t let your salespeople go out on to the shop floor looking scruffy.

 

So, we left town, with nothing to show for our day's shopping but an increased awareness that expensive doesn’t always mean better and glitz and glamour can’t hide a lack of knowledge and professionalism.

 

Happy shopping.