Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jeff Temprano. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jeff, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry?
There are several large differences in the way a small independent jewelry store is run as opposed to the big mega-companies that occupy corner suites in shopping malls and advertise on TV. I feel that my partner and I are especially well-qualified to share our observations here, as we’ve both spent decades working for some of the world’s largest retail jewelers before leaving to open our own small-town independent custom jewelry store.
One immediate difference with the big players is that the people at the top, making all the decisions, are not jewelers. Most of the C-level executives leading the corporate companies have not only never held a torch, sized a ring, or set a stone–in most cases, they’ve been hired from other large corporations that sell coffee, makeup or clothing, and see the jewelry business as a bean-counting industry like any other. The cases are filled with mass-produced products, the salespeople are hired en masse and given little training beyond how to calculate their commission on a given piece, and the company relies on flashy multimillion-dollar ad campaigns to do almost all the selling before the customer ever enters the store.
This approach presents several problems, one of which is the mad dash to the cash register. Salespeople in the shopping malls have quotas to reach, and their job is make that cash register sing, no matter what it takes. Promises are made with little regard for the customer’s true satisfaction–it’s extremely common to have a salesperson ring up a sale while either not knowing or not caring that the diamond they’re selling won’t fit in a mounting, or that the ring won’t go to a particular size while maintaining its structural integrity. As soon as the receipt is printed, it’s not their problem; the bench jeweler is expected to ‘just make it work’, and it’s on to the next sale.
Adding to these problems is the fluctuation in corporate policies from one year to the next. The stores will begin stocking pieces mass-produced by a large designer; and while initially heeding the warning that these pieces will lose stones if sized up or down too far, a corporate policy is implemented that the rings can only go up or down one size. Pushback from the salespeople ensues, as they’re pressured to get the pieces out the door and can’t wait for special orders to be made in the customer’s size. Facing loss of sales, the policy is soon rescinded, even though it’s not good for the customer.
Speaking of corporate policies, there are endless zoom calls and phone conferences in the corporate jewelry world, rolling out one initiative after another. Anything from how many jobs you’re allowed to do in a day, to the precise minute you clock in and out from lunch, to the color of the plastic baskets the work is placed in, can and will be regulated. ‘Training modules’ are a daily constant, reminding senior staff members not to wear high heels while perched on the top rung of a stepladder that’s positioned on uneven ground. Signing off on these ridiculous common-sense reminders takes a considerable portion of the average employee’s day, underscoring the fact that a large part of their job is, in essence, learning exactly how to be an employee of a mega-corporation. It’s not uncommon to see work piled up and deadlines passed while the employee responsible is ironically spending hours in front of a computer screen clicking ‘I have read the above’ after a lengthy presentation about workflow and time management.
In short, the massive divide between the executives, the sales force, and the actual jewelers are what Corporate America gets wrong in the jewelry industry. Over and over in my store, customers express relief and excitement when they see they’re talking to the person directly responsible for setting stones and sizing rings in our on-site repair shop. Even things as simple as replacing watch batteries are an opportunity to demonstrate a level of expertise and trustworthiness that jewelry customers crave and cannot find at the big-name brands.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Cornerstone Jewelers is proudly jeweler owned and operated. We have no salespeople in the store, only bench jewelers. We don’t do high-pressure sales, and our repair work is done on-site. This places us in the minority of today’s jewelry stores, where you usually only speak to a cashier who rings up your purchases.
Let’s say you have a ring that needs to be sized. You go to the shopping mall, fight the insane traffic, look for a parking spot, go inside, find the jewelry store, and wait at the counter. You speak to a guy in a suit who’s never actually sized a ring; his job is to write up a repair ticket, send your job off to a bench jeweler, and tell you to come back in two weeks. So then you do it all over again…shopping mall, traffic, parking, waiting. When you pick your ring up, your cost includes the shipping and insurance for mailing the job to the people that did the actual work; it includes paying them to do the work; and of course the jewelry store takes a hefty cut for themselves, so you’re paying a middleman who did nothing more than ring you up at the cash register.
All of that nonsense…versus walking into a store owned by the jeweler. You speak directly to the person who does the work and are told it will be done that same day. You come back a little later and pay a flat, simple price for your ring sizing. If you have a question, you don’t get a confused look and hear, “Uh…I don’t know, let me ask the jeweler.”
Cornerstone Jewelers is the second option, and we’re proud of the immense difference between ourselves and the big chain stores in the shopping malls.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
One of our favorite things is to be a part of a couple’s engagement story. Some truly golden moments have begun when a guy is planning to change his life with the woman of his dreams…so he wants to give her the ring of her dreams. Today’s customers don’t always shop ‘off the rack’, so to speak; what I’ve found is that after going to the shopping mall and seeing variations on the same five or six engagement rings at every store, and getting inspiration from Etsy or another online retailer, they find that what they’re looking for is something a little different. Custom engagement rings are one of our specialties; we enjoy working with a customer’s inspiration and budget to design the extra-special engagement ring that won’t be on anyone else’s finger. The moment the finished piece is picked up–when he says, “It’s perfect,” and when we’re tagged in a social media post saying “I said yes!”, is why we love this business.
How’d you meet your business partner?
My partner and I met twenty years ago when we were both working for a very large retail jeweler in the mall. We got along very well and immediately found that we were a great team. We had complimentary skill sets; one was better at language and the other at math; one was task-oriented and analytical, and the other people-oriented and amiable. We worked together closely for many years after that, and began noticing problems with the way the corporate stores handled the business. After Covid, we were in a position to begin moving into independent work, and found it challenging but rewarding as we continued to lean on each other. Soon, it was a no-brainer for us to open our own store and become partners!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cornerstonejewelers.net
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/@cornerstonejewelers_ky
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1F8X8G9jwW/
- Other: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cornerstone+Jewelers/@38.2324521,-84.5400814,17z/data=!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x88423f556f1ff0c5:0x45d6b2debd7a2bab!2sCornerstone+Jewelers!8m2!3d38.2324521!4d-84.5375065!16s%2Fg%2F11vspgdrbk!3m5!1s0x88423f556f1ff0c5:0x45d6b2debd7a2bab!8m2!3d38.2324521!4d-84.5375065!16s%2Fg%2F11vspgdrbk?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDczMC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
