The stores carry high-end clothing, shoes and handbags--think runway icons such as Diane von Furstenberg and Roberto Cavalli. The Mitchells list of jewelry designers is similarly impressive, encompassing vendors such as Kwiat, Oscar Heyman, Gurhan, Irene Neuwirth, Temple St. Clair, Pomellato, Michael Beaudry and Graff, among many others.
Though the store has carried designer jewelry for 20 years, Mitchell said jewelry really began evolving into a big growth vehicle for the company around 2003 when they expanded their range of fine designers and added loose stones to their inventory.
Today, their largest jewelry store-within-a-store is in their Westport location, where jewelry accounts for about 25 percent of the store’s total sales. The store also recently launched “Our Diamonds! A Guide to Our Best Kept Secret,” a direct-mail piece letting customers know about their burgeoning diamond business and encouraging them to come to Mitchells for their diamond needs.
One of the advantages of being a store like Mitchells is that the salespeople can try to tie jewelry sales into clothing sales, suggesting a necklace or bracelet that would complement the new dress a customer is considering. As a whole, though, the tactics the retailer uses in getting, keeping and satisfying customers aren’t all that different from those employed by jewelry-only retailers.
Mitchell said the staff is trained to leverage relationships, no matter what the customer is buying. Find out that shopper’s birthday and anniversary. Even if a female customer comes into the store for the sole purpose of selecting a new handbag, help her find a piece she likes in the jewelry department. Make a note of it so her husband can come back and buy it later.
“We really try to impress upon (our employees), ‘The more you know about people, the more opportunities (for a sale) that present themselves,” Mitchell said.
Mitchells’ approach is the same one adopted by another combination clothing-jewelry retailer--Lewis Hoffer, owner of Butch Hoffer’s in Beaumont, Texas.
Like Mitchells, Hoffer’s is one of the last stores of its kind still standing. It is essentially a small, family-owned department store that sells clothes and jewelry (as well as cigars in Hoffer’s case) that has survived and thrived despite the chain-store takeover of the retail landscape.
Their customers aren’t quite the same--Hoffer said Mitchells certainly caters to a higher-end clientele than his store--but that doesn’t change their approaches to keeping customers. “For us, the success is all about making friends. Jewelry, apparel it doesn’t matter. It’s all about making friends,” Hoffer said.
Another important aspect of Mitchells’ business is providing top-notch customer service. Mitchell said the company offers clients what it refers to as “closet cleans.”
It’s the fashion equivalent of a doctor making a house call, a practice from a bygone era of personal service.
A Mitchells’ employee goes to a customer’s house and literally roots through their closet, offering suggestions for pieces that need updating or alterations. Mitchells will do a similar sweep of the jewelry box, picking out pieces that can be reset.
It’s a service customers embrace and one that certainly speaks to the importance the store places on its connection with customers.
But just don’t take Bob Mitchell’s word for it. His father, Jack Mitchell, literally wrote the book on service, Hug Your Customers: The Proven Way to Personalize Sales and Achieve Astounding Results. The book, Mitchell said, is all about giving each customer that special “hug” they crave, whether it’s a closet clean or allowing them to bring their dog into the store, another practice embraced by Mitchells.
“I think that’s what people are looking for today,” he said.
