Amphigouri: varnished nonsense

… the way Customer Service should be.

In earlier posts I have briefly mentioned Cross Jewelers. Cross is a small jewelry store in downtown Portland, Maine, with a very good reputation.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve had the absolute pleasure of dealing with them, and have come to see precisely why they have the reputation they do.

Husband bought my engagement ring from them. I happened to be with him on one or two shopping excursions, and was terribly impressed. Unlike in several other stores I’d seen, the staff didn’t hawk over us, and there was absolutely no pressure to purchase. Questions were answered thoroughly and thoughtfully, with no airs. It was about as comfortable an experience as one could hope to have.

Also in an earlier post, I mentioned that Brother J has been shopping around for a Ring. One of the stores on his list to visit was Cross, and I happened to be with him on the evening of his first visit (I was having my own ring resized to fit my right hand). I was bowled over by the experience. We were probably there close to two hours (they locked the doors behind us when we finally left), and an absolutely amazing staff member, Andrew Green, spent 90 minutes of that time with my brother (with me hovering about, once my own business had been finished). Andrew listened to Brother J describe the styles he had in mind, then pointed out a number of rings they had that matched the descriptions. He answered questions about the stones (my brother had done a fair bit of homework on diamonds so his questions covered more than just information about clarity, cut, etc.), and was very good about describing the pros and cons of various settings. The most exceptional thing, in my mind, was how obvious it was that Andrew is someone who absolutely loves his work. He was enthusiastic without being annoyingly fanatical; he knew the details about all the jewelry inside and out and the enjoyment he took from sharing this information with prospective customers was clear; he even mentioned to us how much he truly loves what he does, and he’s been in that business for 20+ years (if I recall correctly). He was *genuinely* personable, which was a refreshing change from so many salespeople I’ve dealt with who ooze insincerity from nearly every pore.

Ok, so perhaps I appear to be gushing overly much. However, I can’t recall the last time I’ve had such a fine customer experience as we’ve had at Cross Jewelers. Staff members there truly exemplify the way customer service should be.