Customer Service: Stepping in their shoes

Came across this great youtube video via Himanshu Sheth's blog.



Now, how many businesses do you come across that make that much effort to win new customers or even retain their existing ones?

The Great Chain Festival - May 20th - June 20th

Summer is upon us and the thunderstorms and squalls might provide some relief but delhites know better. Fortunately Gold hasnt take a cue from the searing weather of Delhi. Gold hasnt breached the Rs.12,000 mark for 22k in quite some weeks now. So, you can say that we are celebrating that.

The GREAT CHAIN festival at Kathana is just that. With more that 200 designs in Italian and Handmade Indian chains this festival boasts of designs recently featured in jewellery magazines.
The festival features some very light chain just perfect for summers. Dual color chains with white gold and copper touch in Italian designs look very unique and desirable. Then there are enameled(meena) handmade chains which bring a tinge of colour to the selection.

The Italian chains are 18K gold and Indian ones are 22k gold. Also the festivities will last a month. Though slated officially to launch on May 2oth our blog visitors get to know in a little in advance

A special note of thanks to all our sales staff for banding this all together just in time, given just 2 weeks of notice to select design and place orders.

Sone Pe Suhaga is 1 year old

Woohoo! we recently completed a year of blogging. What looked like a fad has sustained beyond that. Thanks to all the visitors who keep coming everyday which really inspires me and Ruchika to keep going.

Your numerous questions either on comments of various posts or to the info@kathana.in ID shows there is a lack of credible source of information. And we are filling in those gap in our small way.

As we write, a lot of issues become clear to us and helps us step into the shoes of our customers. Honestly if this didn't happen to us we would be a lot poorer in understanding what drives this business and what consumers want.

This blog has not only grown leaps and bounds by number of posts but also in features, insights and number of visitors.This past year regular readers would have noticed constant changes from introducing feeds to regularly updating gold prices.

Blogging to us has also been a strategic way of getting our word out inexpensively( though it does take a lot of time and energy so its expensive by that measure).

And as we head into Year 2 of our blogging journey we will continue writing about issues that are of relevance to consumers of jewellery especially in India. We would urge you to drop small words of encouragement so we know our efforts are appreciated. Thanks for stopping by.

Akshay Tritiya : Kathana offers gold coins in 5gm and 8gm

Check out our Diwali Festive Offer for 2008 here.

We (Indians) love gold. And if there is a festival which gives us a reason to indulge in it then its surely Sone Pe Suhaga. Akshaya Tritiya is on 8th May and is believed to be a very auspicious day to buy gold. If you want to learn the significance of this based on our Hindu calendar wikipedia is a good place to start.

It could be an opportune moment to buy gold in any form be it jewellery, gold coins or bars for 2 reasons. One,this festival is believed to be a harbinger of good luck and never ending wealth and Secondly, So far gold prices as of today have been among the lowest after reaching upto Rs.13,500 per 10gms.

The gold prices earlier had been a dampener to the sales of every jeweller. If a jeweller says otherwise he/she is lying:) But that momentum fortunately didn't last long and gold prices have tapered just in time for the festival.

At Kathana Jewellers we are offering gold coins in 5gms and 8gms denomination. The coins will be 22k pure and hallmarked.

5 more things you should know when shopping for jewellery

Some homework you should do before you venture out shopping for jewellery. This only intends to make you more informed. Asking the right question will save heart burns later on.

1) 'Extra Charges' to get your jewellery hallmarked.
This is a little more complicated than other myths mentioned here. For jewellers following the BIS standard of hallmarking( you can identify them if they advertise 'hallmark jewellery available here'). After the ornament is manufactured its sent to a BIS certified assay centre to verify its purity( BIS only certifies purity of gold and not the grade of diamonds). This service costs the jeweller a nominal amount of money which is passed on to the consumer as making charges. The assay centre charges a minimum fee whether a jeweller sends 1 item or multiple items. Now if the jeweller only stocks hallmark jewellery then they will send multiple items to the assay centre for verification and subsequent hallmarking stamp. This in effect distributes the charges over multiple items, making it very nominal per item hallmarked.

On the other hand if a jeweller does selective hallmarking or hallmarking on-demand. At this point the jeweller has to pay a minimum charge for a single item of gold/diamond jewellery hallmarked. This is passed on to the consumer. Now when the consumer notices these 'extra hallmarking charges' it is bound to raise suspicion.

Their are 2 ways for consumers here. If its the only jeweller in town who can guarantee a hallmarked item, its better you pay up the extra charges and ensure hallmarked jewellery. If you are in a town/city where you have a choice of other jewellers you should exercise that.

2) After repeated use gold and diamond turns black
A gold/diamond ornament will lose it shine over the years due to dirt, grime, moisture etc. but a normal wash with soap water should bring back the shine on your diamonds and make your gold look almost as good as new. If you see black marks which cannot be removed even after repeated washing. Its an indication that the gold is impure.

3) 100% Lifetime buy back is a trust guarantee.
Though 100% lifetime buy back can be a good thing, it not a guarantee of purity or quality of craftsmanship. Infact it only indicates that the retailer will buy it back for sure. One should always ask how much of your money will you lose on returning. We offer a unique buy back program called 30-Day 100% Money back guarantee. This is very different from 100% lifetime Buy Back Guarantee. Please visit the difference here.

4) (Super)Deluxe Quality Diamonds.
Diamonds are characterized by their 4Cs no matter where you buy them from. They are cut, colour, clarity and carat. But unscrupulous elements will try to sell you home grown names like deluxe quality diamonds, eye clean diamonds etc. Always ask how these (super) deluxe quality diamonds fare against globally recognized 4Cs.

5) No wastage, No Polish:
The simple fact is that manufacture of gold ornament results in wastage and polishing charges. Now most of the time it is clubbed into making charges or price of gold to avoid the consumer knowing it. Any jeweller advertising int he above format could actually make up for it by selling non hallmarked jewellery.

Phot Credit: Davepatten via flickr.com