Customer Watch: Conversation Starters

I was interested to read that the Editor in Chief of Lucky magazine, Kim France, made the subject of jewelry intensely personal in talking to her editors about the magazine’s May 2008 jewelry-focused issue. She writes:

“Is it any surprise, given the fact that this is a magazine staffed by fashion-obsession obsessives, that every editor we asked had an immediate and specific answer to the question: What was your first favorite piece of jewelry?”

What an excellent question to pose to anyone who lingers over your jewelry display. This question may allow you to engage the customer in a discussion of why she loves jewelry. It may give you clues about her emotional connection to a style, a stone, a metal, a design detail. It may help you understand what makes your customer smile.

I won’t drop in a photo of my first favorite piece of jewelry, as it has become a sad little reminder of its former glory. For me, it was a ring I received from my parents as a grammar school graduation gift. We selected the style together. It was ring with a red faceted center stone surrounded by pearls and set in yellow gold. I loved that ring. I wore it just about every day, through all my years of advanced education. I wore the ring right up until the time an exquisite ring I had oohed and aahed over at an antique show a year earlier was given me by my boyfriend on the day he proposed.

What was your first favorite piece of jewelry?