December 20, 2003

Silver Bells... or Promises, promises

Christmas Bells, Wedding Bells....Did you know that 25% of all marraige proposals are made during the holidays? I had one this morning in the store. A lady that was in several months ago looking for a sort of "promise" ring was back today with "Mr. Promise Me" and a daughter, hers or his either could have been. It was quite evident that they were happy together. They were in for the little ring. He flat said "no" to the little silver thing and went straight for the engagement ring section. Selected a classic solitaire with a small but very pretty diamond. $359.00 later and a photo I took, they were off with promises of future business, that of buying their wedding bands from us. Lord...I wish I could believe it.

People promise that all the time. Here is an astonishing fact. Of ten people that buy at Azure Seas, only one returns again for another peice. Why? They get a great deal, beautiful packaging, plenty of Aloha, followup, a newsletter, coupons, but nothing more. I dont know what to do...I basically am striving to get new customers all the time. That is the most expensive way to do business. It costs far less usually to maintain a customer base than to entice new buyers to enter the store. Now admittedly we have had some visitor business. Im not counting those sales in my one in ten. Its horrible.
Abosolutly no one faults my marketing. The newsletter and the radio ads are beautiful and do encourage business, but they dont drive business and while they do encourage repeats I get very few in the end. There isnt an answer for me anywhere.

People take our cards " We will be by to see your shop" or "We'll be back..." " Glad I saw that will come back to buy it" nothing. A lady just came and asked about Tahitian pearl earrings wanting a price. Will she come back? She said monday she'd come. I wont be holding my breath. I couldnt get her to buy now.

Our closing ratios were better before, now they stink. I think that its burnout and battle fatigue. We are weary. Weary of the struggle with the tenants, Weary of the setting up and tearing down of the store and the setting up and knocking down of each other....Weary of the fears of failure and the pain of each day looking in the mirror and wondering what went wrong. Why are we struggling, what should we have done differently. If I had all the money in the world to put into this what would I do???

remember back when I said that I needed 40% of a years sales this month. thats 11,000.00. Im at 3900.00. Thats pathetic....

On another "cheery"note... my Mom had a phone put into her room. I have been trying to call her for two weeks and finally I called the desk and asked about her and they said that she is alright and that she didnt "need" phone calls...What??? so I asked that a message go to her to call me and she did. She said that her phone has been ot of order..." the line gets pulled out of the jack" Someone is doing this deliberatly. Mom doesnt believe this but I do. So she was going to have David, my nephew look at it today and fix it. I told her to have him tape it in there and that if it comes out that means that someone has pulled it out deliberately. Mom has had three falls and is confined to bed or her wheelchair. No more talk about her running around on her scooter alone. Its as the lady at the Manor Apartment said. Mom is a danger to herself and needs the care. So that was not discussed.

I need to go to the mainland to see her soon. Promises Promises

8:30 pm Update....The guy that hired Woody under the table had cold feet, so he called and took the job offer off the table. Seems that the other guys and Mr. Salvage Yard had concerns about Woody's weight but were too wimpy to say thanks but no thanks yesterday. On top of this during the initial process they asked for all of these references made it sound like this was a big time job and that it was such a big deal.. the fact was that the guy had his 12 year old grandson doing it for 2 bucks an hour. What???So it was a big let down yesterday and now this is worse. I feel really bad for Woody as I am no light weight either. The situation was a no win and it couldnt come at a worse time.

Promises Promises...bah humbug