About Retail: Providing an experience

Asaad Malak of Malak Jewelers in Charlotte, N.C. shares how he turns strangers into friends and first-time visitors into lifelong clients.

HCHannah Connorton hannah.connorton@nationaljeweler.com

The retailer’s new store has chandeliers, a white marble floor, LED lighting and more than 50 showcases of jewelry, including bridal, diamond and vintage and estate pieces.Charlotte, N.C.--One jeweler in the South has seen a considerable rise in traffic and sales since expanding his store and says his success stems from focusing on making every customer’s visit an experience rather than a transaction.

“When people come in, we are interested in getting to know them. They come in as a customer and leave as a friend,” Asaad Malak, owner and president of Malak Jewelers in Charlotte, told National Jeweler.

Malak, whose jewelry store has been in business since 1980, opened his new 5,000-square-foot location last December in Charlotte’s Arboretum Shopping Center, which is directly across the street from his former store.

The new location offers a display area four times the size of the former store, allowing the retailer to carry more inventory and additional brands.

The larger store also has a seating area for clients to get comfortable while working with staff on a custom design or while they wait for repairs. A children’s area is stocked with a play set and toys to keep young guests occupied while the adults shop, and all customers are offered beverages and snacks--pretzels, crackers, coffee, water and even wine “for those over 21,” Malak laughs.

“(The new store) is more roomy, open and inviting,” the jeweler says. “It’s much brighter and there’s more space for events.”

There’s also an emphasis on custom design at the new location, consisting of an expanded workshop and expert in-house goldsmith to allow for full design and manufacturing, including wax mold making. These added features tend to make customers “stay longer, as they find it interesting that they can watch,” Malak says.

Aside from the revamped layout of the store, the way customers are treated is Malak’s main focus, and is the reason people come back or refer the jewelry store to friends and family, he says.

For example, if a man comes in looking for an engagement ring, the staff asks questions first. What color gold does she like? What shape diamond? Does she work on a computer, in the medical field or with children? Then maybe she doesn’t want a high ring with prongs, maybe she’d prefer a bezel- or other lower-set ring.

But it doesn’t end there, Malak explains.

“We

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congratulate them, ask about the proposal and their relationship, find out how they met,” he says. “We ask about their personal life, and help to find what she would like and want. This is something that’s very important to every customer. We’re part of this great experience that stays with them a lifetime, and (if we do well) they’ll come back again and again.

“We are making friends and growing families, in a way. They might not remember what I said five years from now, but they’ll remember how I made them feel.”

Malak says this practice also cuts down on returns.

“People don’t come back to me a week later because they don’t like something, or because they can’t afford it, because I took the time to find out what they wanted and what worked,” he says, adding that the business offers financing solutions for customers.

When asked why he puts such a focus on the experience of his store, Malak’s answer was simple and sensible.

“This is how I like to be treated when I shop somewhere. I don’t like to be sold merchandise, I like choices, space and time. The experience applies to this,” he says. “My father told me to treat people for who they are, to make friends and they will buy from you. So I tell them, ‘Welcome to the family.’”

Hannah Connorton