Sierra-West Jewelers

Oct 26

In their own words

“If we don’t have the right stone, we get them exactly what they want. We never try to push something that we just have.”

-Tim Branscomb

Jason’s Interview with Tim

Jason

We’re back on Meet the Jewelers and today we’re talking to Tim Branscomb from Sierra-West Jewelers. How’d you get into the industry?

Tim

I thought I was going to follow in the footsteps of my grandfather who delivered his last baby at ninety-nine. He delivered three thousand babies out of the Holman Center in Virginia. I was in school at Brigham Young University studying advertising and communications. I realized that wasn’t the right field for me. I had worked for my father in sales back where I grew up, Southern Virginia and North Carolina.

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I found a local jeweler that’s now retired, and I went to work. Within a year, I was running the whole operation for them and stayed there for almost four years. Then I left for the Schubach chain. Then a year later, to the [C] stores. A year later, Gemveto, a very fine French-Jewish designer, had offices in New York and offered me a job. I traveled the western United States for almost five years. I decided I wanted to be my own boss. I could do it better than most of the people I met.

We’re in the fight of our life to educate and show people quality. We make over one hundred new pieces per month in our three stores. We send out another fifty to seventy-five to other factories that are all custom as well. We sell at least one hundred to one hundred fifty gemstones a month to go with those rings, pendants, or earrings.

Jason
Why do you think people come in today when they’re making the biggest decision of their life?

Tim
We have the reputation. We’ve sold a lot of famous people, a lot of famous Mormons. Steve Young, for example, and Miss America, Sharlene Wells Hawkes, the Osmonds, and so many that people recognize. The famous Patti and LaVell Edwards, LaVell was a football coach here for about thirty years. He’s now passed. We also had clients like Stephen R. Covey, the famous writer that wrote over thirty-five books. His most famous book was 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He probably referred five hundred people to me at his special events over the years.

We’re very lucky.

Jason
How do you want people to feel when they come in?

Tim
For forty years, they’ve been able to see me, my wife, and other family members in the business every day. They felt that we treated them like family, whether it was a soft drink or a bottle of water, a cup of chocolates, and just wanting to know what they needed. We’ve always tried to tell the absolute truth.

We believe in about fifteen basic business philosophies. Number one is truth. Number two is own your own property. Number three is never quit. Number four is leave your desk clean every night, solve all the problems so you don’t have them the next day. Number five is ask for a report from your staff every morning from the previous eight hours. Number six is exercise and eat right. Number seven is we believe in being honest to a fault. Number eight we don’t play games with the customer nor the employees. Number nine we believe in listening without interruption. Number ten we do business with people who are willing to do business with us and treat us as humans so we might treat them as humans and brothers in this great movement. Number eleven treat customers like gold because they cost gold to get them to walk through your door. Number twelve treat clients and employees the way we would like to be treated. Number thirteen we never break a promise. Number fourteen we give people the benefit of the doubt. We try to listen when they’re upset and let them vent to us and then try to solve their concern. Number fifteen treat every client as a VIP because one day they will be.

Jason
When did you institute this philosophy?

Tim
1980.

Jason
Of the three locations, is there a favorite of yours?

Tim
I’m in the Orem store most of the time. I have a brother that runs the Murray store. A very good employee-manager who has been there thirty years in the Sandy location. I used to have seven, then I sold them off as franchises during the last two recessions. We kept three.

Jason
What do you want them to know as your legacy?

Tim
We have always tried to never say ‘No.’ We give to a lot of the auctions that come by. We want to be known for helping all of these great groups, like Hard to Adopt Foundation, Clean Water Around the World. Also, the battered women, that’s a very important one to us. We try to help the food banks through some of these auctions as well. But there’s other groups like Steve Young’s Forever Young Foundation to stop cancer and many others.

I’ve been in the Rotary Club for over thirty years. Been the President, Vice President, Financial Officer. I’ve had a responsibility in the church since I was twenty-four. We believe in giving back. I’ve been the President of Junior Miss, Distinguished Young Women, for over twenty-four years.

Jason
Tell us a fun proposal experience.

Tim
We had a fellow who took a balloon, one of these big giant balloons they ride in, and got her up in the sky above the shore and gave her the ring. We’ve had people put it in crazy things, like the old popcorn box—one girl threw it out the window, said she didn’t like popcorn and the ring was inside and she didn’t tell him. And it went down the freeway at about seventy-five miles an hour. He had to pull on the brakes, back up, and go out for that box of popcorn.

Another one put it in her drink, it was a special raspberry soda that was freshly handmade just for her. The drink was down, or the ring was down in the ice. She saw something glittering and figured out what it was.

Jason
This VIP service package is incredible. Tell us more about that.

Tim
It consists of twenty items. We have a lifetime warranty through a national brand, good at eight hundred stores nationwide. They get free polishing, cleaning, checking, replacement of little diamonds, melee diamonds with that. We also have the Jewelers Mutual Insurance that ninety percent of our clients get. They receive 50% off the men’s ring if they purchase the diamond and ring from us. They get an additional discount off the ring if they buy a real diamond or a laboratory-grown, rather than a moissanite or CZ. They also get the electric ring cleaner and up to ten free hotel stays. Two passes to Ruth Chris. Some get more if they buy a $50,000 diamond, we load them up. We also give them chocolates for their bag, everything comes in a special bag for them. Then the last thing we do is their insurance.

Jason
Tell us, this is your spot. Why should they come in and meet you?

Tim
Nobody cares more than we care. We treat every customer like gold and we are educators. I used to be the Buyer for the largest chain in the world, People’s Jewelers. We’ll shop all over the world to get them exactly what they want. We never try to push something down their neck that we just have. That’s why we’ve done $150M in our forty years. $150M is a pretty decent business for a small business.