June 9, 2026 • 22 mins
Mike discusses a surprisingly great purchasing experience he recently had at a... Lumber Mill. This had him thinking deeper about ways retailers can pull out practical omnichannel lessons jewelry stores can use right away.
He focuses on what made the experience feel premium and stress free, then translate those moves into ways to rebuild trust, delight, and loyalty in modern jewelry retail.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:01):
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop.
What is up everybody?
My name is Michael Burpo.
Thanks again for listening to Inthe Loop.
This week I'm doing a follow-upepisode, sort of.
In season 5, episode 25, I didan episode called Omnichannel
Examples in Everyday Life.
(00:21):
And this was all about how Iwent to uh a Lowe's and I had
such an incredible experiencewith their website combination
and uh in-store experience andhow seamless the whole thing
was, that I made an in the loopepisode about it.
And it's weirdly one of the bestepisodes that we've ever made
(00:41):
because a lot of people reachedout about it.
And what's funny is you'reprobably thinking, Michael, this
is a jewelry podcast.
What does construction have todo with this?
Well, you'd be surprised.
I think that OmniChannel, whichis defined, I always joke, as as
above, so below, um, it needs toexperience the whole buying into
(01:03):
delivery and service.
The experience needs to feelvery holistic and you can't like
skip a beat.
And I just had a reallyincredible experience at a place
called Curtis Lumber just theother day when I was building a
privacy fence.
And I kind of want to talk aboutthose key points and see if I
can relate it to a jewelry storebusiness and some things that
(01:26):
you could learn.
Um, so stick around and listento me talk about how I built a
privacy fence and how you couldbetter your jewelry store with
this information.
SPEAKER_00 (01:41):
This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the
jewelry industry's favoritewebsite platform and digital
growth agency.
Our mission reaches way beyondtechnology.
With decades of experience andlong-lasting industry
relationships, Punchmark enablesjewelry businesses to flourish
in any marketplace.
We consider our clients ourfriends, as many of them have
(02:01):
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth, or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
PunchMark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late to transformyour business and stitch
(02:23):
together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmark.com slash go.
And now back to the show.
SPEAKER_01 (02:42):
Okay, everybody.
So I know what you're thinking.
Michael, how is uh building aprivacy fence going to relate to
jewelry?
Well, let me spin you a tail andjust trust the process on this
one.
I've done it once, we're gonnado it again.
Uh, this is just one of thosekind of things I find a good
shopping experience to be veryuh weirdly inspiring.
(03:06):
That's how uh capitalism pilledI am at this point.
I sometimes find theseexperiences where I'm almost
expecting it to be bad and itturns out to be good to be, you
know, kind of exciting.
Um, so let's take it from thetop.
I'm gonna call out a couple ofexamples and maybe you can learn
(03:28):
about why I'm so inspired bythis one.
So I was building a privacyfence on the side of my house.
Uh just for this one spot, it'sto cover up this cement pour
that uh, you know, isn't justthat beautiful.
It's also to kind of hem in uhwhere I grill.
And I want to build a privacyfence, and the way I am with my
house is that anything I can domyself, I'm going to do because
(03:50):
it just saves money.
And building a privacy fence isone of those things that is uh a
cool project for me and my dadto do together.
And um, you know, I learned acouple new skills.
But what I found so cool was thefirst thing I did was I need to
order all of this material, rawmaterial, from this place called
(04:12):
Curtis Lumber.
It's loosely in my town, butwhat is important to call out
about this is that it is it theydeal with contractors.
So they are not, there's adifferent place uh that is more
of like a hardware store.
This is a place that you wouldgo and you would like, you know,
maybe you buy your, you know,these different screws or you
(04:35):
buy these different tools orsupplies.
At Curtis Lumberton, you arejust buying uh raw materials.
You buy all the wood you need tolike frame a house.
That's you'd go there.
Um if you're building, if you'redoing landscaping, if you're
doing, you know, if you need tobuy uh several hundred yards of
of soil, they could deliver thatfor you, or gravel or whatever.
(04:57):
Like this place deals in in rawmaterial.
Um, I can't state that harderenough.
But what's cool is that you'rekind of operating at this, it's
like a higher end.
It's so strange to say that whatbecause it's like, oh, you're
you're working with rawmaterials, but they are not
dealing with uh just Joe Schmoesthat are going because they need
(05:19):
to, you know, buy uh you know anew light bulb.
They're going with people thatthey have already spec'd out an
entire project.
They have invoiced for orthey're they're going to go
invoice for it, and they'redealing with some like you know,
tens or hundreds of thousands ofdollar projects.
I have a friend, um, my buddyJoe, who's a uh a contractor, he
(05:41):
does, you know, forconstruction, and he goes there
and he has like an incredible umI think it's an account where
they allow you to like put a lotof money on it and pick up a lot
of materials and pay it offlater.
So what I want to say is here'sone point that I found so
interesting.
It is knowledgeable staff.
(06:01):
So here's the first thing Inoticed is dang, these people
who work at the front desk kneweverything I asked about.
They weren't asking, like, oh,like I don't know, what is a
privacy fence, or like, why doyou need a privacy fence?
They're not asking thosequestions.
They're like, oh yeah, do youwant to pre-built or do you want
(06:22):
to build it yourself?
And I was like, Well, I'mlooking for the for the cheaper
option.
I'm thinking I want to get itpre-fabbed and I want to pour
the footage myself.
And the guy's like, okay, soyou're gonna need this, this,
and this.
And he basically wrote myshopping list for me.
And he thought of a couplethings I I didn't even think of.
And it kind of had me thinkingabout how smart of a of an asset
(06:44):
or how strong of an asset it isfor a business to have
incredibly knowledgeable umfront desk people.
Because the truth is they likekind of upselled me on a few
things.
Um, they had me buy slightlybetter.
Um, I bought these deck screwsand I was gonna use these
cheaper ones.
(07:04):
And the guy that was helping mewas like, uh, yeah, you're gonna
go through the wall.
Oh, uh, yeah, you shouldprobably get these ones.
And he, you know, got an extrainch long ones for me.
And what's funny is they weremore expensive, but he wasn't
trying to make more money forthe store, and I think that's
one of those things that I thinkreally jumped out as well.
(07:25):
Is this guy, it didn't seem likethey were selling, it was only
they wanted me and my project togo as smoothly as possible,
which is sometimes in kind ofstark contrast to like retail.
Sometimes it feels like they'rejust trying to like upsell you
because they want to make moremoney or whatever.
(07:47):
At this one, it really felt veryindependent, and I think I'm
starting to get more of a feelfor those types of things.
Like, I just interviewed um UniDiamonds.
Actually, I think this episodeis gonna come out right after
that one.
With Uni Diamonds, I felt sortof like their reports feel very
independent, like very umimpartial.
And I sometimes find the allureof impartialness is very
(08:11):
tantalizing these days.
Um, I've again I feel like a lotof times everybody has a vested
interest in everything.
And when someone just takesdata, aggregates it, and shares
it with you, I'm like, wow, Ican trust this.
Whereas when someone is justlike, they just want your
project to go well so thatyou'll come back and do more
projects with them.
(08:32):
I'm like, wow, this guy's givingme great advice.
So that's the biggest thing Iwill say is uh a really
knowledgeable staff.
Um, I didn't know how much uhquick crete uh cement I needed
to buy.
And uh the guy's like, oh here,take this this uh calculator.
And we ran a calculator and hefigured out the volume of the of
(08:54):
the footers I'm gonna pour, andhe basically um was like, Yeah,
you're gonna get this, and Irecommend that you round up and
get um get two extra bags.
So I ended up doing that.
Alright, everybody, we're gonnatake a quick break and hear a
word from our sponsor.
This episode is brought to youin part by Stratus Estate
(09:16):
Buyers.
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Their estate buying events aredesigned specifically for
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(09:39):
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(10:20):
Email sales at Stratus EstateBuyers.com.
That's Stratus S-T-R-A-T-U-SEstate Buyers.com.
Or call 888-898-2112 or visitstratusestate buyers.com to
learn how to book your buyingevent today.
Thanks and back to the show.
(10:41):
And we're back.
Alright, so here's the next partthat I think is worth mentioning
about this omnichannelexperience that I thought was so
good.
They were going to deliver forme.
Granted, it was gonna be reallyexpensive.
Um, you know, they were gonnahave to pick up and deliver.
Granted, only across town, uh, Ithought the delivery was super
(11:06):
expensive, but at the same time,it felt like a service that they
could provide.
And they were definitely gonnamake some some serious dollars
on that.
But what was really interestingis they were like, Well, if you
add the service on right now andyou take it off later, like you
don't need it, they will ri justrefund you in full.
(11:28):
So, what it allowed me that todo was the flexibility to build
my own schedule.
And I sometimes think about thatwith um with retail.
Sometimes I feel like you'repunished for not being certain.
And sometimes I think that likethe flip side of it is allowing
(11:50):
you the comfort to have somewiggle room, it just makes the
experience so much morestress-free.
And that's what I think thewhole thing was is it was very
stress-free.
So they had these deliveryoptions, and I ended up actually
getting it delivered myself.
Uh, you know, I borrowed mydad's truck, we went over, um,
(12:10):
picked it all up, and dropped itoff ourselves.
And they debited me in full,plus the tax, which was kind of
cool.
So that's the other one is Ithink not punishing your re your
client, your shopper, for notbeing certain.
I think that that was a veryeye-opening kind of thing.
(12:33):
Uh, very subtle, but I don'tknow, very cool, also.
Okay, so there's that one.
The next one, I just want toshout this out.
I can't, this is what likeactually prompted the whole
thing was how good thisexperience was.
Was uh I went and I did like adrive-through pickup.
It kind of was like going to auh an assembly line.
They have this whole warehouseset up, and you drive your truck
(12:57):
through the warehouse in a in acertain path, and they had like
six guys that were working inthe warehouse, all just you
know, strong as ox.
And they uh you hand the guyyour paid invoice, uh, your paid
yeah, receipt, and then he goesand he's like, Alright, you're
gonna stop here.
(13:17):
And one guy walks over, firstthing he does grabs all of my,
you know, all my cement.
And then he goes over and hegrabs all of my beams and we we
pack them in there, and they'rereally good at like making it
fit.
And I think it was so uh, Ithought it was so efficient that
the entire thing, I think onlytook like five minutes to load
(13:41):
up everything.
They knew where everything was,they picked everything out, and
they loaded it themselves.
And the whole time you're kindof just like driving sort of
slowly, and then they put morestuff in there, and then you
drive a little bit further, andthey put more stuff in there,
and I helped because I can'tlike sit there and not help.
Uh, just one of those guys, andbut it even if I you know
(14:03):
couldn't or didn't want to help,they would have done it for me.
But the whole experience, itreally felt like a premium
experience without gettingcharged for it.
They didn't there wasn't a lineitem that was like drive-thru
assistance or something likethat.
The whole thing that was thatwas part of the experience.
(14:25):
You buy your stuff, they'regonna help you load it as
quickly and efficiently aspossible, and they don't charge
you for it.
Again, so it was just like thesesubtle things that really kind
of added up to the whole thingbeing so such a positive
experience.
So that's worth mentioning aswell.
I thought that the drive-thrupickup was um honestly very just
(14:48):
efficiently refreshing.
I don't know, I I I've done somesome stuff in the cities, uh,
like when I lived in Charlotte,sometimes it just was so painful
to do anything.
For example, like going to youknow, going to the DMV, it's
just like so painful.
Like you're gonna be out waitingin the sun for two and a half
(15:11):
hours um because you need to getyour driver's license uh renewed
or whatever.
But then if you go, you know, at7 a.m., you can wait in line and
like, but it's like you'redamned if you do, damned if you
don't.
And I just found that this oneit was just so efficient that it
almost like again, I felt goodabout it, and I'm gonna go back
(15:33):
there for sure when I have mynext project.
Okay, and then the last thing Iwant to say is talking about the
returns.
Uh they genuinely they wanted toknow why I was returning stuff,
but not in a in an accusatoryway, more like, oh, did we do
something wrong?
And I was like, No, I just gotuh I had uh two extra bags of
(15:56):
quick creat, I justover-ordered.
And they're like, hey, noproblem.
Here, you're debited back youraccount, and then uh you're just
gonna do the assembly line, youknow, essentially in reverse,
you do it the same way, andyou're just gonna put the bags
right back on the stack as longas they're in uh good enough
condition.
And the whole thing, it justsort of felt like, yeah, of
(16:19):
course, that's the way it'ssupposed to work.
And maybe it's maybe it'sbecause my expectations have
gone so far through the floorwhere it like literally you
could walk over my bar.
Uh I thought they debited myaccount for the the for the
returns while I was standingthere and they like went right
into my account.
(16:39):
It's not like they had to wait30 days or they didn't have to
like nail me a check.
No, they just you know gave methe money back, and I think that
the whole thing worked the wayit was supposed to.
I don't know.
Why am I so surprised?
It just kind of felt reallygood.
So what ended up happening is Ibuilt the uh the retaining wall,
(17:02):
everything went super smooth.
Um, I felt really good about it.
It was cool to see people sotangibly good at their job.
Sometimes I wonder withjewelers, I feel like the
mysticism and like the magic ofthe retail jeweler job is sort
(17:23):
of getting um stripped away fromit sometimes because online
information is so you knowreadily available.
And that's a I mean, maybethat's a good thing because
shoppers are more informed thanever when they walk into a
jewelry store.
I'm sure I don't need to tellyou that, but like when a when a
(17:43):
shopper comes in, they a lot oftimes know what they want, they
know what kind of budget theyhave, they know that their
budget isn't ridiculous, youknow, isn't not even in the same
world.
They're not coming in for ahundred dollars for an
engagement ring.
They understand that, hey, Ishould be spending this much for
it in my engagement ring, it'sgonna be in that ballpark.
But I do sort of feel like Iwonder if back in the day, maybe
(18:07):
in the 60s, 70s, 80s, even 90s,what I felt like the jewelers
maybe were closer to like that Idon't know, they had the ability
to kind of delight theirshoppers.
And sometimes when I I I wonderif retailers can find that
(18:29):
moment to sort of delight theirtheir shoppers.
I wonder what that is.
You know, I remember I talkedwith Anna Barnett uh leading up
to uh the holidays in one of theretail roundtables, and she
talked about how she went tosome of her VIP customers and
she like went to their housesand gave them like a private
(18:50):
showing of a couple pieces, likepicked them out for her, and
that way she went right to them,and I was like, wow, that's so
exciting! Like that feels sowhite glove.
And she's like, Oh, you know,it's it's funny because I enjoy
doing it, and and you know, itmakes sense for me to do it, and
the and they appreciate itbecause then they don't have to
like find time to come and go tomy place, but like also like
(19:14):
these it just feels like theycare, and that's what I I think
I really got from myconstruction experience was it
felt like everybody reallycared.
Um, you know, even sometimespeople were asking, like, oh,
what are you what are youworking on?
Ah, I'm putting in a privacyfence.
Oh, nice.
How big?
It's like oh that's gonna be 16feet.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, so you need two two ofthese panels, and they already
(19:36):
knew.
And sometimes with jewelers, Ithink that there's a couple more
opportunities for that.
We're like, oh, um, what are youshopping for?
I'm shopping for an engagementring.
Oh, I'm here to pick up anengagement ring.
Oh, nice, and then I've heardthat there are like they send
champagne or they provide uhsomething nice on you know the
(19:58):
day of the week before whateverof the actual wedding.
And I think that thoseopportunities, it's like, yeah,
you are good at your job.
And I think I'm just sort ofgetting inspired by that when
when people are really good attheir job, I just get you know
weirdly excited about it.
I don't know what there'sthere's I'm seeing more of those
(20:20):
uh in everyday life.
Um, you know, even watching likea bartender know uh to to trade
give you a glass of water whileyou're sitting there and you you
know finish something and justhand you a glass of water uh
next to your drink just to youknow keep you refreshed.
I think when they do those sortof things unprompted and it
(20:41):
feels like they care, I thinkthat that's the biggest thing
I'm I'm starting to notice ineveryday life.
Um, and I hope that you can kindof notice them as well.
My question for you is in the inthe comments for this episode,
there's a way for you to leave acomment on Spotify or even an
Apple Podcast, or maybe evenshoot me an email at michael at
(21:03):
punchmark.com.
What are some experiences thatyou've had that you found to be,
you know, surprisingly good?
I think that there's more ofthem out there than you'd be
than than you notice.
And it's kind of like noticinguh I always call it the yellow
car effect.
When you start looking foryellow cars, you start to see
them everywhere.
And I think that when we startlooking for good shopping
(21:25):
experiences, maybe we'll noticethem a little bit more, and
that's a positive.
Okay, that was a quick episode.
We got some more awesomeinterviews coming down the pike,
but I wanted to talk about howexcited I was to I just have
some really good experiencesshopping, and uh I hope that
you're working hard to providethat level of experience for
your uh for your shoppers aswell.
All right, I think maybe we'llend it right there.
(21:47):
Thanks everybody.
We'll be back next week,Tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
Alright, everybody, that's theend of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, Michael Purpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
(22:09):
Cochran.
Don't forget to rate thispodcast on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts and leave us feedbackon punchmark.com slash loop.
That's L-O-U-P-E.
Thanks, we'll be back next weekTuesday with another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop.
What is up everybody?
My name is Michael Burpo.
Thanks again for listening to Inthe Loop.
This week I'm doing a follow-upepisode, sort of.
In season 5, episode 25, I didan episode called Omnichannel
Examples in Everyday Life.
(00:21):
And this was all about how Iwent to uh a Lowe's and I had
such an incredible experiencewith their website combination
and uh in-store experience andhow seamless the whole thing
was, that I made an in the loopepisode about it.
And it's weirdly one of the bestepisodes that we've ever made
(00:41):
because a lot of people reachedout about it.
And what's funny is you'reprobably thinking, Michael, this
is a jewelry podcast.
What does construction have todo with this?
Well, you'd be surprised.
I think that OmniChannel, whichis defined, I always joke, as as
above, so below, um, it needs toexperience the whole buying into
(01:03):
delivery and service.
The experience needs to feelvery holistic and you can't like
skip a beat.
And I just had a reallyincredible experience at a place
called Curtis Lumber just theother day when I was building a
privacy fence.
And I kind of want to talk aboutthose key points and see if I
can relate it to a jewelry storebusiness and some things that
(01:26):
you could learn.
Um, so stick around and listento me talk about how I built a
privacy fence and how you couldbetter your jewelry store with
this information.
SPEAKER_00 (01:41):
This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the
jewelry industry's favoritewebsite platform and digital
growth agency.
Our mission reaches way beyondtechnology.
With decades of experience andlong-lasting industry
relationships, Punchmark enablesjewelry businesses to flourish
in any marketplace.
We consider our clients ourfriends, as many of them have
(02:01):
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth, or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
PunchMark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late to transformyour business and stitch
(02:23):
together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmark.com slash go.
And now back to the show.
SPEAKER_01 (02:42):
Okay, everybody.
So I know what you're thinking.
Michael, how is uh building aprivacy fence going to relate to
jewelry?
Well, let me spin you a tail andjust trust the process on this
one.
I've done it once, we're gonnado it again.
Uh, this is just one of thosekind of things I find a good
shopping experience to be veryuh weirdly inspiring.
(03:06):
That's how uh capitalism pilledI am at this point.
I sometimes find theseexperiences where I'm almost
expecting it to be bad and itturns out to be good to be, you
know, kind of exciting.
Um, so let's take it from thetop.
I'm gonna call out a couple ofexamples and maybe you can learn
(03:28):
about why I'm so inspired bythis one.
So I was building a privacyfence on the side of my house.
Uh just for this one spot, it'sto cover up this cement pour
that uh, you know, isn't justthat beautiful.
It's also to kind of hem in uhwhere I grill.
And I want to build a privacyfence, and the way I am with my
house is that anything I can domyself, I'm going to do because
(03:50):
it just saves money.
And building a privacy fence isone of those things that is uh a
cool project for me and my dadto do together.
And um, you know, I learned acouple new skills.
But what I found so cool was thefirst thing I did was I need to
order all of this material, rawmaterial, from this place called
(04:12):
Curtis Lumber.
It's loosely in my town, butwhat is important to call out
about this is that it is it theydeal with contractors.
So they are not, there's adifferent place uh that is more
of like a hardware store.
This is a place that you wouldgo and you would like, you know,
maybe you buy your, you know,these different screws or you
(04:35):
buy these different tools orsupplies.
At Curtis Lumberton, you arejust buying uh raw materials.
You buy all the wood you need tolike frame a house.
That's you'd go there.
Um if you're building, if you'redoing landscaping, if you're
doing, you know, if you need tobuy uh several hundred yards of
of soil, they could deliver thatfor you, or gravel or whatever.
(04:57):
Like this place deals in in rawmaterial.
Um, I can't state that harderenough.
But what's cool is that you'rekind of operating at this, it's
like a higher end.
It's so strange to say that whatbecause it's like, oh, you're
you're working with rawmaterials, but they are not
dealing with uh just Joe Schmoesthat are going because they need
(05:19):
to, you know, buy uh you know anew light bulb.
They're going with people thatthey have already spec'd out an
entire project.
They have invoiced for orthey're they're going to go
invoice for it, and they'redealing with some like you know,
tens or hundreds of thousands ofdollar projects.
I have a friend, um, my buddyJoe, who's a uh a contractor, he
(05:41):
does, you know, forconstruction, and he goes there
and he has like an incredible umI think it's an account where
they allow you to like put a lotof money on it and pick up a lot
of materials and pay it offlater.
So what I want to say is here'sone point that I found so
interesting.
It is knowledgeable staff.
(06:01):
So here's the first thing Inoticed is dang, these people
who work at the front desk kneweverything I asked about.
They weren't asking, like, oh,like I don't know, what is a
privacy fence, or like, why doyou need a privacy fence?
They're not asking thosequestions.
They're like, oh yeah, do youwant to pre-built or do you want
(06:22):
to build it yourself?
And I was like, Well, I'mlooking for the for the cheaper
option.
I'm thinking I want to get itpre-fabbed and I want to pour
the footage myself.
And the guy's like, okay, soyou're gonna need this, this,
and this.
And he basically wrote myshopping list for me.
And he thought of a couplethings I I didn't even think of.
And it kind of had me thinkingabout how smart of a of an asset
(06:44):
or how strong of an asset it isfor a business to have
incredibly knowledgeable umfront desk people.
Because the truth is they likekind of upselled me on a few
things.
Um, they had me buy slightlybetter.
Um, I bought these deck screwsand I was gonna use these
cheaper ones.
(07:04):
And the guy that was helping mewas like, uh, yeah, you're gonna
go through the wall.
Oh, uh, yeah, you shouldprobably get these ones.
And he, you know, got an extrainch long ones for me.
And what's funny is they weremore expensive, but he wasn't
trying to make more money forthe store, and I think that's
one of those things that I thinkreally jumped out as well.
(07:25):
Is this guy, it didn't seem likethey were selling, it was only
they wanted me and my project togo as smoothly as possible,
which is sometimes in kind ofstark contrast to like retail.
Sometimes it feels like they'rejust trying to like upsell you
because they want to make moremoney or whatever.
(07:47):
At this one, it really felt veryindependent, and I think I'm
starting to get more of a feelfor those types of things.
Like, I just interviewed um UniDiamonds.
Actually, I think this episodeis gonna come out right after
that one.
With Uni Diamonds, I felt sortof like their reports feel very
independent, like very umimpartial.
And I sometimes find the allureof impartialness is very
(08:11):
tantalizing these days.
Um, I've again I feel like a lotof times everybody has a vested
interest in everything.
And when someone just takesdata, aggregates it, and shares
it with you, I'm like, wow, Ican trust this.
Whereas when someone is justlike, they just want your
project to go well so thatyou'll come back and do more
projects with them.
(08:32):
I'm like, wow, this guy's givingme great advice.
So that's the biggest thing Iwill say is uh a really
knowledgeable staff.
Um, I didn't know how much uhquick crete uh cement I needed
to buy.
And uh the guy's like, oh here,take this this uh calculator.
And we ran a calculator and hefigured out the volume of the of
(08:54):
the footers I'm gonna pour, andhe basically um was like, Yeah,
you're gonna get this, and Irecommend that you round up and
get um get two extra bags.
So I ended up doing that.
Alright, everybody, we're gonnatake a quick break and hear a
word from our sponsor.
This episode is brought to youin part by Stratus Estate
(09:16):
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Thanks and back to the show.
(10:41):
And we're back.
Alright, so here's the next partthat I think is worth mentioning
about this omnichannelexperience that I thought was so
good.
They were going to deliver forme.
Granted, it was gonna be reallyexpensive.
Um, you know, they were gonnahave to pick up and deliver.
Granted, only across town, uh, Ithought the delivery was super
(11:06):
expensive, but at the same time,it felt like a service that they
could provide.
And they were definitely gonnamake some some serious dollars
on that.
But what was really interestingis they were like, Well, if you
add the service on right now andyou take it off later, like you
don't need it, they will ri justrefund you in full.
(11:28):
So, what it allowed me that todo was the flexibility to build
my own schedule.
And I sometimes think about thatwith um with retail.
Sometimes I feel like you'repunished for not being certain.
And sometimes I think that likethe flip side of it is allowing
(11:50):
you the comfort to have somewiggle room, it just makes the
experience so much morestress-free.
And that's what I think thewhole thing was is it was very
stress-free.
So they had these deliveryoptions, and I ended up actually
getting it delivered myself.
Uh, you know, I borrowed mydad's truck, we went over, um,
(12:10):
picked it all up, and dropped itoff ourselves.
And they debited me in full,plus the tax, which was kind of
cool.
So that's the other one is Ithink not punishing your re your
client, your shopper, for notbeing certain.
I think that that was a veryeye-opening kind of thing.
(12:33):
Uh, very subtle, but I don'tknow, very cool, also.
Okay, so there's that one.
The next one, I just want toshout this out.
I can't, this is what likeactually prompted the whole
thing was how good thisexperience was.
Was uh I went and I did like adrive-through pickup.
It kind of was like going to auh an assembly line.
They have this whole warehouseset up, and you drive your truck
(12:57):
through the warehouse in a in acertain path, and they had like
six guys that were working inthe warehouse, all just you
know, strong as ox.
And they uh you hand the guyyour paid invoice, uh, your paid
yeah, receipt, and then he goesand he's like, Alright, you're
gonna stop here.
(13:17):
And one guy walks over, firstthing he does grabs all of my,
you know, all my cement.
And then he goes over and hegrabs all of my beams and we we
pack them in there, and they'rereally good at like making it
fit.
And I think it was so uh, Ithought it was so efficient that
the entire thing, I think onlytook like five minutes to load
(13:41):
up everything.
They knew where everything was,they picked everything out, and
they loaded it themselves.
And the whole time you're kindof just like driving sort of
slowly, and then they put morestuff in there, and then you
drive a little bit further, andthey put more stuff in there,
and I helped because I can'tlike sit there and not help.
Uh, just one of those guys, andbut it even if I you know
(14:03):
couldn't or didn't want to help,they would have done it for me.
But the whole experience, itreally felt like a premium
experience without gettingcharged for it.
They didn't there wasn't a lineitem that was like drive-thru
assistance or something likethat.
The whole thing that was thatwas part of the experience.
(14:25):
You buy your stuff, they'regonna help you load it as
quickly and efficiently aspossible, and they don't charge
you for it.
Again, so it was just like thesesubtle things that really kind
of added up to the whole thingbeing so such a positive
experience.
So that's worth mentioning aswell.
I thought that the drive-thrupickup was um honestly very just
(14:48):
efficiently refreshing.
I don't know, I I I've done somesome stuff in the cities, uh,
like when I lived in Charlotte,sometimes it just was so painful
to do anything.
For example, like going to youknow, going to the DMV, it's
just like so painful.
Like you're gonna be out waitingin the sun for two and a half
(15:11):
hours um because you need to getyour driver's license uh renewed
or whatever.
But then if you go, you know, at7 a.m., you can wait in line and
like, but it's like you'redamned if you do, damned if you
don't.
And I just found that this oneit was just so efficient that it
almost like again, I felt goodabout it, and I'm gonna go back
(15:33):
there for sure when I have mynext project.
Okay, and then the last thing Iwant to say is talking about the
returns.
Uh they genuinely they wanted toknow why I was returning stuff,
but not in a in an accusatoryway, more like, oh, did we do
something wrong?
And I was like, No, I just gotuh I had uh two extra bags of
(15:56):
quick creat, I justover-ordered.
And they're like, hey, noproblem.
Here, you're debited back youraccount, and then uh you're just
gonna do the assembly line, youknow, essentially in reverse,
you do it the same way, andyou're just gonna put the bags
right back on the stack as longas they're in uh good enough
condition.
And the whole thing, it justsort of felt like, yeah, of
(16:19):
course, that's the way it'ssupposed to work.
And maybe it's maybe it'sbecause my expectations have
gone so far through the floorwhere it like literally you
could walk over my bar.
Uh I thought they debited myaccount for the the for the
returns while I was standingthere and they like went right
into my account.
(16:39):
It's not like they had to wait30 days or they didn't have to
like nail me a check.
No, they just you know gave methe money back, and I think that
the whole thing worked the wayit was supposed to.
I don't know.
Why am I so surprised?
It just kind of felt reallygood.
So what ended up happening is Ibuilt the uh the retaining wall,
(17:02):
everything went super smooth.
Um, I felt really good about it.
It was cool to see people sotangibly good at their job.
Sometimes I wonder withjewelers, I feel like the
mysticism and like the magic ofthe retail jeweler job is sort
(17:23):
of getting um stripped away fromit sometimes because online
information is so you knowreadily available.
And that's a I mean, maybethat's a good thing because
shoppers are more informed thanever when they walk into a
jewelry store.
I'm sure I don't need to tellyou that, but like when a when a
(17:43):
shopper comes in, they a lot oftimes know what they want, they
know what kind of budget theyhave, they know that their
budget isn't ridiculous, youknow, isn't not even in the same
world.
They're not coming in for ahundred dollars for an
engagement ring.
They understand that, hey, Ishould be spending this much for
it in my engagement ring, it'sgonna be in that ballpark.
But I do sort of feel like Iwonder if back in the day, maybe
(18:07):
in the 60s, 70s, 80s, even 90s,what I felt like the jewelers
maybe were closer to like that Idon't know, they had the ability
to kind of delight theirshoppers.
And sometimes when I I I wonderif retailers can find that
(18:29):
moment to sort of delight theirtheir shoppers.
I wonder what that is.
You know, I remember I talkedwith Anna Barnett uh leading up
to uh the holidays in one of theretail roundtables, and she
talked about how she went tosome of her VIP customers and
she like went to their housesand gave them like a private
(18:50):
showing of a couple pieces, likepicked them out for her, and
that way she went right to them,and I was like, wow, that's so
exciting! Like that feels sowhite glove.
And she's like, Oh, you know,it's it's funny because I enjoy
doing it, and and you know, itmakes sense for me to do it, and
the and they appreciate itbecause then they don't have to
like find time to come and go tomy place, but like also like
(19:14):
these it just feels like theycare, and that's what I I think
I really got from myconstruction experience was it
felt like everybody reallycared.
Um, you know, even sometimespeople were asking, like, oh,
what are you what are youworking on?
Ah, I'm putting in a privacyfence.
Oh, nice.
How big?
It's like oh that's gonna be 16feet.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, so you need two two ofthese panels, and they already
(19:36):
knew.
And sometimes with jewelers, Ithink that there's a couple more
opportunities for that.
We're like, oh, um, what are youshopping for?
I'm shopping for an engagementring.
Oh, I'm here to pick up anengagement ring.
Oh, nice, and then I've heardthat there are like they send
champagne or they provide uhsomething nice on you know the
(19:58):
day of the week before whateverof the actual wedding.
And I think that thoseopportunities, it's like, yeah,
you are good at your job.
And I think I'm just sort ofgetting inspired by that when
when people are really good attheir job, I just get you know
weirdly excited about it.
I don't know what there'sthere's I'm seeing more of those
(20:20):
uh in everyday life.
Um, you know, even watching likea bartender know uh to to trade
give you a glass of water whileyou're sitting there and you you
know finish something and justhand you a glass of water uh
next to your drink just to youknow keep you refreshed.
I think when they do those sortof things unprompted and it
(20:41):
feels like they care, I thinkthat that's the biggest thing
I'm I'm starting to notice ineveryday life.
Um, and I hope that you can kindof notice them as well.
My question for you is in the inthe comments for this episode,
there's a way for you to leave acomment on Spotify or even an
Apple Podcast, or maybe evenshoot me an email at michael at
(21:03):
punchmark.com.
What are some experiences thatyou've had that you found to be,
you know, surprisingly good?
I think that there's more ofthem out there than you'd be
than than you notice.
And it's kind of like noticinguh I always call it the yellow
car effect.
When you start looking foryellow cars, you start to see
them everywhere.
And I think that when we startlooking for good shopping
(21:25):
experiences, maybe we'll noticethem a little bit more, and
that's a positive.
Okay, that was a quick episode.
We got some more awesomeinterviews coming down the pike,
but I wanted to talk about howexcited I was to I just have
some really good experiencesshopping, and uh I hope that
you're working hard to providethat level of experience for
your uh for your shoppers aswell.
All right, I think maybe we'llend it right there.
(21:47):
Thanks everybody.
We'll be back next week,Tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
Alright, everybody, that's theend of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, Michael Purpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
(22:09):
Cochran.
Don't forget to rate thispodcast on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts and leave us feedbackon punchmark.com slash loop.
That's L-O-U-P-E.
Thanks, we'll be back next weekTuesday with another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
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