How to Handle Your Gold Body Jewelry, the Safe Way!
Your body jewelry has been meticulously designed, produced, packaged and now it has finally arrived. Before you tear into your order, let's go over some steps we can take to make sure that your jewelry stays in pristine condition and ready for it’s big moment!
Delivery
Unpacking your order is best done away from clients and in a safe and dedicated ‘clean’ space in the studio. Consider avoiding areas with sinks, drains or any type of crevices that a piece of jewelry could get lost in.
A great recommendation is to lay down a fresh dental bib on a clean, dry, flat surface. Open your shipping package to one side and place your jewelry bags onto the dental bib, you can dispose of the box in your recycling.
After you have reviewed your invoice to make sure there are no missing items, it's time to store the jewelry or put it straight on display!
Storage
Storing your overstock
The professional piercers we spoke to recommended keeping extra pieces unopened and sealed in their bags to preserve the polish and keep them in the best condition for your clients. A great idea is storing them in wipeable, airtight storage containers. Be careful not to squish them into overly crowded containers or drawers though as this may result in damaging or bending your new pieces!
Display
Once you have selected pieces for your display, our folks recommended opening the individual bags and tipping the jewelry out onto a fresh dental bib. Trying your best not to touch the jewelry too much and of course washing your hands, sanitizing them and always wearing gloves will help keep it clean and ensure no fingerprints.
No one wants to play the floor is lava game after dropping jewelry, so if you can, try to keep the displays and jewelry close together.
Place the pieces into the jewelry display being careful not to touch anything other than the jewelry, this is also a great time to visually inspect each piece. Once all jewelry is safely in place, return your display to the case, and admire how great it looks.
Selling jewelry
Whether you’re selling a piece of jewelry for a healed piercing or choosing a piece for a new piercing, the process of selecting the perfect piece is relatively the same! Here are some top tips we gathered on how to minimize contamination of your jewelry.
Greet Your Client
Acknowledge your client by welcoming them into your studio. A great first step is to sanitize your hands, as well as offer some to your client. Start a conversation with your client regarding their personal style and what ear or body piercing they are shopping for.
Another great question to ask off the bat is what colour of gold they are shopping for or what they wear at the moment.
Many people prefer to have a uniform colour of gold, so you wouldn’t want to waste time looking at rose gold, when all they wear on the day to day is white gold!
Have the client choose some options
Setting up a client in a specific spot to take care of them is a great way of minimizing any further unnecessary touching or cross contamination. Keeping clients in a designated area of the studio will also help with social distancing seeing as many of us are still under strict Covid-19 protocols.
Having the client show you a few different pieces they are interested in by pointing to pieces they like in your display cases is a good way to start filtering down the options. To save confusion, a laser pen is a great way to point pieces out and show them on their ear where you feel it’s best suited, it’s also super hygienic and can be done at a reasonable distance. It’s important to remember clients may be particularly nervous about being in close contact with them during these difficult times and at this stage, you may have less PPE on, than you usually do for an actual piercing.
If you intend on showing a client a piece of jewelry close up, you could take the selected piece off the display as long as your hands are cleaned thoroughly and wearing fresh gloves.
Working over a clean open bib and using your tweezers to show the client a piece is a wise idea, it’s worth considering how well lit this area is too. Describe the colour, setting, shape, size or any info you have about the piece (talk it up!) It’s best practice to not allow the client to touch the jewelry or tweezers.
Offer client a “test drive” of the jewelry
If a client has long hair, offer a complimentary hair tie or clip to keep hair away from jewelry.
Let them keep the hair tie as this should be a one use item, and is a nice gesture and good customer service!
With fresh gloves, place the selected piece into the junipurr jewelry 4-hole simulation wand,making sure it's secured.
Bring the client to mirror (or vise versa). The pin should be safely secured in the stopper, so no theres no worries about safety. Show them the different areas you think will look good and how it could compliment other areas.
Once the client has chosen a piece, it's time! Simply remove jewelry from the wand, and place it in a jewelry bag then either continue with your store's routine for fitting/piercing or place it in a box/bag for customers to take home.
Cleaning up should be quick and easy with the disinfection of this small and specific area plus the safe disposal of the disposable PPE you used.
Following these steps is the best way to ensure you keep your high quality gold body jewelry in the best condition possible for your clients, as well as provide a safe and fun experience for your clients.
Related Articles
Related Articles