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Eiseman Jewels: Living The Future By Caring For Employees | August 03, 2013 (0 comments)
Dallas, TX—When jeweler Richard Eiseman of Eiseman Jewels knew his company's 50th year in business was coming up, he and his staff took a hard look at Eiseman Jewels. "We wanted to know what happens if the recession depletes us? What's our purpose? What's our goal?" The in-depth look at the business paid off. Eiseman, a second generation jeweler, found that the business was really all about extended family—his employees.
With this realization, Eiseman made a decision to move forward to grow and celebrate his business, as well as improving the quality of his employees’ lives. During the economic downturn, Eiseman hired a large number of great talented employees, taking advantage of the Dallas and surrounding markets. He credits these employees with bringing new insights and best practices to integrate into Eiseman Jewels. The results have paid off nicely.
Today, Eiseman has 17 employees, about 11 of which are devoted to sales. His employees are encouraged to try new things, and to take ownership of the things they find exciting. "Emotionally if you can challenge people to be part of something and they know that their contributions are expected, they are more excited to come to work. They will bring their emotions and energy to the business."
The Eiseman sales team outside the store.
Along with his employees’ emotional side, Eiseman took care of their financial side as well. "We converted a pension plan into profit sharing, where the company provides a contribution on behalf of the employees to go with their salary. We don't emphasize commission; that removes competition between employees. We offer a nice financial package that includes medical, and paid vacation along with profit sharing, salaries and bonuses. We also do not work evening hours or Sunday."
It's unusual to find a jewelry store like Eiseman Jewels in a mall setting with no evening or Sunday work, when much of the mall is still open. "We are NorthPark Center's oldest tenant," explains Eiseman. "We've been partners with NorthPark for 48 years, and we have a generational relationship. The founder and my dad were friends. Our daughters were classmates, third generation friends. They know we are a different, unique operation. And they are not your typical mall. It's extremely high end, with the nation's number one Neiman-Marcus store, a large Nordstrom, and a lot of high end time pieces and jewelry."
So does encouraging your employees to take ownership have any personal benefits? It does, at least in terms of vacation time. When The Centurion caught up with Eiseman, he was on a five-week break, something he tries to do annually. "It gives people the opportunity to have a break from ownership, make decisions and grow the business." Eiseman talks to the store every other day and finds that with his great team, things are going well. "I'm very proud of them. The people are what make the company."
Eiseman Jewels' interior.
Eiseman Jewels has around 3,000 square feet for the sales floor and back office. If you include its Rolex store under construction and accompanying office space, it grows to just under 5,000 square feet.
"Rolex started to create a game plan of taking the strongest and best dealers and looking to them to extend their reputation," said Eiseman. He took the space and built a Rolex store next to Eiseman Jewels. "We became more watch-centric to compliment our strong diamond and jewelry business."
The next step for the store will be to gut the entire store and convert Eiseman Jewels to a state of the art jewelry store. "Those two pieces combined will set the pace for the next 50 years," he said.
Richard Eiseman
The merchandise mix of Eiseman Jewels is a combination of watches, bridal and "creative pieces with less brand names," says Eiseman. While Eiseman manufactures some of the jewelry he sells, he does carry a few brands including Seaman Schepps and Katie Decker. "We feature ourselves as the brand. We vet the collections we carry based on quality of workmanship, value, and longevity of designs. We ensure our current collections work well with the jewelry that we sold past generations." (Here's a link to the 2012 Eiseman catalog.)
Eiseman Jewels has a strategic marketing plan for customer outreach. "We have a fairly consistent and aggressive marketing campaign. We have a new concentrated effort toward social media (Facebook and Twitter links). We do bill boards on the watch side and use selected print media for certain product categories. And we use high end magazines like Robb Report, Town & Country, Departures and Veranda, for the 'super luxury' pieces."
Eiseman also takes care of the local philanthropic groups. "The most successful thing that any firm can do is to have contact through individuals and offer items that support the community. In 2008, we were the leader in giving back in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. We ramped that up when the economy got tougher for charities. We try to make it easier. If someone asks for something for a charity, we want to be the easiest yes they get so they can more easily go ask the next one." Eiseman offers these charities a gift certificate—not generally the norm. "It's of known value; they can choose what they want."
So what is Eiseman's day like when he's in the store? "I like to say when I'm in the store, I'm the greeter. When I'm in town, I work six days a week. I work outside the counter a lot, talking to families and children, thanking them for coming in. We want to be the friendly store, the nice store, and having a greeter helps with that. You will often find me in the mall cleaning windows. I like to see what everyone is up to and be out and around people."
Eiseman sees that the industry has changed a lot in the last ten years but some things remain the same. "Jewelry is in our blood; you never get it out. I grew up here, and I'm passionate about it. I love that our customers have an appetite for fine, fine luxury. I love being around people and beautiful things."
Eiseman with mother Louise. A photo of Eiseman's father is in the mirror in the background.
An excerpt from the Eiseman Company history:
“Richard D. Eiseman Jewels was established in 1963 in downtown Dallas by Louise and Richard (“Dick”) Eiseman. Louise Eiseman’s father, M.I. Freedman, together with merchant giants Stanley Marcus and Morris Zale, as well as Dick’s brother-in-law, New York jeweler Henry Harteveldt, all had encouraged Dick to leave the corporate structure of the Zale company. Building on his experience gained at Reliable Stores, and Shoshone’s of Oklahoma City, Dick leased the jewelry department inside Titche-Goettinger and Co. (the Dallas division of the Allied Stores department store chain). Louise, now at age 83, recalls going to NYC with a modest budget (less than $10,000), and meeting with individuals who became lifelong friends. They offered moral support and an inventory of carefully selected gems and jewelry for the new operation. “Our hope was to build a successful business selling happiness through exquisite, tasteful, quality jewelry of fine value. We achieved our hopes and dreams and have never looked back.”