jewelry consultant

sales associate

assistant manager

assistant store manager

jewelry associate

Zales - The Diamond Store

I opened or closed 5 days a week. Counted the drawer, made the deposits, set the security tape for the day and opened the safes and set the cases with my other sales associate.  Dis the case counts and cleaned the glass.  brought in the repairs and readied the out bound shipments and repairs.  Checked my daily goal and opened the doors.  Our "Moto" was S.W.A.T. (sell whats available today).
Welcomed in customers, listened to their needs and wants and tried to add on to every sale.  
  I learned great listening and negotiating skills , 10key and my way around a computer system...even trouble shooting  sometimes.  I learned diamonds and the 4 C's, I learned about the metals (pros/cons) settings and jewelery work, as well as other precious and semi precious stones and how to clean them. How to change  Watch batteries and how never to judge anybody by the way they look or dress.
  The hardest part of my job was when other associates either in store or from other stores would underhandedly try to take my customer or commission and I would have to work with management to rectify the problem internally.  I don't work that way, I have a strong sense of integrity, honesty and loyalty , especially with my co-workers and for my company.
           For the most enjoyable part of my job :  One day a man walked into the store we all greeted him but no one would wait on him because he was in a filthy pair of overalls with mud and concrete all over his face (this was Christmas time)  so I walked over and welcomed him in and asked who he was shopping for? "Wife" he says (not very talkative)  So I asked..."are we looking for earrings or a bracelet?"
He says "nope a ring"  I said" WELL THEN.. just for fun how about this one?"  I pulled out a 30 thousand dollar 3.5ct 3 stone platinum ring with a cert. I put it on my finger and started to show him how she would show all her family and friends on Christmas day... he laughed and looked at the ring.   He smiled and said "I'll Take it"
I was in shock..........but as I wrung him up and I asked him what he did..........He owns a concrete company and had a Black American express card... He thanked me for my service and came back every Christmas after that and asked for ME personally.  He said it was because, I was the only person that night who didn't judge him because, he hadn't had time to change before we closed.  That is just one of my many enjoyable moments on the job!!!

A typical day at Zales consist of opening the store with another employee, setting up the cases that need to be manually set up, make sure all the cases are perfectly organized and match the display layouts we have, greet our guests with a warm smile and a positive attitude.

I learned how to tell if a diamond is real, how to do credit checks, use the cashier, data entry for the items, how to build rapport with guests and be persuasive in a nice manner, how to test diamonds, how to clean jewelry and word sentences to sound professional.

The management was very inappropriate at first, but once we received a new manager things went really great! Our new manager was on top of things and very fair to everyone.  However, the district manager seem to have have obvious favorites and also seemed to be very racist. Which became very obvious and unfortunate.

The hard part of the job was having a quota that we had to meet. If you didn't meet the quota and had poor amount of sales than you were likely to be fired. Working for commission can also be challenging because the job can become like a shark tank. I didn't like the fact that some employees would try to steal sales and/or take credit for something they didn't take part in at all. I think having a basic salary would be most beneficial as far as teamwork goes, because the employees tend to harm each other more than help one another.Commission has it's pros and cons, but majority of the outcome tends to lean more toward cons. Especially, when we wouldn't get much foot traffic in the store.

I mostly enjoyed meeting the guests that came into Zales and getting to know them. Building relationships with individuals and families was the best part.  It always makes you feel good when guests come in and specifically ask for you.

A typical day at work consists of a review of daily and monthly sales goals for myself and the store. A review of upcoming special events and a training topic of the day are also included. Waiting on customers and providing good customer service are always top priority. Administrative duties and projects are part of the typical day.

I have learned the importance of customer service and follow-up. Many times customers need to be contacted to help with their purchase decisions. Creating a personal connection with the customers is vital. I want to become their friend they trust to help them make decisions.

I have learned that management's job is to implement company procedures. They are passing down the priorities and achievement goals that they receive from the corporate leaders. Their goal is to help me succeed.

The challenge with co-workers has been to establish the proper balance between friendship and achieving our goals. I have learned that helping co-workers achieve their performance objectives will help me achieve my goals. Team work is always better.

The hardest part of the the job, is dealing with unhappy customers that are not satisfied with the company policy regarding their individual problem. I let the customers know I am on their side, without promising things I can't deliver.

The most enjoyable part of the job is interacting with customers and being part of their happy buying experience. I love when customers feel they have received great customer service, a wonderful product and are reassured we will take care of them in the future.

Zales gave me my first opportunity at Luxury Retail Management after I left my very first employer (Pubix Supermarkets) back in 2006.  As such, I have always felt a level of emotion and loyalty to the company that made me jump at the opportunity to come back in 2008.  This only happened after being promised that the company leadership and direction had completely changed from the first time I was there from 2004-2006.  

I took over the store that Zales had at the time at the Oviedo Marketplace.  After producing at over 165% to plan during my first 3 months there, I was promoted into a higher volume location (the Seminole Town Center).  I again had a very high level of success and was once again promoted into one of the largest volume locations in Florida at The Florida Mall in Orlando producing at $2.5 million at the time of my arrival.  

Upon taking over the store, I immediately made the adjustments that the store was in dire need of and exceeded budget every month for my first year in that position.  Prior to my arrival, the store had not made a budgeted month in 18 months.  

After my first year in this position, I made the very difficult decision to part from Zales following a number of poor upper management hirings that weakend the brand and made for a very demoralized work force.  I jumped at the opportunity to join Movado following their impressive recruitment and offer to join their organization.

Just a little advice coming into this company.  I started out 3 and a half years ago as a sales consultant.  And I am living proof that hopeless optimism and self determination will get you climbing the ladder quickly with this company.  I will be the first to admit that your experience at the store will fluctuate depending on who your manager is so make sure your interview is just as much about you getting a feel for the atmosphere and culture at the store as it is about them assessing you.  

Aside from that, if you are very driven and people centric, you will succeed and it can be very good money for you.  If you are the type to want to put in minimum effort and hours, or you are a negative person, don't bother applying.  You will not do well.    My top performers earn an additional $2,000-2,500 in commission and bonuses on top of their hourly wage most months, significantly better in December.  Even my part timers can see an extra $500-1,000 in a month on top of their hourly wage.  Teamwork is a must for a successful store.  It is what drives stores to achieve maximum bonus rates consistently.  If you make it to store manager, your bonuses can be VERY nice if you are able to drive business, which is not hard unless you are following in the footsteps of a rockstar of a manager before you.  But even then, you'd be making a moderate bonus rate at a higher volume store so it evens out.

All about CREDIT:
They train you to ask for people to sign up for credit card cards, and you must ask 3 times! Personally, I hate that policy because I hate pushy sales people & hate debt! 
People on the sales floor are always listening making sure you do ask 3 times & if they hear you're losing the customer, they may try to steal your sale & "help" you with the customer. Then you split commission if you sell something, or if the 2 sales people helped the customer sign up for a credit card, both of you take credit but no reward, more like an unofficial recognition. They kept a list of which sales people had gotten customers to sign up for credit each month. Sick!
 
When it's slow, you must appear busy by cleaning glass display cases, clean the entire building. 

Both mornings & evenings, you must count EVERY piece of jewelry in EACH display case & then match it with the inventory list, make sure no one has stolen anything or if there's extra verify if it's a returned item, etc 

Two employees are required to be in the building at ALL times, to avoid temptation, sadly this sucks when you're understaffed and makes taking lunch difficult. 

A lot of the time you're going to clean jewelry for incoming "customers", some haven't actually purchased their jewelry there but know from word of mouth that they can get a free jewelry cleaning session. The manager & other sales people will push to try to sign them up for credit and buy anything from the store.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The crew I work with is quite entertaining, very helpful and quite flexible when someone needs their shift covered. They are all  about the business at hand in a fun way. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
It was the learning curve coming from clothing to jewelry. A lot of different detailed steps, different passwords for signing in to many different programs was a bit much in the beginning. Taking notes as suggested and keeping them close by in the early stages was key! 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Professional yet laid back and attentive at all times. Can be challenging at times and tedious but the team is always ready to step in and assist when time allows as it can get busy…but we are always asked to take learning lessons and quizzes which keep us on our toes to be the best we can be in serving our customs with current and complete product knowledge and great customer service

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Opening procedures to ensure a successful day, plenty of servicing, repairs and showing product to prospective customers with set goals to sell merchandise and repair service +warranties & offer credit cards while doing a lot of inspections on previously owned jewelry and cleaning mostly our own brand jewelry but outside products as well, while maintaining cleanliness .

A typical day at work at Zale involves many last minute requests or projects, many of which did not go through existing due-process and were compulsively added last minute by leadership. Miscommunications or lack of communication is rampant, and there is little gauge for things like budgets and timelines (who needs them right?). When I was first hired, I remember a senior accountant looking at me blankly and stating in a hollow voice, "Welcome to the blender." And a blender it has been- chock full of stressful deadlines, tedious busy work, and a good number of duties not on one's job description. The compensation is nice, and the benefits are good. Plenty of people seem to enjoy their jobs and are passionate about what they do and the merchandise they sell. I found out the hard way that working long hours and taking on extra work really doesn't get you ahead, at least in my department. Bonuses were horrid, and there is no room for advancement or professional growth- just piles more work that they expect you to get done (somehow). There is not really a good work/life balance, and one really doesn't often get to see the end result of projects, or get acknowledged for projects well executed. It's the same grey walled circus every day. Unless one loves the jewelry or retail industry, I would say "keep your distance from this place."

Like most sales positions, this requires particular sales goals - and that is fine, however many stores seem to have similar goals that do not necessarily match with the local demographics. For instance, stores located in areas with lower population density, are often required to be on par with stores in higher density locations. 

Ground level staff is great, and local store managers try very hard to keep employees happy. Most employees I have spoken with noted that they felt they were being under compensated for the work that they were doing; topics such as pay, time off, and compensation seemed to be talked about quite frequently. As I said, ground level staff (and management) are fantastic people.

As far as upper level management goes, the upper management staff seems to change often, especially after the Sterling/Signet buy-out - more often than not District Managers seem to have oddly contrived metrics that assume stores in different locations should preform that the same levels, not to mention most of the district staffing has never worked at the store level; meaning that they are often unable to provide support if needed. 

In brief: Sales goals aren't too hard, but can create stress (especially credit goals); Store Level Staff is the heart of the company; District Managers try, but should be promoted from within opposed to brought in by Sterling/Signet.

It was busy during the Winter holiday season and was pretty dead after Christmas Day. They extended their hours for the Winter holidays but nobody showed up super early nor super late hours either, they visited within the hours of normal operation.   We didn't even get phone calls asking if we were going to be open extended hours. I hope they stop the silly notion that opening crazy hours like some department store do. We had to open at 4:45am on Black Friday as well as close 12am Day after Christmas....why???!!! The environment was positive but if I hadn't had prior jewelry experience, I would have been lost. There was very little training ahead of time. It was learn on your feet. their computer system is a bit weird, not as user friendly nor intuitive as the other jewelry place I had worked...in fact their system was ridiculously slow and outdated. There were only 2 registers and one was "on the blink" some of the time too. That is pretty sad considering it is a store catering to the sales of luxury items like fine jewelry. Most enjoyable experiences were engaging with the customers and helping them find something for their special occasion and to find a match for their style. Hardest part was dealing with their computer system. Even if your personal sales are excellent, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll be kept after the holidays, so don't expect anything.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Jewelry consultant 48 salaries reported	$16.15 per hour
Sales associate 26 salaries reported	$20.72 per hour
Assistant manager 4 salaries reported	$17.25 per hour
Assistant store manager 6 salaries reported	$20.25 per hour
Jewelry associate 11 salaries reported	$16.14 per hour

Working at Zale Corporation: Company Overview and Reviews

Zale Corporation

Zale Corporation Ratings

Popular jobs at Zale Corporation

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected