by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Diamonds, besides being a girl’s best friend, are made under pressure. And pressure is something that is very well-known to the biggest jeweller in Nashville, Tennessee, owner of Genesis Diamonds, Boaz Ramon, who has been both applauded and contested.

Ramon explains to King’s Road Magazine how his business sparkled:

How did you get involved in the business of diamonds?

I had a lot of friends in the industry (some have very big cutting facilities these days) who inspired me to get into the business. I started in the wholesale industry in New York but I worked with approximately 700 different stores throughout the country. The majority of them were in the south east.As a supplier and adviser to jewellers in the south-east I was teaching to clients how to do diamond Presentations for their customers, how to price the diamonds competitively, how to inspire confidence to their clients, and also helped them build an in-store diamond inventory. After seeing how many of my clients did not want to change their old habits I came up with a new concept. I thought to myself; why shouldn’t I sell to the public at the same prices I used to sell to the Jewellery stores, cutting the middle man from the equation.

So you innovated the wholesale industry?

When I worked in the wholesale industry, I saw a lot of things that I didn’t like and the way sales were managed, little by little I made my notes in order to one day change the entire industry and business model – making it better and more approachable to the regular average customer. Also, I worked hard to create a risk-free no-pressure environment which basically meant that customers could come, leave their credit cards at home, and just learn and decide what they wanted to buy. If a given customer bought a diamond and later-on wanted to sell it or upgrade it. Normally, a customer could only get 10-20 % from the initial cost in return if he was trying to sell it in the open market. I changed it to the lifetime upgrade, no limitation. As long as the customer will stay with Genesis Diamonds, he’ll be able to get the full price back and upgrade to the new diamond.

What about the warranty?

It’s 110% warranty: we decided to allow the client to get 10% on top of the 100% price in return once he upgrades the diamond. And most importantly we are the first ones to educate the consumer by giving them a broader education beyond just doing the 4 C’s only. (Colour, Clarity, Cut, and Carat Weight.) Educating the customer, one on one, we believed that once the client knows more, the sale will go much smoother and the client will feel more confident with his purchase. For that you have to have a lot of inventory so the customer can compare diamonds and rings side by side and make his decision only after actually seeing different options. On top of that, I believe that being transparent with the customer, showing them trade secrets, giving them the warranties, is the only way for a company to succeed.

So is this innovative system connected to the name you chose, “Genesis Diamonds”?

According to the bible, it means new beginning, and a new beginning to the client, who starts his new phase in life towards marriage.

There seem to be different grading systems for diamonds that often create confusion…

Nowadays, there are nearly 10 different labs for grading diamonds.

On most of the criteria, there’s no difference between them – size, carat weight, depth, table, florescence and so on.

Two of the four C’s are subjective:

• Colour
• Clarity

Each lab has its own standards, and all over the industry everyone knows that GIA has got the highest standards on Colour and Clarity. Other labs simply got different standards. Genesis Diamonds use more than one diamond grading lab, GIA + EGL +IGI + AGS. The exact same labs that all over the country and specifically in Tennessee jewellers are using. We’ve never sold products that others haven’t sold, and we have always explained to clients the differences between the diamonds grading labs and their different standards.

Does Genesis perform any unique processes that other jewellery retailers do not?

No. The only difference is our ability to buy better because of the volume and my direct access to the cutters. In terms of certification, we offer the same as everyone else in the country. The biggest difference is in what I said earlier, the fact that our selection is bigger than all our local competition, we carry the hottest designers’ names that everyone wants, and we basically give our customers more in terms of value.

In your opinion why did two customers who filed suit against Genesis refuse the refund offered?

You would have to ask them what their thinking was; I do not wish to speculate on that. Each and every one of the customers was offered a full refund even though they already passed the warranty due date since they bought it a few years ago. More than 90% of jewellery stores on our size are selling diamonds from more than one lab. The reason that we offer more than one lab, is so that the client can choose and have better selection. We do not believe in forcing anything on our customers. We educate them and let them make the most informed decision by themselves.

How would you sum up your experience with your detractors and what lies ahead?  

This whole case made us stronger and sharper, and more focused than ever on customer service and satisfaction. The way to the top is very difficult, staying at the top is even harder.