A customer walks into a prestigious jewellery store, clutching a damaged family heirloom.

"How long for a quotation?" they ask. The answer used to be "about two weeks." Now it's "by this afternoon."

Here’s how we helped a national jewellery chain transform their repair process from weeks to hours.

The Challenge

A respected high-street jewellery chain had built strong brand recognition but was struggling with their after-sales repair process. Customers faced long waits just to receive repair quotations, creating frustration and potential churn.

The Core Issue:
The company had excellent specialist repairers across the country, but the process of matching repairs to the right specialists was entirely manual. Complex routing logic lived in spreadsheets and institutional knowledge, creating bottlenecks that delayed even simple quotations.

The Complexity:
Different jewellery types required different expertise — vintage pieces needed restoration specialists, modern items required different skills, and watch repairs demanded separate capabilities. Without documented decision criteria, coordinators spent hours making phone calls to find the right specialist for each job.

The Solution

Our Approach:
This required both process re-engineering and technology innovation working together.

The Innovation:
The breakthrough came when we realized that high-resolution photography could enable remote assessment. Master jewellers could identify 80% of repair requirements from detailed images — revolutionary for the industry in 2008.

Key Components Delivered

• Visual Assessment System:
  High-resolution image capture integrated with specialist evaluation workflows
  
  
• Intelligent Routing Engine:
  Automated matching of repair requirements to specialist capabilities and availability
  
  

Customer Communication Platform:
Real-time updates and transparent repair journey tracking

Process Improvements

• Eliminated physical jewellery transfer for initial assessment phase
  
  
• Automated routing decisions previously made through phone calls
  
  
• Created predictable timelines and transparent customer communications
  
  

The Results That Mattered

Quantified Business Impact:

• Quotation Time: Reduced from 3–5 days to same-day (4–6 hours average)
  
  
• Complete Repair Cycle: Shortened from 2–3 weeks to 5–7 days
  
  
• Operational Efficiency: Eliminated 60% of coordination phone calls between stores and specialists
  
  
• Specialist Utilization: Increased by 25% through better matching and reduced idle time
  
  

The Real Victory:
Transforming after-sales service from a cost centre causing customer churn into a competitive differentiator. The company could now confidently promise repair quotations "by end of day" — something competitors couldn't match.