The calla lilies are in bloom and the diamonds are out in the open at Deville Fine Jewelry

1. What was your finest hour in the realm of customer service?

One of our newly married clients had a terrible situation where her safe was broken into. Robbers stole all her ­wedding jewelry except the band she was wearing. She had a 5 carat engagement ring, diamond studs, and a diamond tennis bracelet. All the diamonds were perfectly matched, and her husband wanted to have all the pieces re-created with diamonds matching the specifications of the old ones. We were able to work with the insurance company and replace everything in one week. She was absolutely ecstatic and couldn’t believe it. We couldn’t believe it, either!

2. What has been your most memorable sale?

We had a young man in the store who wanted to ­custom-design a mounting. When his fiancée was entering high school, her mother passed away and he wanted to put some remembrance of her in the ring. We decided to add a green diamond to the shank to match her mother’s eyes. He presented it to her and she burst into tears—she knew exactly what it meant. It was heart-wrenching and beautiful.

3. What one advertisement or promotion elicited the biggest response, and why do you think it worked?

Facebook has been great for us. In the past year, we’ve increased our followers to 3,200 from 1,100. We post new pieces, special-order designs, photos from charitable activities, and even jewelry advice. One of our recent posts showed a gorgeous 6 carat pear-shaped diamond, and we got over 885 people sharing, liking, or commenting. We’ve added a tab to sell diamonds on Facebook very recently, and it’s going really well.

4. What nightmare scenario did you turn around to save the day?

We had a client celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary; he wanted to engrave a poem his wife had written to him 25 years ago onto a large pendant as a gift for her. It was a circular pendant and we engraved the words all the way around it. Four weeks later he came in to pick it up. This was about four days before the event where he was going to present it to her. He thought the piece was stunning, but suddenly said, “You left a word out.” He was so upset and we were so embarrassed we thought we were going to die. We said, “Don’t worry; we’ll get on it right away.” The guy walked out and we were in a panic. We had our jeweler put everything aside and he managed to finish it just under the wire. The store manager delivered it to the client three hours before the party started.

5. When you walk through your door, what do you like most about your store?

I love the design of our store. The ­jewelry is displayed in a unique way—in a 21-foot-long table that we ­custom designed, with calla lilies down the center. It’s an open display, so people can walk around and touch things, and look at the price tags. The ambiance is truly beautiful.