Learning when (and how) to say no to custom design projects

By Irina Missiuro

They say that the customer is always right. So if a customer chooses you to create their one-of-kind, custom engagement ring, you must be the best jeweler for the job, right?

Maybe not. Although it may seem counterintuitive, you may want to turn down a custom job for valid reasons. Sometimes, it’s easy to know when to say no; for instance, it’s a safe bet to pass on a customer who has the expectation of a $100,000 look but only a $1,000 budget. However, in other situations, you might not realize that taking on a customer was a mistake until it’s too late. Perhaps, you think, a client’s indecisiveness will disappear once the project gets underway, or an uptight client might loosen up on the reins after you explain that you know how to execute their vision.

To help identify those problem jobs that just aren’t worth your time, Jennifer McFadden of Art of Jewelry by Joel McFadden in Red Bank, New Jersey, has developed her three golden rules for deciding whether or not to take on a custom project: “If they can’t afford it, don’t do it; if they don’t know what they want, don’t do it; and if you know you can’t give them what they want, don’t do it.”

While you’ll ultimately need to decide on your own set of rules to adhere to, we’ve spoken with custom jewelers about the types of custom jobs to avoid, as well as the ways to say no to customers who are accustomed to always being right. 

The Penny Pinchers

One of the most common reasons custom jewelers turn down a job is money—and some customers’ inability to reconcile their caviar tastes with their tuna fish budgets.

McFadden has found that some customers “want what they want even though they can’t afford it.” Often, she sees that to be the case with young couples who have a certain pricey engagement ring in mind. “That’s a bad road to go on,” she says, noting that, ultimately, the jeweler ends up investing a lot of time and materials—often more than the job merits—and doesn’t make a good margin. In the end, feeling sorry for the couple means losing money.

Lee Krombholz of Krombholz Jewelers/Just Like You Designs in Cincinnati agrees that custom jewelers shouldn’t take on clients whose budgets are so restrictive that the quality and durability of the pieces they envision would suffer. Otherwise, the designer has to make substitutions that won’t produce the result the customer is looking for. For instance, to lessen the cost of a custom piece, he might decrease the diamond quality or use a standard mounting from a casting company instead of hand fabricating one. “I do less compromising now than I used to,” he explains. “It’s better to say no—do it right or don’t do it.”

However, if you’ve already accepted the job and want to try some cost-cutting changes to better fit the client’s budget, it’s important to bring the alterations up in advance so the client isn’t surprised that the final piece doesn’t match their initial vision.

On the other hand, Jim Tuttle, founder and president of Green Lake Jewelry Works in Seattle, believes that attempting to lower costs to meet a client’s tight budget could damage your reputation. While it’s ok to convince your customer to agree on a design that features fewer stones or less hand engraving, it can be detrimental to resort to tricks such as casting thin elements that resemble filigree. “It looks bad to anyone with good eyes,” he says. Even if the customer is happy with the results, people who see the piece may identify the shortcuts and view the work as an example of your unprofessionalism or lack of skill.

Part of being able to recognize when a custom job isn’t worth taking on comes with experience. Sometimes errors happen from not knowing how to properly estimate the cost of the job. In his early days, Klaus Kutter of A Jour Jewelry in Bristol, Rhode Island, used to underestimate the complexity of jobs, thinking some would take 15 hours, while they actually took 30. “Something you didn’t anticipate, like a difficult stone setting, can take up more time,” he says. To prevent these occurrences, he goes step by step to determine the quote. “Write everything down. Don’t ballpark—you’ll make mistakes.”

Inexperience can also result in taking on jobs because you feel you need to, regardless of their ultimate effect on your bottom line. Kutter admits that he spent way too long giving in to customers. Now that he has years of experience under his belt, he no longer does that.

“You learn that it’s better to have someone walk out,” he says. For example, recently a man came in with photos of a high-end necklace, which he intended to use as a model for a similar piece. The customer wanted to spend only $10,000, but Kutter explained that he wouldn’t be able to do the project for less than $20,000—otherwise it wouldn’t turn out right. “Ten years ago, I would have taken on the job and gotten burned.”

The Time Thieves

Krombholz believes that time—or the lack of it—is another major reason to consider turning down a project. “To do something right, it must fit into your existing schedule,” he says. “Otherwise, if something goes wrong, there’s no time to remake it.”

And it’s not just a matter of being able to complete the job properly within the allotted time frame; you also need to consider the time that any subcontractors you may use would need to complete their portion of the job.

Krombholz learned this firsthand. He recently took on a project that, in retrospect, he wishes he’d declined. However, he felt the need to oblige because the customer was an ongoing purchaser who often recommended him to her friends, sending high-end clients his way. “I wanted to do it for her because she’s an important client,” he explains. Yet, he admits that, “the timing limited my abilities.”

In this case, the client wanted a necklace to wear to a specific event. Timing would be an issue: Krombholz was leaving the following day for a week’s vacation, and, because the project involved enameling, which his shop doesn’t do in-house, part of the job would need to be outsourced. Despite his misgivings, Krombholz accepted the project, confident in the abilities of his subcontractor, with whom he had worked in the past.

Although the piece was delivered on time, and the client wore it to her event, she was disappointed in the quality, which was not what she had expected. Specifically, the subcontractor’s necklace featured stacked diamond parts made in 14k white and yellow gold. “For enamel to be true vitreous enamel, the gold part should be 18k yellow or green. Hard enamel adheres better on those metals.” In addition, the subcontractor “ran enamel in between the diamond portions” and used cast hammered beads instead of hand hammering the deeper divots that the client desired. “This all might seem somewhat subtle, but with jewelry, the subtle differences make the real difference in quality.”

When the subcontractor’s second attempt at the necklace turned out worse than the original creation, Krombholz wound up redoing the project on his own. “I should have said, I’d love to do this project, but can’t do it in the timing that you want.”

The Undecideds

Jewelers have to master numerous skills in their quest to earn a living making jewelry for clients, but the one skill they often miss is mindreading. Because of this, custom clients should be expected to be able to know and explain what they want and don’t want in a piece of jewelry. And if clients can’t express their desires, sometimes it’s best to let them go.

McFadden admits that they’re not afraid to turn some customers away. A professional with years of experience, McFadden knows how to communicate with customers. She feels that it’s her job to help clients home in on what they want. Unfortunately, some can’t pinpoint their ideas even after a thorough discussion. “If we spend time asking questions, looking at options, and making CAD images and they still can’t decide what they want, that’s the time to let it go,” she says.

Identifying these types of indecisive customers has become second nature to Lisa Krikawa, founder and CEO of Krikawa Jewelry Designs in Tucson. Among the red flags she knows to look for is a certain fearfulness. Phrases such as “I wish I could just see it!” are a dead giveaway that the client may lack the imagination needed for custom. “They can’t make a leap of faith despite seeing the drawings,” she says. When Krikawa encounters a client who exhibits signs of being “not right for custom,” she lets them know that they might be better off picking out a design from a case. 

Even if a customer seemingly knows exactly what she wants when she initially walks through your door, she may start changing her mind as the project goes along. If the alterations can be easily accommodated, the client should be made aware of any additional charges she’ll incur. If the changes are unreasonable, or the client continues requesting different ones as the project moves along, it may be time to suggest parting ways.

The Design Engineers

On the other end of the spectrum are the clients who not only know what they want, they’re all too happy to tell you how to achieve it.

Krikawa has deemed this type of client the engineer type, and she notes that they are usually easy to identify, often showing up with CAD drawings they’ve created or bearing sketches, diagrams, or illusions of grandeur. While it may be tempting to take on a client who can clearly articulate what he wants, often a lack of knowledge comes along with that client.

Krikawa once had a client who asked her to make an engagement ring with a two-carat diamond but didn’t want any metal on top or around the stone. Unable to convince him that hairline-thin prongs wouldn’t provide enough security, she ultimately passed on the project. “We have minimum standards. We won’t build something that won’t last.”

While it’s easy to turn down clients who demand the impossible, it can be a challenge to identify the ones whom you are never going to be able to satisfy. 

Tuttle says that he usually doesn’t turn people away, but when he does, it’s because the clients don’t know what they want, even when they think they do. He recalls one such instance with a customer who wanted a wedding band featuring geometric motifs. First, the client asked for the motifs to be raised up, but that proved uncomfortable. Then, he wanted minute alterations to the width, height, and spacing between the inset motifs. Something was always either too small, too wide, too thick, or a couple of tenths of a millimeter off. After numerous sketches and models—Tuttle says that he counted upward of 500 messages between him and the client in the six months they worked together—and despite the constant adjustments, the customer was still unhappy.

“I ran out of places to go without having to create a brand new design,” Tuttle explains. He eventually wound up firing the customer even though it meant he lost money—they don’t charge a separate design fee, so all that work was done for free. Initially he accepted the project because he had a belief in himself; he “felt [he] can always solve the problem, and it was a relatively large sale.” However, after the fact, he realized that he should have stopped “a little bit earlier” or asked another designer to take over once the message count went over 150 or so.

Avoiding Hurt Feelings

No matter the reason why, sometimes custom design projects just aren’t going to work out. So what do you do when it’s time to turn away a client?

When he has to turn down a custom client, Krombholz tries to “make it factual rather than personal.” By focusing on the details of the project, and why they make it impossible to complete, you lessen the risk of the customer feeling insulted. For instance, if a client asks Krombholz for a piece that is needed for a particular date, he’ll explain that the order will be hard to complete in time. He might say, “I’m sorry that I am not able to help you with your project at this point. I hope I can help you in the future.”

Likewise, McFadden believes that the way you deliver the message is paramount to avoiding hurt feelings and disappointment. When turning down work, she’ll “offer suggestions—either a different style/material, or even another jeweler/designer who could produce what we cannot.” If customers want something that just isn’t possible, she explains to them from a mechanical perspective why their ideas won’t work.

If you’ve already agreed to the job and have found it difficult to deal with or satisfy the client, it’s still possible to gently “fire” them.

When Krombholz encounters a job that he doesn’t think will work out, he lets the client know that perhaps they would be better served by another jeweler. “If after some thought, I don’t think I can do what the client is asking, I explain this,” he says. “If this doesn’t work, there can be a point that I have to confront this client by saying, with a smile, ‘I find it challenging to work with you as a client. I think it might make sense that you try using another jeweler.”

If technical explanations and gentle suggestions to go elsewhere don’t deter a persistent custom client, you can always try raising your price for the job.

Krombholz often handles situations like this by saying, “We have so much work ahead of your job currently, and I would have to charge you a rush rate to get it completed on time.”

Oftentimes, the higher price tag will have clients taking their business elsewhere. But for those who opt to stick with you, at least the higher price will make the job a little more worth your while. And who knows, it may even turn into a rewarding experience.

“Raise your price to match the time needed, and you may be surprised how often an impossible job turns into a profitable and exciting part of your portfolio,” says Tuttle.