What You Can Learn about Marketing from Merion Opticians

What can owner James McTighe of Merion Opticians (which is not in Merion) teach you and me about how to market and sell your handcrafted jewelry?

Plenty.

I met James for the first time when I took a pair of vintage Ray-Ban sunglasses to him a few years ago to be repaired. He spent a while trying to tighten a screw that was jammed, fixed what he could, cleaned them and straightened them.

I admit that Merion wasn't the first place I went to get the sunglasses repaired. But it's the last place I've ever gone since then, remaining a loyal customer for life.

What did James do that got me hooked? He repaired the glasses for free. I thought, "This guy's amazing -- he worked hard to repair these and didn't charge me a thing!"

What did he get in return? I bought a pair of sunglasses from him a few weeks later that were the most expensive -- and best -- I've ever purchased. I also had him replace the lenses in an old pair of Ralph Lauren sunglasses I couldn't part with. And I've referred everyone I know to James for the past few years.

He moved not too long ago from his store on Montgomery Avenue in Narberth to the "main drag" in Narberth on Haverford Avenue, right down the street from the American Family Market.

I stopped in the other day to get a case for a pair of glasses I had. We chatted.

When I opened my wallet to pay for the case, he smiled, shook his head and said, "There's no charge for that."

He's a class act with many loyal customers who wouldn't go anywhere else.

James is an example of what I mean in my newsletters when I say, "Give it away, it comes back."

When you are kind to other people, particularly strangers, the world has a pretty neat way of paying you back.

The anecdotes I write in my blog, by the way, are real. If you ever need anything in the eyeglass line, I highly Merion Opticians.

And while you're at it, stop in at the American Family Market. They know how to take care of people, too.

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