How to Improve Customer Experience in a Jewellery Store: Lessons from Indriya's CEO
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A few weeks back, JK Director Mr. Naman Ajmera sat down for a fireside chat with Mr. Sandeep Kohli, CEO of Indriya , Aditya Birla Group. It felt less like an interview and more like two people from the trade talking shop — and somewhere in that conversation, Mr. Kohli dropped a piece of retail wisdom that every future jeweller, store manager, or CAD designer needs to hear.
The topic that came up: how do you give a customer such a good experience at your store that they keep coming back?
His answer wasn't about discounts or fancy interiors. It was about understanding a moment that happens in every jewellery store, every single day — a moment most of us walk right past without noticing
The Excitement-to-Tension Curve
Here's the pattern Mr. Kohli said he's seen play out again and again on the Indriya store floor.
A customer walks in. They're happy. Excited, even. Maybe they're buying for a wedding, an anniversary, or just because they finally saved up for that one piece they wanted. They browse. They imagine the person they're buying for smiling when they see it. The energy in the room is light.
Then comes the moment of choosing.
And just like that, the mood shifts. The same customer who was smiling two minutes ago is now quiet, a little tense, running numbers in their head. Mr. Kohli explained why this happens with a line that's worth remembering: jewellery is not a category you can sell like any other product. It's a high-value purchase. It's hard-earned money. And the human brain simply doesn't make big financial decisions the same way it makes small ones.
The Three Questions Every Customer Is Silently Asking
According to Mr. Kohli, almost every hesitant customer is stuck on some version of the same three questions:
"Which piece do I actually pick?" — too many options, too little clarity.
"Should I go for this design, or the one with lower making charges?" — value versus love, fighting it out in real time.
"Should I buy today, or wait — what if gold prices drop tomorrow?" — the fear of buying at the "wrong" moment.
None of these questions are about the jewellery itself. They're about confidence. The customer isn't unsure if they like the piece — they're unsure if they're making the right call. And a business that doesn't understand this difference will lose the sale, or worse, lose the customer forever.
Reading the Customer Before They Say a Word
So how does Indriya solve for this? Not with a sales pitch — with trained observation.
Mr. Kohli was clear on one distinction: Indriya stores don't have salespeople — they have jewellery consultants. It's more than a title change. Their job isn't to sell; it's to understand. He spoke about how these consultants are trained to quietly read a customer within minutes: what's their budget, who are they buying for, what's the occasion, and what kind of reassurance do they actually need in that moment. Instead of pushing a sale, their real job is to calm the customer down and become a guide through the decision, not a pressure point.
That one shift — from "salesperson" to "decision partner" — is what keeps a customer coming back to the same store the next time, and the time after that.
The Store Itself Is Designed to Calm You Down
Mr. Kohli was clear on one distinction: Indriya stores don't have salespeople — they have jewellery consultants. It's more than a title change. Their job isn't to sell; it's to understand. He spoke about how these consultants are trained to quietly read a customer within minutes: what's their budget, who are they buying for, what's the occasion, and what kind of reassurance do they actually need in that moment. Instead of pushing a sale, their real job is to calm the customer down and become a guide through the decision, not a pressure point.
That one shift — from "salesperson" to "decision partner" — is what keeps a customer coming back to the same store the next time, and the time after that.
The Store Itself Is Designed to Calm You Down
This is where the conversation got genuinely interesting. Mr. Kohli revealed that Indriya has invested serious research into the sensory experience of the store itself — because a tense customer makes worse decisions and has a worse memory of the brand.
The fragrance. Every Indriya store carries the same signature scent — and it isn't a random pleasant smell. It's specifically curated to have a calming effect, so that the customer's stress levels drop the moment they walk in.
The music. Similarly, there's a dedicated soundtrack designed for Indriya stores — not something loud or upbeat, but music researched to help people slow down, think clearly, and feel at ease while making a big decision.
The team. As covered above — trained to understand the customer's real needs and gently guide them, not just close a sale.
The old gold exchange. Perhaps the most powerful trust-builder of all. Indriya melts a customer's old gold right in front of them, behind glass doors, so they can watch the entire process. No back rooms, no "trust us." Just transparency, visible from start to finish. And in a category built almost entirely on trust, that visibility does more for customer loyalty than any advertisement ever could.
This is exactly the kind of real-world insight that doesn't show up in a textbook. You won't find "why customers freeze before the final decision" in a syllabus — but you'll definitely face it the day you step onto a store floor, manage a client, or design for a brand.
At J K Diamonds Institute of Gems & Jewellery, this is exactly why we go beyond the coursework. Whether it's Gemology, CAD Jewellery Design, or the Diamond Business Mastermind program, our goal is to make sure our students don't just learn the craft — they understand how the industry actually thinks, sells, and builds trust. Conversations like this one with Mr. Sandeep Kohli are proof of that philosophy in action.
Because the real edge in this industry isn't just knowing how jewellery is made. It's knowing why a customer says yes.
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