Client loyalty is extremely important to our business. I have clients who have worked with us for nearly the full 37 years of my gallery’s existence. Sometimes I work with a single person, other times it is an entire family over that three-and-a-half-decade period. With others, the contact may be only once a decade. But in all cases, they are extremely loyal because I have worked closely with them to build important private art collections of rare rugs that are extremely valuable and considered significant precious tangible assets.
Our approach is entirely educational and completely deferential. Even if that Fitzgerald conversation never took place, we recognize that our clients are extremely different than others, but in more ways than simply having great wealth. They wish to have access to our knowledge in a palatable and pleasurable manner. They wish to have relationships in which they achieve a level of comfort where they can let go and enjoy themselves, knowing that they are being taken care of in every aspect.
Our business model from day one has been predicated upon the notion that the best Persian and tribal rugs from the Second Golden Age of Weaving are objects of art on the same level with other fine arts and antiques, but have been undervalued. We have been proven correct. We also established early on a level of client satisfaction and an approach that continues to value our clients’ most precious commodity: time. We understand how much they value the knowledge and reputation of their art dealer, their desire to have access to a one-in-the-world inventory and their desire to understand what they are acquiring.
In a very real sense, we recognize that client service starts not after a purchase but at the initial interaction. This continues not only through the sales process but for years to come through our ongoing service and long-term rug exchange programs. With this as our operating premise, we have built a broad base of knowledgeable, highly motivated clients who value working with us. They are provided with access to exceptional pieces of art, through our program of private sales that satisfy them on an emotional level while assuring them that they are acquiring precious tangible assets, which have increased in rarity and value for decades.
As a privately-owned gallery whose niche for more than three decades has been working with extremely wealthy clients, we have built a knowledge base on a very specific business model that is applicable across a broad spectrum of industries. While our product is art-level antique Oriental rugs, our success is based on fundamental principles that are all too often misapplied or disregarded by those who work with the ultra-wealthy. As a result, we have active clients on five continents and annually sell more art-level Second Golden Age rugs than all the world’s leading auction houses combined.
Jan David Winitz is the founder and president of Claremont Rug Company.