Credits: Article and images by Wei Koh @ Revolution Watch Magazine. See the original article here - https://revolutionwatch.com/the-genius-of-danny-govberg-co-founder-of-watchbox/
How is WatchBox educating collectors?
I’ll break it down like this. I think that the world gets educated quickly when there is an interest in a specific sector like watches. Think about the modern, high net worth customer. They are educating themselves at night reading magazines and surfing the Internet. They are educating themselves at lunch, looking at Instagram, watching YouTube videos. At WatchBox, we create great content across all the channels that someone uses to educate themselves. We have articles in magazines like Revolution; we have a great Instagram account; we’ve got great YouTube videos; we’ve got online articles. We even have an incredible streaming app backed by hundreds of hours of shows made by our watch advisors, who are some of the most knowledgeable people in the world. A lot of times, people find WatchBox through these channels. We are often part of their educational journey in watches, because I feel content is everything. Why? Because, as I said, the second principle of WatchBox is to create trust.
These educational tools create the first level of trust. From there, they [the clients] come to our website. Now when they arrive, what they see is a transactional platform, sure, but it’s also a further educational tool. It’s got our videos, our articles, our testimonials — this is our brand image and represents the second level of trust. From here, a client can purchase a watch without talking to anyone. But what we really want is for them to engage with one of our client advisors, especially when we are talking about a watch costing 20,000 and above.
We transact on a 100,000-dollar watch daily, but we always want to give the client some guidance into what he or she is purchasing. What we really want is to learn about and understand that client. Firstly, why is he buying that watch? Is it for himself or a business partner; is it to celebrate something; is it for his son or daughter? Maybe he just wants it to show the world he’s someone special. All of this is important to us. Because a wristwatch means something different to every person. We want our clients to develop a relationship with a client advisor and not be passed around person to person. Our client advisors are genuine watch enthusiasts. I mean, they live, breathe, sleep and eat watches. We’ve got people all around the world, but the one common thread is that they love wristwatches. This interaction and shared passion create the third level of trust with us.
What did you learn from the pandemic?
In the pre-pandemic era, the ultimate level of trust was built through face-to-face interactions. We would meet you at an event, at our stores, on a road trip, at your house. We even had watch advisors being invited onto a client’s yacht to show him watches. One of the things that has come out of the pandemic is the idea of the Zoom interaction, where you meet each other or catch up with video conferencing. This has allowed us to meet so many more people. We have a watch advisor named George Mayer. He’s one of the best in the world. He regularly FaceTimes or Zooms with clients in Europe, and one of the recent developments is how many clients he’s interacting with in China.
The face-to-face meetings, the laughter and fun are really great. This one-on-one interaction is super important. Because now we’ve met each other, we have a relationship. There is a trust there, and if you always take care of this relationship, it can last forever.
What distinguishes WatchBox from all the other secondary players?
There are several other things that separate WatchBox from everyone else. The first is that we have the largest inventory in the world. Second to none. Especially when it comes to luxury timepieces from Patek Philippe, F.P. Journe, De Bethune and all the greatest brands in the world. The condition of all of these watches is impeccable. Whatever needed service has been taken care of. I would go so far as to say when a client receives a watch from us, 95 percent of the time, it is as good as being brand new.
Credits: Article and images by Wei Koh @ Revolution Watch Magazine. See the original article here - https://revolutionwatch.com/the-genius-of-danny-govberg-co-founder-of-watchbox/