A TVI team visited the Gondomar Delegation at Goldpark last Wednesday to learn about the secrets behind the Assay Office and to disclose the common citizen the meaning of contrast marks set on the rings, bracelets and gold chains worn in everyday living. This news appears at the right time, when the Portuguese are preparing for Christmas shopping, traditionally a time when they turn to the Goldsmithery and Jewellery sector in order to invest in precious metal items or to offer something special.
This action is the result of an Assay Office Communication Plan specially focussed in promoting the value of the certification mark as a fundamental tool for the protection of consumer rights, contributing to the valorisation and prestige of gold and jewellery articles.
The report on the visit was broadcast in the Jornal da Uma (One o´clock News) last Sunday. You can watch it here.
THE MARK THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
On last Tuesday morning, the Assay Office met with five Economic Operators of the municipality of Guimarães to set the requirements for the new service of Workshop Marking. The project aims to bring the assay mark to the customers’ workshops, through the displacement of Assay Office employees who will make the on-site piece marking. This pilot project, which will start in mid-October, will allow customers to obtain the markings in just a few hours, without the need to move them, which will promote greater security, agility and convenience for their operations.
This new service, which will start in a pilot format, will once again achieve the Assay Office goal of innovating, increasing its efficiency and that of its customers and, consequently, helping revitalize the Goldsmith and Jewellery sector.
On 25 August, the new Safe Transport Service for Work Collection and Delivery was introduced in Guimarães to the workshops, a service that will immediately benefit a group of about thirty industries based in the district of Braga at this first stage.
This new Assay Office service, totally free of charge during the first six months, materialises the commitment made by the President of the Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, on 17 July at a meeting promoted by the Operators of Guimarães and Póvoa de Lanhoso, with the support of the Town Hall of Guimarães.
The Assay Office has made every effort to provide, as of 15 September, this new service that will bring more security, more convenience and a reduction in costs to the manufacturers of jewellery and watchmaking, by eliminating the need for trips to the Assay Office in order to carry out the certification of their work.
This new service of Safe Transport for Work Collection and Delivery provided to workshops will soon be extended to the entire national territory and, together with several other initiatives, is another demonstration of the Assay Office commitment in the partnership with this fundamental sector of national economy.
Link to Leaders, an online tool staging Start-ups, Companies and Business Angels, has recently highlighted the Assay Office role in the form of an interview with its director, Paula Pedro.
In this frank conversation, Paula Pedro had the opportunity to unravel some of the current axes of the Assay Office, the innovative impetus that has been the catalyst of the activity of this unit and the unwavering focus on customer satisfaction.
Read the full article here.
The Assay Office has met, on 15 October, in the modern facilities of Goldpark and with all the security conditions, representatives of Parfois, a Portuguese women’s accessory company that is present in 65 countries. With 24 years of tradition, this brand combines innovation with ambition, qualities that allow it to record an average business growth of around 26 % per year.
The meeting was marked by open and constructive dialogue on strengths and opportunities, but also on numerous current challenges. Parfois’ entrepreneurial and creative spirit is an ideal ally at a time when the Assay Office develops a set of innovative initiatives with a focus on improving the service provided to its customers.
Parfois has joined the vast list of representatives of the Goldsmith and Jewelry Sector who have visited Goldpark’s facilities, promoting the construction of a transparent and mutually inspired relationship, with results that will prevail in time.
THE MARK THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE
Following an audit carried out by INCM, which also included the Assay Offices’ premises, the company was assigned the brand COVID SAFE.
The attribution of this brand is a service provided by the certification entity APCER and aims to reaffirm the trust and safety of employees, customers and other interested parties. This recognition is a reflection of the various efforts and initiatives undertaken by the INCM and which have reflected very clearly in the Assay Office, with the aim of ensuring the continuity of its activity, without neglecting the commitment to the safety and health of all those who collaborate with us, both internally and externally.
The initiatives implemented will continue to be rigorously ensured and will be reviewed continuously to provide an adequate and timely response to the evolution of the pandemic.
With the collaboration of all, we will certainly overcome this period.
The Assay Office board of directors has received, in the modern Goldpark facilities, two essential references in this sector: Farilu, represented by João Faria and Bruno Faria, and Eugénio Campos.
Both meetings served the firm purpose of the Assay Office of contributing to strengthen the companies that, for decades, have represented what is best done in the Goldsmith and Jewellery sector in Portugal, something that will only be possible through an open and constructive dialogue regarding the trends, opportunities and present challenges.
Each meeting promotes the exchange of ideas and every moment of reflection arises synergies that will lead to a mutual evolution with results that will certainly last in time.
Christmas has arrived at the Assay Office!
The Assay Office is committed to permanently hear and take into account the Sector’s signals. That is why, as of today, it will mobilise its team to extend the hours of service till 20 PM daily until Christmas.
In October, there was a clear increase in the number of articles entered into the Assay Office services, which I’m glad to announce. This trend will be sharply felt in the coming weeks until Christmas and will, of course, have greater impact on the Gondomar Delegation, which already accounts for an increase in the number of customers served and an expected increase in the average waiting time:
In order to anticipate this tendency and satisfy its Customers’ needs, starting today and during the next 6 weeks, the Gondomar Delegation will have an extended service schedule by another 3 hours, while Lisbon keeps its current timetable:
In this way, the optimisation of the levels of service and efficiency of the Assay Office will be ensured. Similarly, the Assay Office hopes to contribute to a greater spacing in the service throughout the day, trying to avoid clusters within the facilities, since these constitute additional risks to the spread of Covid-19.
We call for the best collaboration of all, if possible by collecting works between 18:00 and 20:00. In addition, we request the permanence inside the Assay Office to be avoided, by waiting for service to be completed preferably in vehicles or outside.
In the partnership logic that guides the relationship between the Assay Office and the Sector, we emphasise the importance of maintaining an open and direct communication channel with customers, so that we may continue to know their real needs. At this moment, and because so justified, this kind of communication will be increasingly frequent, given the challenging situation we are going through.
THE MARK THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE
It was with optimism that, in September, the workload entered at the Assay Office was normalised, with values very close to those recorded in the same period of 2019. This trend was confirmed in October, with the number of articles entered at the Assay Office services having reached this week more than 2019. This increase reflects the collective efforts in the recovery of the Jewelry and Goldsmith Sector, which we are pleased to note and that it is important not to slow down.
Coinciding with the increase in workload, it was necessary to implement mirror teams in Gondomar, in order to guarantee the continuity of the Assay Office activity, which is the main priority at the difficult and worrying time we’re going through worldwide. However, the operation with mirror teams necessarily implies a reduction in response capacity, both at reception and in the assaying and marking service. The Assay Office assures its customers and the Sector in general that it is exceeding its efforts to ensure the lowest average waiting time (AWT) in service and to continue guaranteeing the short delivery times that are generally verified in the assaying and marking service. For example, among other measures, we have resorted to additional work, sometimes through the night and even on weekends. While there is certainly enormous satisfaction by all when seeing this fantastic recovery of the Sector, it is also believed that the effort made by the Assay Office to contribute and to do its best is also undeniable. It is important that the Sector and customers have the real perception of the commitment of the teams, not only to convey a message of tranquility and security, but because this will also galvanise the motivation with which the Assay Office embraces its mission daily. We therefore thank the customers who gave this feedback. Together we’ll make the difference.
Now, more specifically…
In order to increase response levels, the teams and customers of the two Assay Offices in the North have met at Goldpark. The initiative proved to be very effective, as shown since the third week on the following chart. However, it is unavoidable that, along with the increase in the number of articles received, the Assay Office is now limited to about 50% of the response capacity at reception, which is aggravated by the fact that one of the teams has 1 clerk less. With all transparency, the Assay Office notes that some variation may therefore occur over the weeks.
It should be noted that, this week, the record of more than 200 clients served in a single day was reached, and there was an average of almost 20 thousand articles a day being admitted to the Assay Office, a much higher number than last year’s.
As a result of the strategy and investment that the Assay Offices have implemented, the following graph clearly shows the significant rise in efficiency occurred in all four levels of service – express rate, very urgent rate, urgent rate and normal rate – globally in the Assay Offices of Lisbon, Porto and Gondomar. Indeed, nowadays, even with an increase in activity and when the Northern region has reached its half capacity as a result of the formation of mirror teams, the average delivery times at the express rate, for example, range only between 0.2 and 1 day.
Our focus at the Assay Office remains: providing the best service to our clients, safeguarding the health of all.
THE MARK THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE
A MARCA QUE FAZ A DIFERENÇA
At the uncertain stage we are going through, and as we witness the increasing number of daily cases of Covid-19 infections, the Assay Office has developed a Contingency Plan whose main goal is to ensure the functioning of its service while, at the same time, safeguarding the health and well-being of its employees, customers and partners.
Aware of its important role in the Jewelry and Goldsmithery sector, the Assay Office Management promptly released to its clients and representative associations a message of trust and guaranteed the continuity of its services in the contingency period, starting with the reorganisation of work schedules and teams, thus allowing their operation as a mirror and providing for a new extended service timetable available to the public (for the moment only in Porto and Gondomar).
Although we cannot guarantee that this period will be overcome without any constraints, please be sure that everything will be done in order to ensure that the drawbacks are minimised as far as possible. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding in the months to come.
In times of uncertainty, the message of the Assay Office is one of strength, but also of tranquility and trust.
