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In what was a highly competitive category the practice fulfilled the judge's criteria of understanding how to attract and care for families and providing all family members with the eye care they need and the eyewear they want.
Furthermore the judges felt that Urban Optics demonstrated real commitment to the encouragement of children, parents and grandparents to share and engage in eye care for the family together.
'The category was ideal for us as we are very much a family-orientated practice,' says Pat O'Donoghue, owner of Urban Optics. 'We have based our business on an all-inclusive strategy to actively attract patients from all ages and walks of life for over 10 years now.'
Specific ways the practice has developed in a family-focused manner include the introduction of quiet and family waiting areas plus an adjacent children's play area, lift access to the first floor consulting rooms and the use of a practice management system to link family members to each other. However, most important from O'Donoghue's point of view, is the quality of service to customers, which has been achieved through regular staff training and development.
'I would say excellent service is the key. The staff's attitude to patients and customers is to help them as much as possible in a friendly and patient way and they have equal ability to deal with an elderly patient or a child or anyone else who might come through the door. More than anything, the award was for the whole staff and I am delighted that their efforts have been recognised.'
Patient base
A strong testament to the quality of service at Urban Optics is that the practice has an active patient base of 25,000 while Killarney has a base population of only 15,000. 'People travel from up to 40 miles away to come here,' confirms O'Donoghue.
Appropriately Urban Optics is run by a family with a strong tradition in the optical industry. 'My father ran a pharmacist and optician business from one site,' explains O'Donoghue. 'I qualified as an optometrist in 1971 and took over the optical side in 1973. We moved from the original building in 1977 to establish Urban Optics in the current premises as a stand-alone business and also because we needed more space.'
Today the staff includes O'Donoghue's wife, Helen, who is a dispensing optician and his three daughters have all been involved at times too.
'I serve as the principal optometrist the rest of the staff consists of another optometrist, two dispensing opticians - including my wife, and four reception staff. We also have our own glazing lab, which was set up around 1980 to ensure we could provide a rapid service and control the quality of the lenses.'
Awards night
O'Donoghue says he was spurred to enter the awards after seeing an Irish practice pick up an award last year.
'We saw in Optician that Aine Higgins of Mongey Opticians won the Optometrist of the Year trophy and that inspired us to enter. We thought if she can do it working in a provincial kind of town like our own, we should try for it as well.'
After being nominated, O'Donoghue flew to the UK with his daughter to attend the Optician Awards event, held in Birmingham.
'With the distance involved it was too difficult to bring the full team, but we were in contact with the wider staff pretty much the whole time so they were still all involved. We didn't go over with the expectation of winning and it was a delightful shock for us when our name was announced. We were very happy to be nominated, so to actually win was absolutely great.'
Upon returning to Ireland, O'Donoghue was surprised by the whole team greeting them at Cork airport, an experience he likened to bringing back the cup from a sports match to celebrate.
Since winning O'Donoghue has done interviews with local radio to talk about how the practice came to be recognised as a centre of excellence. Being able to use the award in the practice's marketing material has made a tangible difference.
'We now use it in all our branding. It has been a big boost and has been a real help to our marketing efforts. We are currently looking at adding an OCT unit to the practice. Things are pretty tight here with the economic situation, so the boost from the award is helping us to pay for that and provide people with better eye care.' ?