Keeping a challenger mindset

Mike Hale: You took over at CooperVision as the pandemic took hold last year, how did the company help its UK and Ireland clients and their patients during that time?

Doug Bairner: It was incredibly humbling to see how quickly everyone at CooperVision mobilised to work effectively from home and also to swiftly support customers. Our customer services team worked incredibly rapidly to ensure that patient deliveries were re-routed to their homes rather than to closed practices, expanding our service to cover the Republic of Ireland. We have seen an increase of 159% in the number of patients registered on VisionXtra, our direct to patient service, since the pandemic began and that is still sticking now as practices have realised the all-round convenience of delivering product direct to patients’ homes. Our professional services team had our online Learning Academy up and running within days of the first lockdown to help provide CET and training on topics ranging from Covid protocols to how to run remote aftercare effectively and latterly on embracing myopia control as a standard of care. CooperVision Learning Academy now has over 4,000 eye care professionals (ECPs) registered and over 6,000 modules have already been completed. Our sales teams worked hard to find ways of helping customers to retain patients who may have otherwise cancelled their subscriptions. Most importantly, our manufacturing, operations our manufacturing, operations, supply chain and distribution teams continued to deliver continuity of supply all through the darkest days of lockdowns. This ensured that not only did contact lens subscription revenues keep the financial lights on for many customers even when their doors were closed, but that frontline workers could continue to work, especially as many found their glasses fogging with prolonged mask wear.