Look local: Maintaining the personal touch

'The town has no main high street but a little precinct with lots of independent shops,’ says Gemma Dixon, manager and dispensing optician at Leightons Opticians & Hearing Care in Totton.

She says: ‘It’s a small area, and patients know each other as many of them have lived here for years.’ But there is competition for the generational footfall.

The Leightons branch manager says other multiples in town lack the personal touch. The company, which owns 34 practices in the south-east is currently promoting itself as offering the variety of an independent practice in a regional chain.

‘There is a Specsavers within walking distance to us,’ says Dixon. ‘But we don’t compete with them because we offer something very different. We focus on delivering a more personalised service.’