Perhaps the first finding from the project was that only 30 of the practices present put themselves forward to be shopped. The organisers selected a further 10 at random to make up the necessary 40 for analysis.
The exercise was broken down into six distinct units:
? Making the appointment by phone
? The first impression – outside the store
? The service at reception
? The sight test
? The handover to the dispensing optician
? Team observations.
Making the appointment was viewed as the weakest link in the process according to Jonathan Winchester of Shopper Anonymous, the firm which carried out the exercise. Calls are generally answered quickly, times confirmed and thanks given, but there were also areas for improvement. Perhaps the nature of independent practice is that it has a human face. It is not unexpected then that 41 per cent of calls were answered with the official welcome from the practice including the staff member’s name and just 44 per cent used the customer name. The real missed opportunity was in business building. Just 17 per cent were offered an additional service such as retinal photography and the same percentage asked how they had heard about the practice. The feedback was that staff were polite but didn’t personalise the experience, build conversation or question the caller.
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