The business of optics

This article is best viewed in a PDF Format.

View PDF

Previous articles have looked at analysing the business and money, essential elements to a good plan. Implementation activities involve more dealing with customers and staff, and the 'softer' elements of management.

A conservative estimate of the value of a customer who comes to an optical shop in their 20s and stays with it into their 60s is about £5,000. As it can cost five times as much to bring a new customer through your door as it does to keep this person,1 customers should be viewed as a long-term investment and treated as valued and respected visitors. Optics has a relatively low volume of product sales, and involves a high level of face-to-face time with the customer and technical expertise - it is very much a service industry. According to Olins:2 'In a product brand, customers come first. But in a service brand, your own people come first.' He proposes that with a product (soap, beer, televisions) 75 per cent of promotional resource can be put into communicating with the customer through advertising and promotion, whereas with a service, at least 50 per cent of resource should be put into ensuring that the people providing it are excellent, and have good interpersonal skills.