The View from the High Street

It's that time of year when local shops have started to put up their Christmas decorations and the carols are being played across shops' tannoy systems. In the optical sector this marks, for most, the start of a steady decline in our businesses. It is typically felt to be our quietest period within the year. I, however, think of this as the lull before the storm - before the explosion of trade expected moving through into the new year.

As a practice Christmas offers a unique opportunity to prepare for this jump in trade by completing as many of the operational and important training exercises as possible. For example, making sure that frame bars are adequately stocked and that all necessary accessories are available. It also allows colleagues to have thorough and detailed training planned. Group training sessions also become a more realistic option and present an opportunity to build team relationships. Recently, as a practice, we used one such training event to advance all of the optical consultants' knowledge on freeform varifocal lenses. The training was a great success and the team enjoyed not only the time given to them for this education, but also the opportunity to build their relationships.