With Specsavers open for bookings once more, what are the key differences in practice now?
With customer and colleague safety a priority, there are a number of visible changes in Specsavers stores. Customers will notice plenty of opportunities for hand sanitation, Perspex hygiene screens and signposts, and tools, such as floor tape and decals, to aid social distancing. They will also notice regular surface and equipment cleaning and the appropriate level of PPE being worn at every stage of their time with us.
Returning customers will perhaps notice that their journey in store has changed and is much more assisted. Our colleagues will meet and greet the customer and give guidance and instruction throughout the store to ensure they feel safe and cared for.
What have been the main challenges both from a single practice point of view and managing across the group?
Meeting customer demand lately has been a challenge, but a welcome one. Many people have been patiently waiting during lockdown to resolve a concern they have regarding their eye health or a change in their vision that they didn’t feel warranted an essential, urgent or emergency visit. We have to balance this increase in customers with the need to ensure that our stores operate safely including limiting the number of people in a store at any one time. This means triage, remote care (using telephone and video consultation when appropriate), targeted needs-based tests and home delivery are key.
I think all optical colleagues across the sector will have seen the introduction of PPE into our ongoing routines as both an absolute necessity and a challenge. This is particularly true when examining a customer, when that additional layer, whether a pair of gloves, a mask or visor, between the clinician, customer or equipment can make life that little bit more difficult. Our colleagues have risen to this challenge brilliantly and are sharing hints and tips regularly – both staying safe and still providing the best possible eye or hearing test.
Specsavers practices have a large variance in store size, colleague headcount, customer volume and demographic. Not to mention of course our domiciliary services. It’s been a significant challenge to implement this new customer experience, meeting all the guidance and standards in place, and adapting it to all businesses. This has taken great local leadership from our partners and all of our colleagues going the extra mile to provide a much-needed service or product to people that need it.
How does the patient experience today differ from the pre-Covid era?
One essential change to the customer experience is more in-depth triage, both prior to the customers visit and at the entrance to our stores. This starts by making sure that customers complete our Covid-19 check list and then determine whether the customer needs to visit our store or can be cared for remotely. We also gather much more customer information prior to the visit than before to ensure that we spend the time during their visit efficiently satisfying their needs.
When selecting glasses, customers, unsurprisingly, still want to try frames on, to make sure they have chosen a pair they love and that suits them. This means careful sanitisation of each frame before returning them to the shelves. But due to the use of tablet technology in our stores we can continue to take the majority of facial and position of wear measurements without any customer contact that would occur with a ruler or pupilometer.
When their glasses are ready, many of our customers do not want to make extra trips to the shops to collect unless absolutely necessary. To cater for this, we introduced a home delivery service, meaning that we are able to post glasses directly to our customers. We may take additional measurements when the customer chooses the frame so we can set up for best fit ready for delivery.
How does Specsavers communicate to patients to prepare them for the different experience they will have in store now?
Both by phone and online we communicate the changes to expect on their visit. We have a short video on our website that shows the customer the measures we have put in place to keep them safe and reassure them that our Specsavers colleagues will look after them during their visit.
How have current staff working patterns changed compared to the pre-Covid era? Have some roles changed more than others?
To cater for the demand and not exceed our maximum store capacity, in some Specsavers locations we have extended our opening hours, which has meant changes to working patterns for some colleagues. We found many customers appreciate the chance to visit our stores either earlier or later in the day when our town centres are not as busy.
Our colleagues have also had to embrace remote care, meaning more time on the phone or using video. You are just as likely to see an optometrist, CLO or DO in our call centres as in their consulting room or on the shop floor. But then again, we have all had to adapt to using our devices to stay in touch and it has become something that both our colleagues and customers have become more comfortable with over this extraordinary period.