A weekend of support for the independent sector was held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry on November 5 and 6 with clinical CET, a networking dinner along with business, seminars, workshops and an exhibition.
The NEG programme was introduced by director of business development Phil Mullins. He said feedback from last year’s conference had shaped this year’s programme, Building for Success, which included clinical and business topics many in a workshop format. CET was centred around the latest progressive lenses, astigmatism and contact lenses and keratoconus. Clinical topics also included dispensing problems, OCT and ultra-widefield retinal imaging.
Business topics included combining clicks with bricks in omni-channel selling, understanding patients and charging for clinical services.
An evening of dining and networking was followed by iDay. While the afternoon was dedicated to workshop style sessions covering stock control, visual merchandising and patient feedback the morning had a lecture approach.
Focus on Detail for Successful Retail was the theme for the day with keynote speaker Laura Tenison MBE sharing the story of how she set up the JoJo Maman Bebe group. Tenison is an advocate of independent retail and the high street and has bucked the retail trend by building her 85 branch network by concentrating on serving local communities. ‘I’m here today because I love my optician and I want to see you guys survive on the high street.’ She then lamented that too many retailers were giving up and becoming Uber drivers because they think they cannot compete with Amazon Prime.
She said she had bucked the trend to out of town shopping by caring about the impact of the business, its people and avoiding waste. Her ‘non-hierarchical’ approach has been grown through self-funding and detail has continued to be important to her.
Her mother and baby clothes were developed by talking to real mums, she allows staff to bring their dogs to work, she has an inclusive employment policies and has active ethical source, recycling and charity programmes. Approaches such as these build loyalty and can all start to work like stealth marketing, she said.
A strong theme running through Tenison’s talk was recognition of the individual. For employees that meant recognising the importance of quality of life away from work. She extends this idea to customers with, free wifi, play areas, toilets and efforts to engage customers, by encouraging them to come back into the store as often as possible. This is not rocket science: ‘Be nice, remember your customer’s name, it’s not that difficult.’ She also encourages customers to promote the business through the use of social media. People’s time is limited but suggested: ‘Social media is probably more important than a website now.’
Jason Kirk next took the floor with a talk entitled Optical Retail – Best Practices. This consisted of a jaunt around the world recently taken by Kirk as he looked after, and found new, customers.
He explained his family’s long history in optics and he described a golden era for optics fostered by cooperation and entrepreneurship through the post war years. But, he warned: ‘the danger is when things are safe.’
Times are now tougher with a polarising market. The key, he said, was to be a true independent and not to try and compete with the multiples or the online sellers who will always win on price. Kirk contended: ‘This is a really exciting time for independent optics,’ but also said: ‘the future is about the independent sector coming together.’
Part of the audience participation during iDay was the Slido voting system. This showed that around 60% of the audience were making a reasonable profit after salary, a quarter were making a healthy profit while for the rest their salary was the profit. Kirk also asked delegates about their exhibition attendance which revealed a quarter did not attend any optical shows. Around 60% went to one of the UK shows while 14% went to Silmo in Paris or Mido in Milan.
Kirk’s jaunt highlighted a range of great looking practices with funky, interesting staff and outre eyewear. Most were offering great independent brands and concentrated on creating a special atmosphere and making their customers feel great as well as look good. It also proved that creating a special optical retail space does not have to cost the earth.
Refurbishment cost had been high on the agenda for the next speaker. Ryan Leighton (pictured), the chief executive officer of Leightons Opticians and Hearingcare, took the revitalisation of the Southern group as his topic. Leightons took a root and branch look at the business and engaged staff and customers in looking at its core values and what customers wanted.
Some harsh customer feedback had led Leightons to spend millions refurbishing and bringing its 34 stores up to date. While some stores justified a big spend others got a less radical update and some are still to be done. The product mix also needed a refresh but, said Leighton, that does not have to mean becoming an East End boutique. It meant, he said: ‘Having great product that your people are happy to talk about, it doesn’t have to be completely off the wall.’
Leighton explained how the group had undergone the biggest investment in improvements, people and training in its 90-year history, this culminated with a change of name to add Hearingcare to its Opticians title. By improving all aspects of the business and including and engaging the staff gains had been made. ‘Small improvements add together to make big change,’ he said. The key was monitoring and involvement. ‘If you can’t measure it is doesn’t exist. Make sure your people understand the small KPIs [key performance indicators] and how what they are doing fits in with the bigger picture.’
Janan Choudhury’s talk: Are You at Home with Your Range, returned to the topic of eyewear and his Damascene conversion one day while working for a multiple. He said offering customers what the multiple had to offer was not what he wanted to be doing and he decided there and then to break out of the ‘bubble’.
He cautioned against the big companies’ moves and mergers and urged practices to rediscover their independence. With mergers such as Essilor and Luxottica, and with Specsavers getting into OCT the giants were adapting. He urged practices to look at global suppliers and ask: ‘What have they done for you? What are you doing for them? Are where does this leave you?’
In a passionate address he warned that history showed sticking to perceived wisdom was not a good idea and that embracing change was essential. He challenged the audience with the suggestion: ‘Perhaps you are the problem?’, before going on to offer four tips to success.
The first tip was to be really different, make an impression, offer your customers colour, capture their imagination and get them enjoying the experience of buying spectacles. Next he said rediscover your independence and that meant offering different product. ‘Are you just a showroom, are you selling what you can get down the street?’ he said today’s savvy shoppers are on their smartphones checking prices so do not get caught out. He suggested relying on the big brands was a ‘cushy pillow’ and truly independent practices had to make their customer fall in love with them. ‘You can’t do that with a pair of Ray-Bans.’
Choudhury’s third tip was to constantly progress the business and the product mix. The final tip was carpe diem – seize the day. He illustrated this tip with the tale of an optician who visited Silmo in Paris and took an interest in a new range of frames. In the end he did not have the courage to order the frames for his practice but bought a pair for himself and his wife to wear. ‘Don’t hesitate, if you have fallen in love with the collection carpe diem,’ said Choudhury.
He used the Slido voting system to discover that 66% of the iDay audience had one or two boutique brands in their practice and 32% had three or more. He suggested a good New Year resolution to the audience was to take on at least one independent collection. ‘You do not need the big boys. You are your own person, embrace it.’
Winning an Optician Award is one of the greatest accolades in optics and former Optician Optometrist of the Year, Lynne Fernandes, gave a presentation on how to achieve that. Her talk showed the holistic benefits aiming for an Optician Award can bring as the focus falls on the practice, the products and the people who together create the experience and environment for patients and customers.
Fernandes’ collaborative approach was encapsulated by her opening remarks which credited her win to her life and work partner, Gerard, and her practice teams. Enthused and empowered teams were at the heart of a successful, award-winning practice and, returning to the day’s theme, she turned to focus on detail.
Fernandes offered some great insights into keeping a business at its best with ideas such as practice walk throughs, ‘If I were the boss’ scenarios and theming teams to increase commitment and accountability. Detail meant making patients feel special with eye contact, enthusiasm and engagement from staff and making staff feel special through empowerment, motivation and reward.
She also suggested simply entering an award was a win-win and made staff feel wanted and good about themselves. ‘It’s great if you win but if you don’t you still have an enthused workforce.’