Deciding to enter the Optical Supplier of the Year category at the Optician Awards 2019 was only a natural step to take for Optos, considering it won the award last year.
The company has been consistently improving and offering its ultra-widefield high resolution optomap retinal imagery for 26 years, so it comes as no surprise that staff regularly receive glowing reviews detailing just how useful customers find the products. The launch of Monaco, the only ultra-wide field retinal imaging device with integrated OCT, last year proved to be very successful and the extensive training, support and repair services customers receive has continued in its consistency.
Optos decided to enter the awards this year hoping to replicate its achievement in 2018. Gareth Steer, Optos’ vice president of European sales, says: ‘We’re proud of the positive feedback we’ve been getting from our customers through our Net Promoter Score surveys. Plus, we also wanted to win back-to-back awards.’
He believes what sets Optos apart from the other entries is that it continues to provide ‘world-leading’ technology to enable eye care specialists to improve both patient care and practice efficiency.
Steer says: ‘Over the past few years we’ve broadened our product range to meet the needs of eye care specialists across the patient care continuum, from optometrists and ophthalmologist to retinal specialists. Our devices are still the only ones that can take an ultra-widefield image in a single shot in less than one second. The value of this is supported by over 650 clinical publications that demonstrate the additional pathologies that can be visualised using our images. This ultimately enables earlier diagnoses, changing patient care decisions and potentially improving outcomes. Our customers tell us that our technology is unique and amazing; our goal is to make sure our service is just the same, creating the perfect combination.’
Optos is communicating its win through social media and all of its new customers receive the announcement via their welcome marketing packs.
Steer says: ‘When we win an award like this we do a big push both internally and externally to ensure our customers and staff are aware of our continued success and accomplishments. At Optos, we place the award in the office for everyone to see and announce the good news in the employee newsletter, showing our people that their efforts are recognised. We issued a press release around the win, which we shared with our headquarters’ local media. This was a great way to get the word out locally, including to our staff’s friends and families, which is great for morale.’
Winning the Optical Supplier of the Year Award has had a big impact on the entire Optos team, ensuring everyone gets the recognition they deserve for their hard work.
‘It’s helped to reinforce the point that everyone, across the wider organisation, has an important role to play in helping to deliver a fantastic customer experience. The customer only sees the salesperson, but there are hundreds of people who are integral in delivering the device successfully to market. The unsung heroes are the engineers, the quality team, the drivers, the manufacturers, finance, customer service, HR and lots more,’ Steer says.
‘Receiving an award like Optical Supplier of the Year gives us the ideal opportunity to thank everyone in our organisation for what they do. The award encourages everyone to be even more personally committed to going the extra mile for our customers, to further improve our service levels and try to win the hat trick of awards next year.’
The Optos staff who attended the awards ceremony said they had a fantastic evening and they were genuinely thrilled and honoured to win the category again.
Steer says: ‘When our name was announced we all looked at each other with a mixture of shock and excitement. It was also great to see some of our customers win too, and to help them celebrate their success with a drop or two of champagne and a few moves on the dance floor.’
Looking to the future, Optos will continue its focus on customer satisfaction surveys and net promoter scores to constantly evolve and keep improving. ‘Listening carefully to our customers will ensure we make their Optos experience even better. The journey to be the best supplier we can be never ends,’ Steer says.