Fresh eyes
The position
The client is a thriving high street optician. The business is expanding; the combination of an ageing, fashion conscious population with the choice afforded by technology and global manufacturing is great for business. But competition is fierce – not just from other high street opticians but from supermarkets, pharmacies, mail order and the internet, all offering off-the-peg, cut-price specs.
So getting and keeping customers really does matter. Giving them a personalised treatment that makes them feel good about their eyes is vital to the business strategy. And that involves interpersonal skills. What makes the difference is how they’re treated, not just in the chair but when they’re choosing frames and making decisions.
The problem facing our client was that they had a large intake of graduates to cope with the expanding business. They couldn’t let them loose on customers until they were confident in their interpersonal skills. They asked us to develop an induction programme to help the graduates leapfrog the behavioural learning curve, combining clinical and customer service skills, and also to raise their awareness of the business and their role within the branch teams.
How did we tackle it?
We thought long and hard about how to make this work. We had them for five days and at the end of that time they had to be able to deal with clients professionally and effectively. The programme we developed immersed them in the business and gave them the experience of putting themselves in the customers’ shoes:
- Learning to describe eye conditions in plain English.
- Exploring the circumstances behind customer complaints.
- Interviewing real customers, many of whom were older than their parents.
- Secret shopping in competitors’ branches.
- Finding out about the financial workings of a branch.
And they did all this working in teams so they rapidly appreciated what does, and what doesn’t, work. Our facilitators helped them get the most out of the experiences and it made a huge contribution to their future development.
What did it achieve?
- Professional competence - the graduates became competent faster.
- Natural confidence - they demonstrate real care and generate high
- levels of customer satisfaction
- Business understanding – the graduates really understand what makes the business tick and how they contribute to its success.
Email Jill Pennington or phone 0117 315 5243.
