Essilor innovations unveiled in NZ

Later in the afternoon, Parbury also discussed the success of Essilor’s Sun2Max prescription sunglass promotion, which had pushed prescription sunglass sales up significantly at participating practices, including one who increased its annual sunnies’ sales volume by more than 20%. The promotion, offering prescription sunnies at a much-reduced price if the patient buys them at the same time as they buy a pair of non-sun glasses, has been such a hit, it will be repeated this year in the run up to summer. Parbury said he would be redoing all the point-of-sale material too, but needs attendees’ feedback so the material can be refined and focused on what worked best and why.

Channelling Canadian “Retail Prophet” Doug Stephens, Essilor dispensing optician and fabulous specs wearer, Vineet Chauhan, stressed the importance of enhancing the customer’s experience “Focus on how you sell, what you sell,” he said, quoting Stephens’ famous line. He emphasised the importance of new dispensing tools and how these can set a practice apart from its competitors.

Illustrating this point, Chauhan related an amusing tale about how he’d been stopped in the street by a customer while he was delivering the new Essilor digital dispensing system, Visioffice2, to one practice. The customer was so impressed with the digital dispensing technology he decided to forgo his free eye exam at a nearby chain and book back in with the local independent optometrist. In today’s digitally-savvy world, you need to give customers a new experience, the more high-tech and accurate, the better, he said.

When and how do you want to retire?

Essilor’s energetic, entertaining and knowledgeable international business adviser, Craig McFarlane, reviewed what’s happened in the wider optometry retail market and how the company’s platinum partners in New Zealand had done since he last addressed them nearly 18 months ago. Back then the partners were introduced to Essilor’s web-based, business development platform, Accelerate, and were tutored on how to benchmark themselves so they could spot and fix any problems.

“If you haven’t done anything, you can’t expect anything to change,” said McFarlane.

New optical retailing groups continue to appear and are growing in presence as they maximise today’s online marketing tools to tap into younger and more tech-savvy consumers, he said, which is why it’s so important to ensure your business remains competitive. Essilor’s Accelerate platform provides tools and resources covering every angle of optical retailing; a benchmarking service to allow practices to see how their figures stack up against their peers; and business coaching.

“Old ways, won’t open new doors,” stressed McFarlane, giving short shrift to that common business owner’s complaint of not having enough time. “We all get lost in the day-to-day at times, so having a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, helps you get there. “Focus, plan and do it!”

Following requests from its partners, Essilor plans to run a series of succession planning workshops across the country later this year for anyone thinking of retiring in the next five to 10 years. When and what you do after you retire should be your ultimate goal, said McFarlane.

Essilor dollars and marketing support

Essilor’s marketing manager Kumuda Setty reminded delegates of Essilor’s other business development tools, such as Essilor Plus.

A private and secure resource portal, Essilor Plus includes a KPI (key performance indicator) dashboard, to show the practice owner where they need to focus; lots of marketing collateral to help the practice owner market their business better; and 75 white papers covering a host of different clinical areas, such as myopia and blue light.

Setty also introduced attendees to Essilor’s latest practice staff motivator – “Essilor dollars”. Platinum partner practice owners can nominate staff to receive say 100 or 200 Essilor dollars, which they can use to purchase prizes in quarterly, online auctions.

The importance of training and motivating frontline staff can’t be underestimated, said Setty, referring to a recent eyewear survey which showed 39% more patients decided to buy something after it was shown or demonstrated to them.

Essilor has also arranged partnerships with a number of online and traditional marketing and PR agencies to provide discounted support to platinum partners who wish to improve their marketing strategy and activities, she said.

That Luxottica question!

After a break, Essilor’s platinum partners were joined by practice colleagues and other Essilor customers and independent optometry colleagues for the celebratory part of the programme - the launch of the new Varilux X lens and the coating Crizal Sapphire UV, which the company says represents the latest technological advancements in lens design.

But first Essilor ANZ’s new chief operating officer, Pierre Longerna, tackled that elephant in the room, Essilor’s impending merger with the internationally-dominant frames supplier and corporate store owner, Luxottica.

Longerna was impressive, sharing his optimism for the future of the independent optometry sector, which he said was destined for greater growth given today’s growing and aging populations. He supported his colleagues’ calls for independent practice owners to differentiate themselves; not on price or fashion so much, as those are well covered by both the older and the emerging chains, but on vision care and service.

As for the merger, nothing will change, he stressed, at least for three years and probably much longer. “Essilor will remain Essilor and Luxottica will remain Luxottica… We don’t share commercial information… and we will maintain our respective cultures.

“We are going to take time to see what it means for a frame supplier to join forces with a lens supplier… and we will be looking for something more sophisticated than a lens and a frame.”

Though the US, Europe and many other countries have approved the merger a few, such as China, are still going through the formalities, but Longerna said he expects the deal to be fully approved soon.

“To grow takes two things: strong partnerships and innovation. And we will continue to bring new innovations to grow the industry together.”