Someone we know lost their specs and couldn't find them for 4 days. Searched the house...car...everywhere.
They were eventually found...in the garden. Where she'd left them.
Can you spot them? 🤔🤓
Another great testimonial
Another day, another great customer testimonial.
"I would like to thank Phil at Specs2U for the excellent service provided.
After an eye test with a rival High Street chain I was told my eyes were fine and they would see me again in a year. They were wrong.
I had an appointment with Specs2U and they found something which had been missed by the High Street chain. This is now being treated. I have been extremely happy with the service and advice I have been given.
I can't praise Phil and his team at Specs2U enough. I have no hesitation in recommending Specs2U to friends and business colleagues alike"
Tom Watson, Director at Optimia.
Reglazing (reusing old frames)
We do a lot of reglazes for our customers. Nearly 30% of the jobs we do reuse people's existing or old frames. But many other opticians either refuse to do it or charge so much for doing it that the customer decides to buy a new frame (which is probably what the optician wants them to do).
Our view is different. In this age of recycling we have no problem reusing old or existing frames. As long as the frame is in good condition then we're happy to use it.
This keeps our customers very happy. Rather than throwing away a perfectly good frame, they get to reuse it - and save money on the process. Its a win win.
Don't fix your specs yourself
After having a couple of people coming onto the branch with broken glasses this week, a word of advice. Do NOT attempt to fix your glasses using superglue (or any other glue for that matter).
Superglue can wreck the coating on your lens and is also very hard to remove once on. In addition, the fumes can be an irritant to the eyes.
When used on the frame it can prevent the arms from folding and also clogs up screw holes (meaning that old screws cant be removed or new screws put back in). The residue left usually means that replacement lenses can't be put back either. If you have a loose screw in your specs get an optician to put a new screw in - don't glue one in!
The best bet in the event of a broken frame to take the specs to your opticians first. Usually metal frames can be repaired and / or the lenses put into a new frame. They can at least advise what to do next.
And you won't glue your fingers together either!
Cup of tea?
Amazingly, while in Sainsbury's I bumped into another couple of my customers - and we chatted for about 5 minutes about holidays, glasses (obviously) and family. Again it shows the type of relationship we enjoy with our customers - you are certainly not just a name and number at Specs2U.
We're on first name terms with many of our customers and some pop in for a cup of tea and a chat when they're in the area. Indeed many book their eye tests by popping into the branch in person rather than just calling on the phone. I'd like to think its for my sparkling personality but I suspect its my tea and coffee making ability.
Going the extra mile - again...
The scenario? Simple. A lady loses her glasses in Chester and needs to replace them. Simple, right? Except she lost them on Saturday afternoon and needed a replacement for work on Monday morning. And her prescription was out of date. Rebuffed by all opticians in the area she came onto us. The long and the short of it was that we arranged to get her prescription to the lab on Monday morning and hand-made the lenses to prescription. I then gave up half my day off to drive to Widnes with the frame, wait for the lenses to be fitted then on to Ellesmere Port so she could pick them up.
The result was she could go back to work on Monday afternoon (no-one else could sort her out for around 2 weeks). Result is one happy new customer.
That is the kind of customer service we do.
Knight in shining armour
I've been called a lot of things in my time (mostly good!) and to add to the list is 'my knight in shining armour'. One of my customers had knelt on her glasses when measuring for a carpet and bent the arm over 90 degrees further than it should be (imagine the arm pointing straight up in the air) as well as badly twisting the frame.
Without them she can't work and was worried that the specs were beyond hope. Five minutes of heat and gentle bending they are back to normal and she can go to work as normal - hence the 'knight' reference.
The Nightmare Scenario - the importance of eye tests
Lady comes for eye test and finds she has a brain tumour We had a lady in just before Christmas for what she thought was a routine eye test. It turned out that she'd lost her sight in her left eye as the blood supply to her optic nerve had been cut off. We immediately referred her to the local hospital and followed up with phone calls to make sure the referral had been received and actioned. The prognosis was not good for whatever was causing the issue - a stroke, MS, a tumour....until the scans were undertaken, we wouldn't know.