Happy customers at Specs2U

We recently did a new pair of glasses for a lovely lady who unfortunately had a stroke and relies very much on her glasses to read the paper, do crosswords and the like. She was struggling with her old glasses (from another opticians) as the reading area on her bifocals was quite small. We gave her much larger round segment bifocals and upgraded her distance as well (especially so she can see the TV better). She wasn't even wearing her old glasses when she came in. We put the new ones on and immediately her face lit up! She smiled as she looked around the room - and continued smiling as we tried the reading chart. She could read a much smaller typeface than before and found reading much easier. She was delighted and - significantly - insisted on wearing them straight away.

Incidents like this really help us feel we're helping people out. 

Not being pushy is the best policy

A customer came into the Ellesmere Port branch the other day. He'd had an eye test in October last year and been told that although his prescription hadn't changed much he could benefit from new varifocal glasses and sunglasses. He decided not to buy them at the time but after seeing our advert in the paper he thought he'd try us out After around 15 minutes discussion he left having only ordered his sunglasses.

Did we disappoint him in some way? Not at all. We had a long talk about his glasses, how he uses them and what he needs them for - and what his priorities were.

He was quite happy with his existing pair of varifocals and he thought they could last him the 6 months until his next eye test. But he needed the sunglasses for his holiday in June (and was also finding driving difficult now that the sun has finally made an appearance).

Other opticians may have been pushy with him - insisting on having both pairs there and then. But we try to do things differently. By spending more time discussing the customer's needs we can better assess how best to look after them.

So we're making his sunglasses now - and he's coming back in October to sort out his varifocals. He told us that he found our 'non-pushy' approach quite refreshing and would also recommend us as a result.

So while we may have (temporarily) missed out on one sale, what we have hopefully gained is a happy customer for life.

So not being pushy is - for Specs2U - the best policy.