EYES ON THE PRIZE

BID BUSINESS THE BUSINESS VISION OF SPECSAVERS IS LOOKING 20/20

MOUNT PLEASANT

Sight specialists Specsavers, in Mount Pleasant Road, have their eyes on the future of optometry.

“There’s obviously a reason why it’s important to have a sight test on a fairly regular basis, and some of the tests we have can detect eye problems about 4 to 5 years in advance of normal methods. We can scan the eye in 3D, which saves us referring in some cases.

In the next few years, optometry is going to change again I think, in terms of technology. We can get you a prescription in store without you saying a word - so you look at a light, and react to that light, and it can work out your prescription, and it’s more accurate. I think the technology will start to become more and more part of the journey for the customer. As the younger generations come through, they’re more used to it. We already use something called a frame styler, so we can scan your face and it will tell you what frames will suit you from our range. There is technology already out there that will scan your head, and work out which frames will fit you. I think 3D printing will come into it, and choosing frames in the colour you want, rather than in the colour we tell you we have.

Specsavers is leading the way in this technology on the high street. The OCT we’ve had for about 4 years, there were only a handful of independents who had it beforehand, and they were charging a lot more than we would. We’re the only one on the high street who has it in every single store.

I also think AI will become more integrated - one of the large London hospitals have connected up an AI computer to the OCT machine, and it’s more accurate than the top

ten ophthalmologists in the country. I think people will start to trust it more, and sometimes customers trust machines more than a person as it’s a definite answer. It’s a case of us making sure we’re at the front of it, so in this store, we’re going to be trialling something that will potentially change the way our stores operate across the country. It’s taking three different elements of technology and putting them together into one consistent journey, and I think that will certainly help us.

In terms of the team here, we employ people based on their personality, and all the training takes place in store.

During the pandemic, it felt like there was a need to keep our heads down and just work out what needed to be done to survive and

make it work, and now we’re looking at how we can go out and help the local community. So for example we sponsor around 15 bowls clubs, and we’re also looking at various different events. It’s also important we work to attract kids into optometry - I’d never considered it as a career, I hadn’t even had an eye test until I was 50! But it’s an interesting role. We’re contacting local schools, and around 3 of our colleagues here are apprentices so they’ve joined us rather than necessarily staying on through further education, and in terms of career progression, one of our staff started as a Saturday assistant in the Maidstone branch, and is now a Dispensing Optician. Our audiologist used to be Assistant Manager here, and she’s now trained to be a hearing aid dispenser, newly qualified. Another former Saturday assistant has been sponsored through a degree course, and she will be an optician by July of this year.

There are about 1500 pairs of glasses that go through here in a week - we glaze in this store, in our lab, for four stores.” ■

PICTURED: THERE’S NO EYE IN TEAM AT THIS PEOPLE-FOCUSED BRANCH