In a recent Women In Optometry Voices Podcast, Jessica Kozak, senior vice president of ECP sales at Essilor of America, discusses how EssilorLuxottica is leveraging its resources to unlock and share customer insights to independent ECPs. The most prevalent concern ECPs have is generating customer traffic. There isn’t a general solution because a practice’s location and patient demographics can impact customer trends. As one company, however, EssilorLuxottica can generate engagement programs that can compile market insights and consumer trends to support each practice in its unique way.
Unlike the traditional optician/customer conversation where insurance coverage may dominate the initial conversation, customers want to hear complete visual solutions, Kozak says. They want to hear how eyewear will affect their lifestyle and are more interested in its benefits than its features. “Patients don’t see frames and lenses as separate purchases. They come in with the mindset of purchasing eyewear that’ll improve their lifestyle,” Kozak says. In order to meet that customer mindset and create a seamless experience, the EssilorLuxottica 360 program creates a portfolio for each practice based on its technology, patient demographics and the types of solutions ECPs have in mind. The portfolio helps practice staff to customize the frame boards, adding or removing styles, to maximize customer satisfaction and profitability. “It prevents patients from leaving the office because they fail to find eyewear or failing to have a complete circle of service,” she says.
Each engagement program has staff training that shows ECPs customer behavior and what people prefer and purchase within their dispensaries. These findings are drilled down to each specific practice based on market insights and dashboard statistics. Market insights identify industry trends and dashboard statistics gather the customer behavior and consumer traffic from thousands of individual practices. “It’s a powerful tool that provides a comprehensive, detailed report to ECPs and shows the competitiveness of their eyewear selection,” Kozak says.
Many ECPs focus on the medical needs of their patients – rightly, she says – but eyewear needs are equally important to generate customer traffic and increase profitability. “The partnership between Essilor and Luxottica is committed to supporting providers every single day just like we always have. It is something that will never change regardless of how we move through the integration. It will only get better as we can bring additional resources and coordination to the industry,” Kozak says.
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