Regional lead update: Northern Ireland

A well-designed practice can improve the customer experience

When I took on the role of ABDO regional lead for Northern Ireland earlier this year, I knew there would be a bit of finding my feet involved.

Over the past few months, I have been getting to know the regional lead team and learning more about the work taking place across the UK. It has been great to meet the other regional leads, hear about what is happening in their areas and discover that, although each region has its differences, many of the opportunities and challenges facing dispensing opticians are shared.

Here at home, I have also been enjoying speaking to other dispensing opticians (DOs) at CPD events and via email. Northern Ireland has a relatively small and close-knit optical community, which I feel is one of its strengths. We work across independents and multiples, in clinical, retail, management, education and commercial roles, but our paths have a habit of crossing.

As part of the regional lead role, I also sit on the Optometry Northern Ireland (ONI) board, representing ABDO alongside colleagues from across the optical sector. It has been a useful introduction to the wider work taking place within eyecare in Northern Ireland and the considerable work ONI has been doing around contract reform and practice reward.

GOS contract reform in Northern Ireland is focused on shifting more eyecare into community optical practices, expanding enhanced services, and making better use of the skills of optometrists and DOs to improve patient access and reduce pressure on hospital eye services.

With a new health minister now in post, those discussions will begin again, from a good starting point thanks to the work already undertaken by the chairs of ONI. It will be interesting to see how this develops and what opportunities future changes to community eyecare might create, including involvement for DOs.

We are retailers too

Speaking to a vast and varied collection of DOs makes me think about our profession and the different directions our interests can lead us. One of mine has always been retail optics. I am keen to see DOs recognised for the skills we have and the contribution we can make to eyecare.

At the same time, I sometimes wonder whether, in our desire to emphasise our role as healthcare professionals, we risk becoming a little uncomfortable with another part of our identity: we are retailers too.

I quite like the old-fashioned word ‘shopkeeper’. Of course, a DO is much more than that, but I don’t think the word needs to sit uncomfortably alongside being a healthcare professional. We discuss someone’s visual needs and recommend an appropriate lens design, while also helping them choose a product they will wear on their face every day. We want them to see well, enjoy the process and be happy with what they have chosen.

I have always been interested in what makes an optical practice a good place to visit – the environment, the products, the service and the overall experience. A good recommendation can be professionally appropriate while also being commercially successful. A well-designed practice can improve the customer experience without taking anything away from the professional care being provided.

Frames and fashion are also an enjoyable part of the job. Helping someone try something they would never have picked for themselves, or finding a frame that just works for them, is something most of us will recognise as one of the more satisfying parts of dispensing.

I think there is value in looking at what is happening elsewhere in retail too. Look at other optical practices and frame brands, certainly, but also at shops, cafés, hotels and other businesses that do things particularly well. How are products presented? What makes the service good? What makes the whole experience feel easy? Why did you remember it?

Not everything will translate into optical practice. Occasionally, though, you see an idea that makes you reconsider something in your own practice – how you display frames, how somebody moves through the space or simply how they are welcomed when they arrive.

None of this sits in competition with the professional development of dispensing optics. We are regulated healthcare professionals, with knowledge and responsibility that goes well beyond the retail environment. The retail side of optics sits comfortably alongside that.

We can take our professional responsibilities seriously, continue developing our skills and look for new opportunities for the profession, while also enjoying frames, fashion, good retail and creating practices that people enjoy visiting. In many of our practices, they are simply parts of the same job.

As I continue finding my feet as regional lead, I am looking forward to meeting more members across Northern Ireland, hearing what matters to them and seeing where the profession goes next.

Based in Belfast, Chris McConnell FBDO is a member of the Optometry Northern Ireland Board. Email cmcconnell@abdo.org.uk