What Business are you in?

This morning I had an emergency. My glass frame broke down and I do not keep an emergency pair. I suspect, most people don’t, unless they travel very often.

First thing in the morning I went to my optician and asked him, if the frame could be repaired. “No’, said the neighborhood optician. So, naturally I asked him, if I could have a new one, and how soon I could have it. He could not even answer me without calling his central workshop at Ulsoor, who informed him that it took 24 hours to get the new glasses ready.

Now, compare this to how Essilor, a leading lens maker, who has a factory in Doddbalapur area, does its business. Orders come in from Europe real time through the internet- i.e., a customer visits an Optician, who records the customized requirement for lenses, places the order for manufacturing these lenses at Bangalore through the internet, Essilor receives and processes it and put its on the flight to Europe within 12-24 hours and the customer probably gets it within 48 hours.

 

It may be unfair to compare the two, but there is a point to this- Essentially, they both follow the same process, with scale being the only difference.

Consider the convenience or inconvenience to the customer who has a broken frame or lens and has to wait for 24 hours to get a new one. He/She will either suffer through a terrible headache throughout the day without the glasses or the other alternative to completely switch off from work.

Could not the optician fill in with an additional service of providing emergency glasses (and charge a reasonable amount for it)? Thinking on the same lines, can an optical retailer, not fill in to provide eyes masks, eye pillows, eye care solutions and eye massages instead of just providing frames and frame repairs. This would be a sure way to differentiate himself from the other neighborhood retailers and provide value add services, not without increasing the average bill amount of each customer.  

Let us look at the neighborhood Optician a little more in detail. He easily stocks about 5000 frames- I am quite certain, without knowing what is the inventory turnover period, which frames are moving faster and which are slow and what is the cost of keeping this inventory- What is the cost of the retail space?

 

One really has to be ask oneself the larger question- what business am I in? Am I in the frame and lens business or am I in the Eye-care business? Only then would you get the right answers.