Optical retailer Specsavers opened its first Australian store in February 2008. It now has more than 220 stores throughout the country, and an annual turnover approaching $300 million.
Initially, the company’s growth came from ‘conversion’ stores - outlets already operating as independent, local community optometrists all over the country who chose to join Specsavers under a franchise agreement. More recently, growth has come from the opening of ‘organic’ stores - totally new retail operations established by Specsavers.
In the conversion stores, existing phone systems were simply reinstalled after the fit-out to rebrand the stores and re-open them under the Specsavers umbrella. The new organic stores, however, presented an opportunity to install a phone system of the company’s own choosing.
Specsavers selected a Panasonic phone system for installation in all new organic stores by Civic Communications, a business partner of IPL Communications.
The phone system was set up to deliver four outgoing lines including two voice lines, one fax line and one line for EFTPOS purchases, and the HICAPS on-the-spot electronic health fund claims and payments system.
The phone system allows for more efficient call management, while offering flexible electronic payment and on-the-spot health fund claim services for customers.
It also allows Specsavers personnel to transfer calls between the front-of-store retail space and the optometrist consulting rooms, a feature lacking in the legacy phone systems used in many of the conversion stores.
The system also provides the flexibility to use up to four outgoing lines at once. When stores are not using fax and EFTPOS, they can make two phone calls and still have two phone lines free.
It finds the next available line automatically and allows EFTPOS and fax to use any available line, meaning electronic payments and claims and customer calls can be managed simultaneously for better customer service.
In some other systems, fax and EFTPOS are locked into a specific line, so if someone is using one line for fax, a customer can’t use EFTPOS until the line becomes available. Or the phone line and EFTPOS may be shared, so if a customer is making an EFTPOS purchase, another customer calling to make an appointment, for example, won’t get through.
“It is much better for customer service to have separate lines,” says Specsavers IT Project Officer Cristina Bodgan.
According to Bodgan, the system integrates well with stores’ other equipment.
“The Panasonic phone systems are compatible with music on hold, answering machines and cordless handsets,” Bodgan says.
Bodgan says the new system is a step up from the previous system, in several ways.
“Compared with what we were paying for our old system before, it’s more cost effective. It’s lower cost and the service is so much better. We are aiming to keep the Panasonic phone system as standard across all the stores. We are very happy with it,” she says.