Optician India

As we see that the competition in the retail segment is heating up especially in major metros and Tier 1 cities the opticians must constantly endeavor to upskill the dispensing part of spectacles. This would enable the Eye care practitioners to bring in value propositions to their customers in a changing environment. While fashion plays a crucial role in the consumer mindset, the optician’s role is enhanced with vision meeting fashion and function as an expert in overall spectacle dispensing. This would set the tone for loyalty to set in for visits back to the same store.

Indian optical retail is seeing the newer generation taking the mantle and willing to try out newer ways of retaining customers. In doing so training of staff becomes a key component of customer retention while tailormade with each of the opticians' unique selling proposition. Each optician has a uniqueness that they stand for and that must be nurtured and protected by the family that runs the same. While the above is for a matured market in India, the rural population are having challenges with limited access to eye care services. Lack of awareness about the importance of eye care is an ongoing issue and limited availability to access a pair of spectacles. Here as well education plays a key role and provides support to local personnel to dispense spectacles. Having said that, it may be pertinent to bring back the importance of impressing the Govt of India for an Opticians Act and the key role that Opticians play and thereby due recognition is established through an Act as prevalent in many countries.

Healthy nation is a productive nation, an educated nation is a progressive nation, and we need to bring in meaningful employment to the educated youth. For this on-the-job training and constant efforts to upgrade the relevant skills is key for success in optical retail. Here again continuous education comes in. Having said that the following factors contribute to the success of education initiatives.

*Quality consciousness in terms of conduct of classes, designing the course content, method and standard of training

*To replace outdated courses with the emerging skills and to design the course content as per the requirement of the industry

With the Indian optical market growing in the range of 7-10% yearly time to press the accelerator and focus on learning and development amongst the optician community thereby enhancing the business overall.