Archive for September, 2008

Here’s a great tool for setting up meetings for a group of people.

One person sets up the possible meeting times and then the others get to pick when they are available.

Quick and easy.

Click Here: http://www.doodle.ch

I recently realized that my sunglasses had lost one of those nose holders that make the glasses sit comfortably. Having never lost one before, I thought I’d visit my local optometrist’s office down the street for the repair work.

When I entered the store, the lady behind counter looked up and asked how she could help.  While handing her the glasses, I explained that I lost nose piece and asked if I could get a replacement.  I considered the repair would be fairly simple.

I was told that Prada glasses have a special fitting and that the optometrist would need to see the glasses to determine if they’d need to special order the part.  He was to be in on the following Monday.  I left feeling a little cheated by Prada for making a specialty nose clip and by the store, since I believe the person who helped me should have been able to check inventory.

A few days later my son and I decided that a quick unscheduled trip to fly to NY City would be a lot of fun; plus I could also catch up with a group of friends from Camp Idylwold who were going to meet at the US Open.

Jake and I arrived the day before so that we could visit the Museum of Natural History, eat in Little Italy, and tour the Alex Beard Studio in Soho.  On our return walk to the hotel, I spotted a Sunglass Hut and thought just maybe they could help, because I had purchased the glasses at a Sunglass Hut in Rockefeller Center.  The lady I met looked at the glasses and said I should stop down at the Lenscrafters around the corner on West Broadway.

There I was met by Delcia who, upon first glimpse of the glasses, told me this was an easy fix and the cost would be $10.  She warned me that I would not have a Prada nose piece set but one of another brand.  I thought to myself, who cares!   She motioned for us to sit at one of the counters as she opened a box with enough nose pieces to fit every pair of glasses for an entire office building in Manhattan.

We selected two options and then she replaced the old with a completely new set all the while handing the glasses as if they were the most valuable item I could own.  Within minutes, the noes pieces were on and we started to do the micro adjustments to get the correct angles.

She asked, “These are a gorgeous pair of glasses. I’ve not seen anything similar. Where did you get them?”

I told her the Sunglass Hut uptown near 5th Avenue.  Little did I know that these were the magic words.  I had no clue that Luxottica owned and managed the Sunglass Huts, Lenscrafters and managed the optical units in Macy’s, Target, Sears, and BJ’s.

Luxottica Group out of Milan Italy.

“It is a global leader in eyewear, with nearly 5,800 optical and sun retail stores in North America, Asia-Pacific, China and Europe and a strong brand portfolio that includes Ray-Ban, the world’s best selling sun and prescription eyewear brand in the world, as well as, among others, license brands Bvlgari, Burberry, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Donna Karan, Prada, Versace and Polo Ralph Lauren, beginning January 2007, and key house brands: Vogue, Persol, Arnette and REVO.

In addition to an extensive global network, the Group manages leading retail brands such as LensCrafters and Pearle Vision in North America, OPSM and Laubman & Pank in Asia-Pacific and Sunglass Hut globally.
The Group’s products are designed and manufactured in six Italy-based high-quality manufacturing plants and in the only two China-based plants wholly-owned by a premium eyewear manufacturer”

Luxottica Site

Having purchased the glasses from another part of the company there was no charge!

I left the shop talking to myself.

1.  If this shop could have filled my need why couldn’t the optician shop down the street?  Bad move on their behalf given that I most likley won’t return.
2.  Delcia did a wonderful job at servicing my glasses.  So well that I felt as if my eyecare and my purchase were a top priority.
3.  Sometime what we see is not what’s happening in the background.  Retailers turned to an expert to take care of their eyewear service needs and leveraged a $7.3B in revenue, completely verticle company to make doing business easier.
4. Smart companies know when to outsource and outsourcing does not always mean overseas or doing only unseen activities.  Sometimes they are a company’s first point of contact such as livechat or call center activies.
5.  My glasses look and feel great!