For more than 160 years, Essilor has been recognized as leading manufacturer and wholesale distributor of optical lenses. But even beyond its line of award-winning products, Essilor strives to uphold a long tradition of providing an exceptional customer experience. Named as one Forbes’ top 25 Most Innovative Companies in the World four years in a row, Essilor’s vision is to “help the world see better.”
Recently, Diana Helfinstine, Vice President of Customer Experience, Essilor of America, spoke with Loyalty360 about how the optical company leverages innovative products, social responsibility, and a comprehensive customer experience strategy to excel as an organization.
We see that some of the most successful brands take a holistic approach to customer experience. Has that been your experience as well?
Helfinstine: At Essilor, the B2B customer experience encompasses all the interactions a customer has with our organization. It is not just customer service changing its name to customer experience. It is looking at every business unit in the organization, and how the processes and interactions impact customers’ perspectives. In order to be successful, it is important to have senior leadership buy-in, providing top down support for customer experience initiatives. This approach aligns the goals of the company with the needs of the customer, developing greater focus on all customer touch points. That is really critical. If you are just focused on a single area, you are not going to get the same results.
Essilor seems to have built its entire customer experience process from the ground up. Can you talk about that journey?
Helfinstine: For anyone who is beginning the journey, the first step is to learn and understand the objectives that drive the current operation, the culture, as well as identify the true influencers within the company that will support you in the process.
Essilor is a very successful product company and considered an industry leader. But like many companies, we can always focus on making it easier for customers to do business with us and ensuring we continue to improve quality of service.
It is not unusual, when I talk to my peers, to find that many customer experience professionals have come in on the ground floor. Understanding the goals of the company and the voice of the customer, then providing education regarding what customer experience is and why it is important to the health of the business is a good first step. Once you have clear understanding and alignment with your leadership team, you can begin to provide data that will help others understand why some business adjustments may be necessary to improve the experience at specific touch points. This leads to investments in people, processes, and technology that better enable employees to deliver a great customer experience. I find that most employees want to provide a great customer experience, sometimes we just need to provide them with the tools to be successful.
Many brands are challenged with really listening to the customer. Most give lip service to listening to the voice of the customer. Is that something you see as well?
Helfinstine: Traditionally, you see a lot of companies that focus primarily on survey data. Many companies rely on the ratings and a few build plans around impacting those numbers. But that is just one component of listening to the customer. It can often become nothing more than checking a box, and feeling like they did something to improve satisfaction and loyalty. In addition to quantitative survey data, you need to incorporate qualitative data that includes the direct voice of the customer.
One of the reasons the direct VOC feedback from customers has such an impact, is that it helps your leaders understand all touch points that a customer has across your organization and how they feel about doing business with your company. Companies will never be sure which interactions impact their perception of the brand unless they listen and understand the emotion associated with topics that are most important to your customers.
One way we demonstrate listening to customers is by providing education on the importance of eye care. Through our marketing efforts, which focus on topics such as eye health, patient education, as well as brand recognition, we are encouraging consumers to visit their eye care professional. Our customers really appreciate the fact that these messages are resonating with their patients on the importance of their vision and the need for eye exams. This was the impetus behind the “Think About Your Eyes” campaign which educates both adults and children on the importance of an annual eye exam, and is now supported by The Vision Foundation and the American Optometric Association.
Can you talk a little more about that initiative?
Helfinstine: “Think About Your Eyes” is a campaign designed to educate the public on the benefits of vision health and promote the importance of getting an annual comprehensive eye exam. It is estimated that 30% of children experience uncorrected vision problems. There is really compelling data that talks about the impact of poor vision and life-long health, school performance, as well as emotional and social development.
Through the Essilor Vision Foundation, we have established strategic, local partnerships in communities throughout the United States to increase access to vision screenings, comprehensive eye exams, and new prescription eyeglasses. It is really a matter of action, not just philosophy. Our customers appreciate the fact that we have a strong mission to improve lives by improving sight, and this is reinforced throughout the customer experience.
Does this emphasis on customer experience permeate your entire company culture?
Helfinstine: Our culture is very strongly linked to the support of our mission to help the world see better. We are leveraging that spirit and taking that same approach to customer experience. As we continue the journey in delivering a world-class customer experience, we already have the mindset of helping others. It also goes hand-in-hand with the mindset of trying to make it easier for customers to do business with us.
We constantly ask ourselves, “How can we become easier to work with? What are the areas of support that customers need to be successful? Is there a better way that we can help them achieve their goals?” We have success stories across the company from every business unit that touches our customers. It’s becoming part of our DNA.
About the Author: Mark Johnson
Mark is CEO & CMO of Loyalty360. He has significant experience in selling, designing and administering prepaid, loyalty/CRM programs, as well as data-driven marketing communication programs.