Image consulting in optics
How to provide a personalized shopping experience to your customer
Fabiano Gruppo Editoriale
Angelica Pagnelli, an image consultant specialized in eyewear, has collaborated with the most prestigious brands in the industry and trained hundreds of opticians in Italy and abroad. She provides a comprehensive guide to the method that has revolutionized sales in optical centers. The manual illustrates, step by step, how to guide customers in the purchase of eyewear that meets not only their need for visual comfort, but also their aesthetic enhancement - which is increasingly sought after.
This personalized approach in the search for an optical solution has already been appreciated by many opticians, who have been able to stand out and establish themselves as a point of reference for customers.
Angelica is the creator of successful formats such as “Eyewear Wardrobe Experience” and “Swap party.”
Image consulting in optics
How to provide a personalized shopping experience to your customer
Fabiano Gruppo Editoriale
© Copyright FGE srl
ISBN 978-88-31256-54-4
June 2023
FGE srl
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This book is dedicated to you Dad, though you had envisioned for me a common, certainty-based work, you passed on to me the rigor and determination that have been essential to make my way along a more flexible personal and business path, but in which I was able to reshape my serenity, rediscovering authentic beauty, the same beauty that you loved.
5 Introduction • The perspective of change 7 Getting to know the clients and their needs 13 Conducting image consulting ......................................................................... 19 • Recognizing style • Assessing the eye zone • Identify the shape of the face • Check the fitting • Analyze colors • Consider the beauty aspect Select frames .................................................................................................................................. 57 Personalize the choice 61 Conclusions • The value of communication 63 Index
The perspective of change
How many customers have already crossed the threshold of your optical store? How many, satisfied with their purchase, have returned? How many friends, relatives, and followers have they shared their experience with?
As you reflect on these questions, you will realize that each of them has far greater potential than a single sale: they become a vehicle for the content offered by the eye care professional, inspiring them to greater awareness of the eyewear world.
Moreover, the ever-increasing competition in the marketplace means that it's not just products and prices that regulate the purchase, but that the experience that accompanies it makes all the difference.
In this scenario, expertise alone is no longer enough: it will be the creative selling that makes the purchase unforgettable.
In fact, the emotional experience is able to create immediate and long-term interest, it encourages the return to the store and multiple purchases over time.
7
Introduction
The customer who experiences personalization in optics is more prone to word of mouth, which, even today in the digital era, is the main promotional method.
The optician, by adding new skills to their skills, elevates the consumers’ awareness and inspires them to purchase. Thus, vision professionals and salespeople in an optical center must be a competent, sensitive and smart guide in the search for the visual solution. Not forgetting that for the customer it is also a style choice. This requires following a path in the proposal that puts the person at the center.
Knowledge of the technical characteristics of the product, the universe of brands and the trends of the moment are not enough to "convince" the customer that the choice is the right one. It is personalized advice and great attention to individuality that determine true success in sales.
After many years of collaboration with eyewear brands, many training sessions among optical center teams and image consultations among different types of clients, I have developed a sales process specifically for the eyewear world. Thus, my format Eyewear Wardrobe Experience was born, the first to bring image consulting into optics.
Among my studies and field experiences in these areas, I observed the customers’ need for more extensive support in eyewear purchasing, in the face of a choice that is related
Image consulting in optics 8 The perspective of change
to vision as well as style, in an expanding eyewear market increasingly influenced by designers and fashion trends. The creative selling method I have devised addresses this gap, which is extremely fertile for discerning optical centers.
In fact, many professionals have not missed the opportunity and have already introduced creative selling into their business for some time, by organizing in-store events led by me using my format, the Eyewear Wardrobe Experience, to train their team to manage it in the store.
Right from the start, we were able to detect, together with the opticians involved, the positive impact that this approach has not only on sales but also on the growth of staff skills and involvement.
This book is an official guide to the useful aspects of providing a comprehensive image consultation in optics that highlights the customer's personal features and makes the service exclusive. Here, I wanted to share the tools that are essential for an optical center that wants to stay up to date.
Together we will lay the foundations for your store, too, to enter what I like to call the optics of change, a new vision that projects optical centers towards a significant improvement in the customer relationships and the sales process, which is constantly evolving. Happy reading!
9 The perspective of change
