Member Spotlight: Metro Eye
Social distancing has forced most businesses to rethink how to deliver quality services to customers. Many are finding ways to bring the in-store experience to customers at home. Metro Eye in Milwaukee, Wis., is replicating the experience of selecting and trying on glasses through its innovative eyewear telestyling service, a virtual concierge service during which a patient “visits” the showroom over a video chat.
Before the pandemic, Metro Eye was already devising a concierge service in which an optician would bring frames to busy patients at work or at home to try on. The telestyling service was a natural extension of that.
“The telestyling came from a creative collaboration by our team as they were thinking about telemedicine,” says Lisa Pilarski, Marketing Manager at Metro Eye. “We wanted to figure out how to serve patients safely while we had a stay-at-home order.”
After patients answer a few questions about their preferred eyewear styles and visual demands, an optician selects frames and holds them up for the patient to view during the video chat. The patient chooses four to five frames that are shipped to their home. After receiving them, the patient gets on another video chat with the optical stylist and tries on each frame while the stylist observes and determines the right fit.
“Dedee McClone, our optical manager, decided that the best way to interact with patients is via video,” Pilarski explains. “That way, they could have a very interactive experience. The patient and optician could collaborate on what they feel would be the best look.”
An Emphasis on Innovation and Personalization
Metro Eye has been able to set itself apart from big box competitors by providing more frame choices and customer-focused offerings such as its telestyling service.
“We really pride ourselves on the quality of our services when we are providing eye care, handling eyeglasses, fitting patients with frames, or going over the technologies and measurements to get everything absolutely precise,” Pilarski says.
Other Metro Eye offerings provide more convenience to patients, including a streamlined contact lens reordering service.
“We wanted to make life as easy for patients as possible,” Pilarski says, ”so we substantially simplified the database and ordering process because conventional systems weren’t user friendly enough for us.”
Metro Eye also built an online shop on its website where patients can order any of their recommended eye care items, including over-the-counter products, so patients have one convenient place to go for eye health needs.
“It’s been very refreshing for me to work amongst this very driven, very innovative-minded team of people who are always looking for ways to improve what they do in order to make patients as happy as possible,” Pilarski says.
“Patients have been very appreciative, not only of the telestyling service itself, but also knowing that the option is there and that they can use those virtual services when they need to,” Pilarski adds. “If a patient gets COVID and is stuck in quarantine for a couple of weeks, they can rest assured that if they have any eye issues, step on their glasses, whatever happens, they’re still going to be taken care of.”
“And I think that’s great peace of mind right now, amid everything else they might be going through,” Pilarski says.
