Not Long To Wait Now

Whilst ‘no’, ‘sorry’, and ‘can’t’ are the norm for typical customer service everywhere, I challenge the team at Clarke & Roskrow to always say ‘YES’ and use their brains and passion and determination to find solutions for our clients. And they’re very good at it. So, while there is lots of confusing guidance from the government and media, you can rest assured that at Clarke & Roskrow we are being our independent-minded selves and finding practical solutions for you. First, here’s what hasn’t changed: Our mission is to help you look good and feel good in glasses. We will continue to do that with our unique blend of amazing independent eyewear, unrivalled optical expertise, and customer service that is personal and makes your day. Our mission to help people feel great in glasses goes hand-in-hand with providing an exceptional level of eyecare. Our investment in state-of-the-art diagnostic technology, and my higher qualifications in urgent eyecare, independent non-medical prescribing, and glaucoma diagnosis and management will become an even more valuable asset to our clients in the weeks and months ahead. The Clarke & Roskrow team are more passionate than ever about providing you with truly individual service and taking time to tailor-make an experience for you. For the past 6 years Clarke & Roskrow has always been… different. Our ‘unusual’ ways came about through my efforts to create the best possible experience for you. We have never looked or acted like your typical opticians. We replaced the painful trial-and-error browsing of frames on racks with a sit-down, guided eyewear selection process that is far more enjoyable and effective at helping you find the perfect frames. We offered clients appointments for everything so rather than just turning up and having to wait, we’re expecting you when you arrive and ready and waiting to wow you. We set appointment times that are more than twice the industry average because we found that to provide truly individual service that gets the best results we needed to invest extra time with every client. So we were happy to see fewer people in a day in order to be able to do superior work. Maybe someone upstairs is looking out for us, or maybe it is just dumb luck, but it turns out that every single aspect of how we work is now considered as pandemic-proof as you can get! All the advice and social distancing requirements are perfectly aligned with what we already do. All businesses will now need to control the flow of people through their business. They will need to create careful choreography for the customer journey. They will need to sacrifice volume in order to do a better job of looking after their customers. They will need to slow down a little and be more thoughtful about how they operate. Thankfully, we already do ALL of this, and we’ve found over the years it is a more enjoyable way to work and it’s the reason we have such a good relationship with our clients. So we’re grateful to be in a good position going in to Phase 2 of the lifting of lockdown. That said, we are also making changes and improvements so that we can look after you as best as possible when you visit Clarke & Roskrow Styling Opticians, as well as providing a safe working environment for the team. We’ll continue to keep you updated as we go. Here is the latest: A massive “Thank You” to all of you who responded to our “Client Expectations Questionnaire”. We literally had hundreds of responses, so thank you to all of you who took the time to take part, your feedback is invaluable. You can review the responses to the questionnaire by clicking this link. So that you can feel reassured that we are thinking of your safety and well-being, here’s what we’re implementing so far: Lovely Hand-Sanitisation Station at the entrance as you enter reception. We’ve invested in these beauties to make it easy for you to keep your hands clean when you come to see us. They are a company that normally produce phone charging stations and they have pivoted to providing hand sanitising solutions. Smart!

WHO approved 70% ethanol hand-sanitiser from Harborough-based Union Distillers, makers of Two Birds Gin. This hand sanitiser is unfragranced, so we won’t smell like a hospital department, GP or dental surgery. We’ll also be using the same WHO approved sanitiser to clean worktops, tables and other hard/frequent touch surfaces throughout the day. Just don’t try to drink it!

Sneeze Guards for Eye Exam and Eyewear Styling Tables. These custom-made, ultra-stylish perspex cough/sneeze guards are the last word in keeping you and us all safe while still being able to enjoy the interaction with a member of the C&R team. These screens are 100% compatible with smiles, eye contact, and even laughter and will allow us to continue to be human beings! Produced by Shane Cross at Jim Watts Signs in Market Harborough.

Face Masks for the Team and You. Let me be clear. Eyewear will always be the most important accessory for your face. Nothing will change that. Matching frames to faces and personalities is our holy grail. Nevertheless, for the time being we are going to add a face mask into the list of ‘must-have’ accessories for the season. Our Optometrists Anthony and Vikesh will be wearing traditional-looking surgical face masks, the type you’ll be familiar with when visiting your dentist. A full-on riot shield face visor isn’t clinically necessary, as we shouldn’t be seeing anyone who is suspected of having or is confirmed as having COVID19 – sorry folks, but you need to be somewhere else! But, full face visors are available and we’ll be happy to wear one if it makes you feel more comfortable (although the full face mask may make certain assessments/examinations almost impossible to perform – we’ll advise you if this is the case). The non-clinical team will also be sporting a face mask for any portions of your visit where they need to get closer than 2 metres to you. Being a benevolent boss, I’ve treated them to some funky-looking face masks from “LA Apparel” in Los Angeles, California. Well, if you’ve got to wear these things, then you’ve got to do it with style and panache! If you need a face mask when you visit us, we’ll be happy to give you one of our traditional face masks to wear and take away (but you must dispose of it responsibly please when you get home, they’re not reuseable). It is a travesty when our clients are so attractive, not to mention the movie-star good looks of the team, to cover up a perfectly nice mouth and nose. But we’ll be going through this together. Your eyewear game will need to be good in the coming months because your eyewear will have to do the heavy lifting for the rest of your face. Your choice of frame will instantly say something about you to others. It will communicate who you are, your sense of style and personality. We can help in this regard.   Little Extra Touches I mean, ‘No-Touch’ Extra Touches… sigh, it is a complicated world! We like to build little extras into the Clarke & Roskrow experience and that’s why we’ve ordered branded Clarke & Roskrow hand sanitiser to give you as a little memento of your visit. The credit card shaped bottle is perfect for keeping in your bag or in your pocket and will always be there for you when you need to freshen up your hands. Apparently hand-sanitiser will be as valuable as bars of gold in the new normal, so this is a significant bonus just for taking a trip to the opticians. And it’s WHO approved, so no cheap, ineffective immitation hand sanitiser here folks!

Tea, coffee, Prosecco and beer! Our reputation for serving delicious beverages for you to enjoy with your sight-test and Eyewear Styling Consultation is almost as great as our reputation for niche eyewear, professional expertise and world-class customer service. Under the circumstances though, we understand that you might think twice about having that Italian-blend espresso, or  a refreshing TeaPigs lemon & Ginger tea. We have a dishwasher, which will be going into overdrive in the weeks and months ahead, so you can be assured that all of our crockery is well sanitised. But, we are removing this temporarily as a standard part of the C&R experience. We’re looking into sourcing recyclable and responsibly sourced paper cups, but if you would still like to enjoy a drink on us, why not bring your own travel mug or similar drinking vessel-we’ll happily fill it for you! And remember, we are still here for you, now, today, tomorrow, always! Here’s just a few ways in which we can help…New Glasses & Sunglasses: if you need new glasses, we can arrange a phone and video consultation and walk you though the possibilities for your new eyewear. We’ll post out your selected frames for you to tr on and we’ll be able to advise and guide your selection with a video eyewear styling consultation.Eye Care: I am available for emergency phone consultations to provide advice and guidance if you have any concerns about your eyes and/or vision. In most cases this can be done via a telephone or video consultation. If you are under the care of a Consultant Ophthalmologist privately, and your routine appointment with them has been cancelled/deferred, please contact them directly.Repairs: if you have broken your glasses, or a nosepad needs replacing, or similar, please send us some photographs of the problem to hello@clarkeandroskrow.co.uk and we can assess the problem and advise whether we can work our magic to fix the problem or whether more drastic action is needed.Contact Lenses: if you need more contact lenses we can take your order and in most cases they can be delivered to your home or work address.We hope to restart routine eye exams & Eyewear Styling Consultation appointments soon. Watch this space! That’s it for today’s update. We’re looking forward to seeing you again in the practice soon! Anthony and The C&R Team

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