LensCrafters Inc. is a North America’s leading international retailer and distributor of prescription eyewear and non-prescription sunglasses. The company which was founded in 1983 has grown tremendously, subsequently expanding to more than 850 locations in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. This has made it hold an enviable position in the eyewear industry. This paper, therefore, provides a critical evaluation of the company by; analyzing its operational strategy, how it sustains competitive advantage and its value creation strategies.
Operation Strategy
Len Crafters operation strategy is to provide high-quality eyewear services to all customers worldwide. To achieve this operational goal, the company has employed staff that is adequately equipped to perform eye examinations, prescribe the right eyeglasses and sunglasses and produce glasses that meets each customer taste and preferences. Besides, the company uses various security and risk management strategies to enhance their customer’s safety. Len Crafters being in the health industry follows Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA). The act requires that the patient’s privacy data privacy is protected to safeguard their medical information. Len Crafters follows these regulations by ensuring that when a new patient comes to seek any of their services, they receive information on HIPPA as well as the consenting forms. The consenting forms allow the disclosure of information in the circumstances the authorities want to review the medical records.
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Lens Crafters operation strategy is also to demonstrate social responsibility by serving people worldwide access eye services. In cooperation with other organization such as Lions Clubs International, the company through resource and asset management has been able to give millions of eyeglasses to the disadvantaged people, especially children and the aged. The program which is popularly known as “Give the Gift of Sight” since its inception has served more than 250 million worldwide from free eye examination to free pair of glasses (LensCrafters, 2016). The services are provided to all people regardless of their race, religion, age or sex.
Competitive Advantage
Every company wants to dominate its industry and achieve sustainability ( Nagle & Müller,2017). Len Crafters does this by acquiring brands that have high stakes in the market and holding contracts with every designer brand and label. The deals with these companies ran for a minimum of three and a maximum of ten years with renewal options. It is through this deals that Len Crafters can reach more customers especially the high-end ones. Apart from acquisitions, Lens crafters have adopted other strategies such as launching kiosks in international airports staying ahead of many competitors in the industry. The Northern Kentucky global airport kiosk in the first year surpassed the $ 1 billion sales. The company has continued to expand additional kiosks in airports throughout the United States.
Along with opening retailing stores that are conveniently located, Len Crafters stores are designed to offer the best services as compared to their competitors. The stores are well equipped with the latest machinery to ensure that the customers have the best experience from examination to the fitting stations. Similarly, the management is committed to providing that the customers get personalized care. , therefore, trains its staff on how to handle the customers and communicate with them throughout their eye care purchase. As a result, this has enabled it to penetrate the global market easily as compared to their competitors, thus having a more competitive advantage.
Operation Management Challenges
Nagle and Müller (2017) a ssert that operation management is the administration of the best business strategies and practices to ensure that the highest level of efficiency is achieved within the organization. It involves planning, coordinating, controlling and organizing all resources that are essential in the creation of good and services. Because operations management entails dealing with people, information and technology, various challenges are likely to occur.
One of the challenges faced by Len Crafters is the different internal processes. At Len crafters, to ensure that the staff provides customers with high-quality services and products they adopt various strategies of eye examination and production of eyewear. The Clarifye, for instance, is a digital eye exam that pinpoints the patient's problem and prescription as compared to the traditional examination system. This means that less time is spent on subjective refraction and the whole process. While these innovative technologies enhance the customer's experience, their inconsistency and unreliability are likely to leave them with doubts. The result is lack of customer’s trust in the services provided. To confront this kind of challenge, the management should adopt a strategy where there is open communication between the customers for them to understand how the organization operates.
Len Crafters also faces the challenge of decision making because of the nature of its organizational structure. Len Crafters has various retail stores in more than 848 locations worldwide extensive different management structures, making it difficult to involve everyone in the decision-making process ( Ongaro, 2016). This is not the best operation management strategy as some people in the organization might feel alienated, while excessive involvement might result to slow implementation of various processes. To ensure the staff and customers are involved in the process of decision making, Lens Crafters should ensure that there are appropriate channels through which both the staff and customers can air their dissatisfaction and solutions to their grievances. This has been highlighted as one of the most integral aspects of any organization.
Value Chain
Value chain according to Michael Porter refers to activities that organizations engage in sustaining performance and ensuring customer satisfaction. It entails how the company receives the materials, transform them to their designed product through processing and selling them as high-quality finished products to customers. Thus, the value chain of LensCrafters starts from product development to the manufactured final product ( Nagle & Müller, 2017) . Starting with product development, Lens Crafters products are designed from high-quality materials. The company ensures that the quality of their products is not compromised during the production by investing in technological innovation that differentiates between quality and fake documents. The contact lenses, for instance, goes through various inspection and quality checks processes to ensure they are safe from hazardous materials.
The cutting -edge products are then distributed to various retails stores worldwide. The products are not displayed in ordinary places but well-designed shelves. Competent and knowledgeable staff are placed to help the customers make the decision when it comes to the selection of the products. In the variety of products such as frames, the staff captures the pictures of the customers in their selected frames using an application known as "My look". The customer is given an opportunity to go through the photos taken to choose the frames that suits them well. Value is therefore created by high-quality products, excellent customer service, and customized products.
Lens Crafters value creation relies on the duration the customer takes to receive the services. After attaining dominance in the eyewear industry, the company had to deal with the increasing number of customers in their various stores. To ensure that the customers did not waste a lot of time waiting to be served, the company invested in high tech equipment for eye examinations and eyewear production. In 2005, the outfitting stores had the equipment to produce invincible contact lenses in less than one hour. The invincible lenses at that time were very popular compared to the traditional lenses to their ability to reduce light reflections ( Ongaro, 2016). This value creation strategy not only increased the company’s revenues but enhanced the overall customer’s experience.
Performance Measurement
Performance measurements in service delivery are designed to provide a clear direction on how different stakeholders, especially the customers receive services provided. Service quality, organization performance, business growth, and customer growth are some of the performance measurements that are used in measuring service delivery system design. Customer growth and service quality are the most applicable when it comes to measuring the performance of service delivery in Lens Crafters.
Customers growth as service delivery performance measurement takes into consideration the return of satisfied customers, retention, and attraction of new customers. Lens Crafters for many years had held an enviable position in the eyewear industry because of its large customers base. Some of the customers get to know the existence of the company through marketing campaigns that are designed to promote Lens crafters as the best when it comes to eyewear and vision care. Campaign tags such as “My Personal Vision Place” have been very critical in retaining and attracting new customers (LensCrafters,2016). It is through the enormous customers base that LensCrafters has been able to make sustained growth and success in the highly competitive industry.
Service quality of LensCrafters takes into consideration high-quality products and services with professionalism. For this reason, the company employs salespersons that are courteous and knowledge to guide the customers from when they step into their premises until they step out. If LenCrfaters were to offer low- quality products and exhibited high levels of unprofessionalism when it comes to the eye examination, it would not be the leading eyewear company.
Technologies Used by LensCrafters .
LensCrafters uses various technologies to provide high -quality services. The AccuFit Digital Measurement is one technological device used by the company to measure the location of the client's pupil, the spacing between the eyes and the shape of the glasses (LensCrafters, 2016). This advanced technology enables the customer to get the exact frames and the perfect style that suits them. The Clarifye is also used to provide an accurate eye examination and to pinpoint prescription with a high degree of accuracy.
LensCrafters also uses the relational database to store their customer’s information. The relational database is comprised of two-dimensional tables where the customers’ information is stored. When it comes to retrieving the data, particular types of keys are used hereby protecting their data from external forces. The employees are the only one responsible for entering and retrieving the customer information in the database. The data not only plays a vital role in service delivery, but LensCrafters uses the information to create data marts for sales, marketing, production, and advertising.
In conclusion, LensCrafters is an international; retailer of prescription eyewear and non-prescription glasses. Having been pioneered in the early 1980s with the concept of providing eye care service and eyewear products, the company has revolutionized the eyewear industry. This through efficient operation management, adding value by providing high quality, innovative and fashionable products that meet the customers' needs
References
LensCrafters. (2016). About LensCrafters. Retrieved from www.Lenscrafters.com
Nagle, T. T., & Müller, G. (2017). The strategy and tactics of pricing: A guide to growing more profitably . Routledge
Ongaro, R. (2016). Application of the International Sales Accelerator for Business Development in the Eyewear Business (Bachelor's thesis, Università Ca'Foscari Venezia).
