Job Responsibilities
My responsibilities are basically all sales-related operations of
the store. We have a retail manager, lab manager and general
manager. As a retail manager, I set daily goals for myself and my
staff (I do LOTS of selling), maintaining merchandising standards
(based on a pre-set plan-o-gram), providing customer service and
handling customer issues, adherance to HIPPA and OSHA standards,
fitting, adjusting, repairing and inspecting eyewear and dealing
directly with the leasing optometrist and his staff.
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Job Requirements
I actually had no previous optical experience, I had just managed
various retail stores. I have a college prep diploma and roughly
2 1/2 -3 years of college courses, but did not complete my chosen
field of study. I do know they are requiring (at least in my
district) ABO certification and pursuance of state license in the
future. The more education and experience you have, the better.
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Uppers
I get to use my brain instead of flying "auto pilot" like traditional retail
management. I have learned so much! They give tons of training. EXcellent
benefits, too.
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Downers
I do not like my store manager's, nor my regional manager's lack
of support. You are not given any flexibilty to "step out of the
box" or try new things. I have been placed (without my desire to
go) into a store 40 miles away with no compensation. I hate the
mall hours (until 9:00pm).
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Lifestyle
I don't travel much save for training in Columbia (80 miles away) a few times a
year. When I first started, I drove around 160 miles round trip daily to train in
a store mear where the distrct is based. I work a minimum 40 hours a week, and
here lately much more due to cutting back on payroll. Dress code changes yearly,
we currently wear business casual pants with Lenscrafters logo wear tops, but it
will change in March 2005. We do a lot of community services regarding the Gift
of Sight program and it is NOT voluntary for management- it's required.
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Compensation
$40,000.00/year plus spiffs and bonuses is what I earn. I will
gross around $48,000.00 this year due to bonus, etc. It depends
on your experience and volume store. I have a 401K program and
other benefits like one free pair of glasses a year and several
places owned by the parent company offer discounts.
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Advice to Jobseekers
I would say to obtain your ABO minimum, and learn the
expectations of your job before trying to obtain more education.
I would also say to get any promises in writing and document
anything you do that's different from what other people do, and
lastly, model yourself after someone you admire (who is
successfull) and pattern yourself after them.(Good for any job
position- mentors are the key for inexperienced associates). The
new stance the company is taking is to be the Customer Service
retailer- not the Get-It-Out-In-An-Hour or the Discounted
Retailer. They have just made a merger with Cole managed care, so
they now are the largest optical retailer in the U.S. They have a
new sales training program which is very aggressive, and stresses
focus on needs not pricing. They are very stable.
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