Market-leading eyewear retailer Specsavers sells glasses, contact lenses and hearing aids to 32 million customers globally each year.

With hits on its website growing to over 28 million per year, Specsavers needed to resolve a long-standing problem: its online booking experience was clunky for customers and caused major inefficiencies for staff working in-store.

Specsavers engaged CDG to assess its existing IT landscape and revamp its online booking system.

CDG quickly learnt that the retailer’s joint venture model was at the core of its online booking challenge. It meant that each store used its own diary system, disconnected from the main Specsavers website, to coordinate customer appointments.

As it stood, customers could submit an appointment request containing their ideal date and time using an online booking form. In-store staff would then spend considerable time reviewing the requests and phoning customers to confirm a time that was convenient for both parties.

Realising the need for a more seamless digital booking experience, CDG developed a high-availability platform that connects each in-store diary system to a central hub dedicated to managing online booking requests.

The hub handles connectivity, interrogates the individual branch diaries for availability and confirms bookings in real time without disrupting any existing in-store systems. Customers simply choose their nearest location, select their preferred date and time, and confirm their appointment immediately.

All of Specsavers’ 720 UK stores now use the system and there are plans to roll it out in the Republic of Ireland next. The success of CDG’s solution has helped over 10 million customers make bookings, saving over 600 years of their collective time!

Staff now have the time to provide follow-up calls and fill remaining appointment slots with walk-ins, while customers have saved a combined 600 years of their time to date by simply securing their appointments immediately online.