How Nick Taylor lives the Specsavers mission everyday

At Specsavers, it’s our mission to change lives through better hearing. That means providing the best value audiology services to everybody, simply, clearly, and consistently, exceeding customer expectations every time.

But it also means making hearing care accessible and affordable to every Australian and New Zealander.

It’s a mission Nick Taylor, Specsavers Head of Professional Services and Product, lives and breathes every day.

“As a practicing audiologist, I have been in the clinic many times with people in tears, because of the impact it has on them and their families. And I’ve seen first-hand the difference audiology professionals can make – you don’t always realise you are transforming people’s lives – but that’s exactly what we do,” he says.

When he joined Specsavers more than eight years ago, Nick was attracted to the approach of doing right by the customer every time.

“Specsavers is genuine when it says it puts the customer at the heart of every decision. And they demonstrate it every day. It was refreshing to join a business where healthcare was the primary focus,” he says.

And for Nick, living Specsavers’ mission comes down to two things – accessibility and price.

“Specsavers has over 400 optical stores across Australia and New Zealand – we cover metro, suburban and regional locations, and we’re always opening new stores. At Specsavers Audiology our goal is to have audiology services operating in each store. So, whether you live in Kalgoorlie, Sydney, or Wellington we want to have services that are accessible for everyone.”

And he says the business is making strong inroads into that journey.

“We already have almost 200 stores providing audiology services in Australia and almost 20 in New Zealand. And we’ve achieved that in just over three years in Australia and a year in New Zealand. Imagine the scope we will have in another three years.”

The second one – price is just as important.

“So many of our customers don’t have the need for really sophisticated hearing solutions – so why on earth would we sell them $10K hearing aids,” he says.

“In 2017, we developed our Specsavers Advance range, with a commitment to producing the best value products in the industry, without compromising on the technology. In fact, the Advance range is the same great technology you find in other hearing aid brands, built for us by world-leading manufacturers, just at Specsavers prices.”

“The vast majority of people have no idea about hearing aid brands and manufacturers. They simply want to hear better and understand what devices may be able to provide the best benefit. Advance provides that at a very affordable price.”

Nick says it’s these two aspects combined that make partnership – and our mission to transform hearing care in Australia and New Zealand such an exciting proposition for audiology professionals.

“When I talk to prospective partners, I always say to them that they’ll never see a sales or conversion rate target or have to meet a particular Average Order Value at Specsavers. As long as they live by the fundamental principle of doing right by their customers, they will have a successful audiology business.”

“So many of my colleagues got into audiology to help improve people’s lives but the reality of having to meet a sales target or conversion KPI that compromises their ethics often kills that passion. But we know, if we do the right thing by the customer, everything else will follow.”