Seen is a fun eyewear store and professional opticians in the city centre of Manchester owned by me, Tareq and great friend Conor. As friends, we go way back – to a time when it was possible to wear dungarees and get away with it- ah! the 90, how we miss you!!!. It wasn’t until 2004 when chatting in a bar in Perth, Western Australia, that we realised we both had the same idea – “I’m gonna open my own opticians in Manchester when I get home. Its gonna be brilliant ” to which Conor replied ” you’ll never guess what… me too”
We call that moment “the immaculate conception”…
So we got our heads together and chatted thru our ideas. One point stood out like a …… – most opticians out there are giving bad to seriously bad service. Being the nice people we are, we wanted to give outstanding service, go beyond customer expectations and have a hell of a good time doing it too.
We call that moment ”OMG how do we give such good customer service when we’re both trained to sit in a small room all day saying one or two”…
It wasn’t long though before we stumbled upon a magic formula that resonated for both of us.
It goes like this:
- be there
- play
- make their day
- choose your attitude
For the keen seafood fans amongst you, or just those that just like reading, you’ll recognise this as the FISH philosophy, created by the amazing people at the Seattle fish markets in the States. If you haven’t read the FISH books, we highly recommend getting fishy with them…
Its simple really – we knew that if we treated our customers with the same respect and happy vibe we’d treat our family and friends, then surely we’d have happy customers. We knew from our own experiences in other shops/restaurants that it didn’t take much to turn a mediocre experience into fun filled and fantastic experience. Even we could make that happen…
We call that monent “fish- it really does make you think better”…
Conor and I have always had a taste for the nice things in life. We always buy the best we can afford and enjoy what we’ve bought. Having been trained in conventional high street opticians, and surrounded by “designer eyewear – ahem!!!”, little did we realise what was waiting for us out there in the optical world. So off we went to Paris to start buying some stock.
Now, I have childhood memories of going the car show at the NEC in Birmingham and being wowed by how big the show was and how many cars i’d never even heard of were packed under one roof. Well, this first trade show for us well and truly put that memory to shame. Hall after hall after hall filled with frames, sunglasses, lenses and a whole array of gizmos and gadgets. We didn’t know where to begin our quest – we really didn’t.
However, we’d arranged to meet a chap who we thought would be able to point us in the right direction. Prior to flying out we’d contacted Jason Kirk, founder and creative mind of Kirk Originals. He’d told us to swing by his stand in Paris and say ‘Hello’ – and thank our lucky stars we did.
We call that the moment “Jason helps Seen discover and find Golden Eyewear (well, he’d already found the Golden Fleece)”…
Jason introduced us to the most creative and leading eyewear designers in the world, and treated us as though we were old friends. With such warm introductions, and being the pleasant folk that we are too, it wasn’t long before we were making friends fast and being taken on a journey that was totally blowing our minds. We were positively high in this land of eye wear and it was quickly apparent that we were about to open a special optician in Manchester.
We met a guy called Richard – you know the typical Californian, ex model, surfs everyday, designs eyewear for fun!!!, He inspired one of our cheesy little phrases …
“They say you can tell a man by his shoes. When was the last time you had a conversation with a shoe? Its about eye contact. Wear cool glasses.”
We call that moment “Oh no! are we going to be the type of business that comes up with cheesy phrases?!!”…
The final significant moment pre-opening took place in the summer of 2005 at the Baltic flour mill in Gateshead. Whilst walking up the stairs with our friend Mary, we came up with the name …
… Seen
We kid ourselves that it was us that said it first but deep down we know it was Mary that said the magic word. It went something like this…
“Well, its going to be an optician store that you want to be seen in. And you’ll leave wearing the hottest frames on the planet- the kind of frames you really want to be seen in. So, if you wanted to be seen in the store and seen in the frames, what would you call the shop??”
“It sounds like its all about being seen. So why not call the store… Seen.”
“Seen. That’s it…”
We call that moment “ohhh yes! Seen”…
Since that moment we obviously opened up!!! Our first sale occured whilst we were still fitting out the unit. One of our suppliers, Kaenon, had already put Seen as a stockist on their website. On the 26th October, mid shop fit out, a young chap knocked at the door and asked if we were the place that sold Kaenon sunglasses. We ripped open a few boxes till we found what he wanted, he paid cash and we hugged out our first sale – just hugged each other though, not the client!!!
