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Our first virtual Live for the Impossible event was a great success! We loved seeing the passion and hard work our associates applied to their final projects. We had participants from a wide variety of departments (IT, people, customer, marketing), and it was inspiring seeing them come together (virtually, of course) to collaborate and improve the business. Many of them worked through the night, with a few even hanging on until the early hours of the morning. Our associates continue to amaze and inspire us, and our panel of judges definitely had a challenging task identifying the winning projects. While we want to thank everyone that participated in our “hackathon,” we want to give a special shout-out to our winners: Antoine Fraikin, Brent Jensen, Bryan King, Elizabeth Leach, Kellen Fowler, Sarah Child, Misty Paxton, Landon Langston, Nicole Cox, Tyler DeBruin, Cody DeBruin, and Chase Hanson. Their efforts will directly impact our systems and processes, and help strengthen the business. #lifeat1800contacts #livefortheimpossible #hackathon #IT #innovation #collaboration
John Graham, CEO of 1-800 Contacts, was recently invited to appear on Salt Lake Chamber’s Task Force Ten with Derek Miller. Click below to learn how 1-800 is keeping our associates safe during this crisis, how telemedicine is playing a key role in our ability to take care of our customers, and how increased demand is creating job opportunities with our organization.
Last month our Chief Technology Officer, Amy Larson, was featured in Business Insider! Check out the article below to learn how 1-800 Contacts has reduced handoffs and increased engagement, innovation, and productivity through the implementation of “SWARMS” or cross-functional agile teams. #lifeat1800contacts #businessinsider #innovation #IT #agile #technology
Back in January, we had the opportunity to go to Nepal for a humanitarian opportunity. While there we were able to provide over 60 prescription glasses to a number of the villagers. One of the recipients was a young boy with a +8.50 and +9.00 prescription. His current glasses were so old that it would have been the equivalent of looking through wax paper. Kenton, Director of Business Development, shared his experience as he witnessed this little boy being able to see clearly for the first time. “I watched him reach up and touch his mom’s face. That stays with you. He was seeing things he‘d never seen before. When you have a prescription that big, it doesn’t just bend the shape of things—it bends the color of things. He couldn’t see so much of his world, and this was a profoundly meaningful experience to me that we could do something that’s so simple to us but so beautiful and long lasting for them. This little dude made my whole trip.”
Last month, 1-800 Contacts was named as a CIO 100 Award winner for 2020, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Especially since the award recognizes both our ground-breaking telemedicine solution, ExpressExam, as well as the structural changes we’ve made as an organization to evolve from a multi-channel contact lens retailer with a single go-to-market strategy to an omnichannel vision platform. Telemedicine has seen an unprecedented surge as we all stay home and stay safe. During this time we are all especially grateful for technology that keeps us connected, safe, and provides critical health services. ExpressExam provides one of those health services by offering online prescription renewal services, which has been a saving grace for many of our customers. We are excited for the future as we continue to innovate, push ourselves, and challenge the status quo, both in the things we do and the way we do them. Congrats to our entire IT organization for using technology in innovative ways to solve customer problems, deliver business results, and on this award!
Last week we kicked off our first VIRTUAL Live for the Impossible event. Even COVID-19 can’t get in the way of our associates and innovation. In fact, our current climate has further verified how much we’re all connected and in this together. We had over 100 of our people tune in to our “hackathon” via Microsoft Teams. Thirteen ideas were presented ranging from system and dashboard updates to making clear vision more accessible within our communities. Bryan King, Enterprise Architect Senior Manager and co-host of the event, reiterated the focus of this quarterly event: try something new, create connections (especially with teams you may not have worked with before), and look for ways to build the business. This Thursday and Friday our associates will get to work on these ideas, and we can’t wait to see the results. #lifeat1800contacts #innovation #hackathon #livefortheimpossible
With social distancing restrictions in place, it’s more important than ever to create connections with our people and recognize them for the great work they are doing. Recently, one of our associate’s spouses was in the hospital. Kristi S., one of our administrative assistants, not only stepped in to help alleviate this associate’s workload, she also offered to coordinate meals and checked in daily to see how they were doing. Because of her efforts, she won our We Win as a Team ACCLAIM for February. Usually our managers and their teams are the ones to present our winners with a gift card and balloons. Not this month—all of our winners are working from home. To celebrate these individuals and help everyone stay safe, two of our associates, Jake and Simeon, donned gloves and masks and delivered these goodies. They even stuck around long enough to wave hello . . . from six feet away, of course. We’re so grateful for the incredible work our associates do. Congrats, Kristi, as well as Aaron, Kenneth, and Nathan, on winning this month! #lifeat1800contacts
Our Draper receptionists received two fun deliveries today! The beautiful flowers were a gift from UPS as part of their efforts to spread hope and joy during this time, 💛 and the sign was a gift from a fellow associate. Brandee, one of our receptionists shared: “We love to joke with Kage from training because he gets packages delivered fairly often. With social distancing, we’ve hardly received any packages because everything is being sent directly to people’s homes. We told Kage the other day that we miss talking to him when he comes to pick up his packages and seeing what fun things he orders. Today we got a package addressed to Brandee and Dani (when normally things are just sent to “receptionist”). We opened it, and inside was this adorable sign just for us. Jason, our UPS driver, had a good laugh because we were so excited. It is comforting to know that even though we may be social distancing right now, we are definitely not alone.” What acts of kindness are you seeing in the world? #lifeat1800contacts #actsofkindness #ups #ourassociatesrock
Meet Sarah—business partner, entrepreneur, artist, adrenaline junkie, and mentor. When she’s not busy supporting the business needs of our IT, legal, or biz dev departments, she is taking full advantage of Utah’s many outdoor activities or creating incredible routines in her dance/aerial studio. But she doesn’t stop there. Sarah also makes time to help patients at Intermountain’s Neuro Rehab unit overcome life-changing trauma. Sarah, who was a patient on the floor and lives with an incomplete spinal cord injury from a paragliding accident 10 years ago, shared: “When I was on the unit, I was given hope and courage. They help me understand that I was not my injury and that my injury wouldn't limit me unless I let it. Two years ago, a few of us were invited to work with current patients on developing a growth mindset. I’m so glad I said yes to this, I believe that I've learned more from the experience than I've ever taught.”
We love hearing the amazing stories taking place in our communities, and hope you'll indulge us as we share one of our own. Stormie, one of our existing customers, was scrambling to put together her daughter's wedding last minute as all of the vendors had canceled due to mandated social distancing. On top of everything she was dealing with, the day of the wedding one of her contact lenses fell out. She was completely out of lenses and her order had failed to arrive in time for the wedding. She contacted us, and spoke with Buzzy, one of our supervisors. Upon hearing her situation, he saw an opportunity to help this customer. After arranging a replacement order for Stormie, he drove out to our Salt Lake DC, picked up the package, and personally delivered it to her. They exchanged hellos, took a quick selfie, and went on their ways. We are incredibly proud of our team for recognizing those moments where we can step outside of our normal processes to do the right thing for our customers. Buzzy, like many of our associates, truly embodies our company values. #lifeat1800contacts
