As VP of stores at Gap-owned Intermix, Ron Thurston shepherded the reopening of 32 stores last year, embracing three pillars of retail excellence: empathy, curiosity, and focus. He says Covid-19 has spawned precious new opportunities for reconnection.

If I yawn and you yawn back at my gaping maw, bravo! You already possess a key pillar of retail excellence: empathy. Harness that virtue and nurture two more—curiosity and focus—to make your business’s Service Quotient sparklier.

“Great retail is about great empathy,” says Ron Thurston, author of “Retail Pride” and vice president of stores at Gap-owned Intermix. “Empathy is what differentiates us from technology. Websites are not empathetic to what you are feeling and experiencing,” Thurston shared on a recent webinar hosted by the Accessories Council.

With stints at influential, top brands including Apple, Saint Laurent, Tory Burch, West Elm, and Bonobos, Thurston reveres store-based retailing. Indeed, he is energized by the hustle it can be, even in this chaotic era of store closures and reopenings:

“We have the ability to reconnect people and provide experiences that are more important today than ever.”

Eyecare professionals can also excel by embracing Thurston’s three tenets of retail excellence.

1. BE LIKE BONOBOS: EMPATHY.

Closely related to humans, endangered bonobos are known as “friendly hippies”—empathetic and helpful. Cultivate a culture of empathy like these primates to amp up the Social Quotient.

“Culture doesn’t exist only when business is good,” Thurston shares with EB. “Culture exists even when business is really terrible.”

Listen. Learn. React. An expert who gives great advice and says, “‘I know you are working from home now. Let me show you my favorite Zoom eyewear frames,’” engages with empathy in powerful fashion, he tells EB.

2. COPY THE CAT: CURIOSITY.

Curiosity sets the stage for incredible empathy. “In order to be empathetic, you have to be very curious,” he says. “You learn and grow and ask great questions and solve situations based on curiosity.”

Insatiable curiosity gives rise to questions about product, customer preferences, and pain points, all of which inform personal interactions and service. The value of asking great questions cannot be underestimated. “Surround yourself with curious people,” Thurston writes in his book.

3. EMULATE THE EAGLE: FOCUS.

In order to focus, you have to let other things go. Constant distractions and face time with customers make it nearly impossible to tick off every item on a to-do list. Instead, prioritize the “must” items and resist reacting to every ping of an email, text, or social media update.

“Don’t let the distractions of the world take you away from being a great leader,” Thurston says. Upheaval due to the Covid-19 pandemic has forced change, and some of it is good.

“The whole business model of retail has shifted in some ways, and in other ways, the core of how retail has always operated is more critical than ever in how we engage, learn, teach, support, and follow up with our clients,” he tells EB.

“We have the opportunity today to be at the top of our game. We are reconnecting the world through retail, one customer at a time.”