Independent optical lab cuts ribbon on new facility

Cheryl Hentz

Contributor

October 21, 2024

GREEN BAY – Cherry Optical Lab, an independent optical lab, has officially opened the doors to its state-of-the-art center for customer service and customer experience (CX).

Sara Cherry, public relations with Cherry Optical, said the 9,500-square-foot building (located at 2064 Allouez Ave. in Green Bay) – “the site of an insurance company in a previous life” – was completely gutted, retrofitted and renovated.

“It is now home to all of Cherry’s customer experience teams, including customer care, data entry, sales support, marketing, graphic design and public relations,” she said. 

Before this, Sara said the Cherry Optical Lab was spread across two buildings – the main lab at 1640 Fire Lane Drive and the coating lab at 1928 Commercial Way.

Home away from home

Sara said the new space allows all customer experience team members to be together in one large collaborative space, yet gives them an array of other unique, more individualized spaces that offer comfort and allow creative juices to flow more freely than ever before. 

“Before we put pen to paper and put together a final blueprint, we went to every team and asked them how they worked then, did that work for them, how they’d like to work in the future and how we could make that a reality for them?” she said. “When we went to them about an open concept, we allowed everyone to say whether they wanted a little bit of division and how they’d like it.”

Sara said some teams, like data entry, wanted no division, whereas others had a necessity for a little bit of division.

“So the reasons for the workspaces being what they are and very specific to the teams, really boiled right down to their unique wishes,” she said. 

Sara said they wanted the space to feel like home.

“We were very intentional about how we designed and decorated the space,” she said. 

Director of Customer Experience Kiley Mroczynski said it’s no secret that people spend more time at work with their co-workers than they do in their own homes with their families.

“Because of that, we wanted to make sure they were comfortable here,” she said. “We were also seeking to have a ‘level-up’ effect. If we gave business-minded folks a business-minded space, we thought we might see an unlocked potential that we hadn’t yet seen from them.”

The customer experience teams had been working in Cherry’s production facility before moving to this space, but Mroczynski said the management knew if they could give the teams some simplistic things, they could see things from those employees they hadn’t seen before. 

“These things would help level-up their productivity and their happiness as well,” she said. “They’ve now got places that are appropriate for the kind of work they’re doing.” 

A space for everyone, every need

Despite an open-concept collaborative space, the new building allows everyone to have a dedicated workspace, but there is not a single cubicle in the building – “never has been, never will be,” President and Owner Adam Cherry said. 

“There’s a mindset or stigma about cubicles,” he said. “People get stuck in their little box. We’ve always tried to design our office spaces in a way that provides the privacy and sound control you need but keep things open so it’s easy to work with your team members and be engaged with them. We say all that, but everybody in the building got a set of Bose noise-canceling headphones because when you don’t have cubicles, you have people and activity.”

Mroczynski said anytime someone wants, they can take their laptop and go to one of 22 different spaces in the building where “they can plug in and do their work outside of their regular workspace.”

“If someone feels they need more of a lazy kind of day, they can have that,” she said. “If they need something more stringent, we’ve got sit-stand desks so people can sit or stand as they feel the need. If someone needs a conference room, so be it, we’ve got it here.”

Everything here, Mroczynski said, was intentional and very thought through.

Within its large collaboration room, there are bleachers with “the most beautiful designed pillows you’ve ever seen, with super comfy chairs,” she said.

“There are workspaces for employees coming from one of the other two buildings Cherry Optical has and other visitors or guests to the building who may need temporary office space,” she said. “The kitchen has a full eight-person countertop island, different kinds of tables and booths and high-top tables.”

Finally, Mroczynski said Cherry Optical has a couple of soundproof phone booths for those employees who need some space, time, silence or privacy.

“Employees would use their cell phones because there are no phones in these booths, but the privacy is there, something management thought was important to provide so people aren’t wandering through the building looking for a private place to hold a conversation,” she said. “Any kind of surface or space you’d be looking for that is comfy and cozy, we’ve got it here.”

Adam said groups of creatives can also gather in a room and “be creative.”

“You need to give them a space where they’re comfortable,” he said. “With those types of tasks and jobs, there are going to be times when the creative juices and the energy are flowing. Then there are other times when you’re kind of stuck. So to provide a space that is appealing and comfortable and has these areas where you can go and get away from your group for a moment or two to relax or to focus is a big deal.”

Adam said it was about building an environment that team members want to be in, where they can take pride not only in their work and the quality of their work, but the space they’re creating it in. 

“I wanted team members to go home and brag about where they work to their friends and family,” he said. “It’s adding an extra element to what we’re able to offer as an employer.”

Adam said that then projects through the work they do.

“If you’ve got a team member who’s happy and satisfied in their work environment and work life, and they feel great about where they’re at and what they’re doing, that’s going to project out if they’re on the phone with a customer or client or communicating with them by email,” he said.

Adam said in his view, “these are the kinds of things you need to do to attract and retain top talent” today and beyond.

Sara said she echoes Adam’s thought, noting the building encourages collaboration and “provides an awesome customer experience.”

“We do the same thing for our employees,” she said. “It’s a big pillar in how we work. We know the happier our employees are, the happier we’ll be able to make our customers.” 

Honored for being one of best places to work

Coincidentally, just before moving into the new building, Adam said Cherry Optical was named one of Wisconsin’s Best Places to Work in Manufacturing for 2024 by Workforce Research Group. 

“It adds validity to what we do,” he said. “You don’t accidentally become a great place to work. You have to put some real effort and energy into it.”

Adam said some of the things noted in the recognition that employees appreciate about the company, include: 

• Creating a tighter connection between employees and management
• Human resource people who are available to employees across all three shifts in the production areas
• Focusing heavily on communication
• Having competitive wages, excellent benefits and retirement plans and an inviting place to work

“There’s a lot of little things that build to this kind of designation or accolade,” he said. “But it really stems from truly and sincerely listening to the feedback from your team members, your employees. And then you have to be willing to make the adjustments you need to make based on that feedback. It’s not an easy thing to do.”

But those things, Adam said, go hand-in-hand with producing a really fantastic product. 

“If the quality of the work we’re sending out isn’t awesome, we can’t do these other things,” he said. 

Adam said less than 0.4% of its products are returned – “We are proud to say we’ve achieved that.” 

Along with that, Adam said Cherry Optical is obsessed with making two things: the world’s best lenses and the world’s happiest humans. 

“It starts and ends with the people,” he said. “If you don’t live it, breathe it, effort it and improve it – it won’t work. It’s got to be authentic. When we talk about happy humans, those aren’t buzzwords. We enjoy what we do – making the world’s happiest people and the world’s best lenses.” 

Founded by Adam’s parents, Joe and Lynn Cherry in 1999, Cherry Optical is in its 25th year of business – a milestone that, for Adam, seems almost hard to believe. 

“When I started, I was employee No. 6 – today, we have 300-plus employees, with much of that growth coming in the last five years,” he said. “Since 2019, the company has doubled in size – maybe even a little more than doubled – and we are poised for even more growth.”

For example, 30-40 more full-time jobs could be accommodated in the new building, Adam said. 

“It depends on the roles and things of that nature they’d be doing in the company,” he said. “At the same time, moving these operations to the new building on Allouez Avenue opens up the opportunity at the main plant for another 50-75 employees potentially over the next five or six years. We wanted to be intentional about what we did with the design of this new building, and we’re going to continue to do that going forward. This isn’t the end of that journey of building a comfortable, well-finished work environment. We want and plan to expand upon that.”