By Rose Leung
Cloverdale Optometry has reached a milestone this year.
The local optometrist practice is celebrating its diamond jubilee, having served the people of Cloverdale for 60 years now.
Dr. Ashifa Nurani and her sister Dr. Anisa Nurani are also celebrating 15 years as business owners.
Ashifa Nurani said Cloverdale Optometry can be summed up in one word: dependability.
“It’s a place where (patients) can come to when they have issues with their vision and with their eye health,” Nurani said. “They will be well looked after and if we don’t have the answers, then we’ll find the answers for them.”
Nurani said she dedicates her visioncare centre to a client-oriented business model and that has always been a core part of what makes Cloverdale Optometry distinctive.
“When you walk through the doors, you become family,” Nurani explained.
She added that many of her current clients attended the clinic when it was run by the previous owner, Dr. Holger Pierce. They now come in with their kids, grandkids, and even great-grandkids.
“It’s great because it’s like adding to our family.”
Nurani believes every individual who walks through her door is more than “a pair of eyeballs.” This outlook serves to motivate her to provide the high-quality service her customers seek.
She prides herself on the feedback she has received from people. She noted many clients speak highly of the practice’s thoroughness in working through every detail and their attentiveness to client concerns.
The practice first opened in 1963 as Holger Pierce Optometry. Nurani joined the practice in 2006 with the intent to purchase the business when Pierce retired. Nurani and her sister Anisa then bought the business in 2008. Despite the change in ownership, little else changed as the Nuranis still employ that same service-minded business approach that Pierce did.
Buying the business in Cloverdale was a natural fit for Nurani. She’s always been drawn to Cloverdale’s “small town feel,” nestled between farmlands and the rest of urban Surrey while still retaining its unique niche amidst it all.
“When we first landed in Canada, we stayed with friends in Cloverdale,” Nurani explained. “Just really enjoyed the amazing hospitality of the friends in the small town area.”
She considers the values of the close-knit community to be deep-rooted in the town’s identity. Her and her sister immediately tried to mirror that aspect in their practice, following in their predecessor’s footsteps.
While they kept up that same welcoming environment, they also credit the smooth transition to a former staff member who “did a bit of everything.”
“She taught us a lot about the community, about creating warmth, appreciating patients, and really bending over backwards to make sure they were properly looked after.”
Nurani said she’s very thankful to the Cloverdale community and appreciative of how they’ve embraced her and her sister after taking over the practice.
With the business celebrating 60 years in Cloverdale, and with the sisters celebrating 15 years as business owners, they are renewing their client-focused strategy by embracing expanding and evolving technologies and practices to ensure their clients can always rely on them to provide the high quality services they need.
For more info, visit cloverdaleoptometry.ca.