How do you see yourself in the realm of helping patients? Are you a decision maker or an order taker? Do you let the patient dictate the ordering process? Does the patient get to roam around your dispensary and pick out their own frame without any help? Are you just there to take a PD and write down the information? If you don’t think there’s any problem with just sitting back and letting the patient dictate your time with them, they certainly won’t think there’s any reason for them not to purchase their next pair online since they had to do all of the work anyway.

If you’ve found yourself in this situation, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and flex your eyewear design muscles; the future of your profession is counting on you. If that sounds like a tall statement, it’s because I meant for it to. Part of the reason we’re finding online eyewear proliferating is because we (Opticians) haven’t done a good job of showing our patient why they need our expert service, so it’s time to reverse that trend today. Who’s with me?

Designing Eyewear Based on Frame Styling

Some Opticians say, “I’m an Optician, not a frame stylist.” I’m saying it’s not an “either-or” type of thing. If you’re working in the dispensary, you should be able to do both. By taking charge of the frame selection process, you ensure your patient doesn’t choose a frame that isn’t a good partner to their prescription, virtually ensuring your patient makes a great decision. You’re helping make sure the frame fits properly, can be adjusted to their particular needs, and better still, you’re checking decentration to ensure the finished product will look great after their Rx is filled in that frame. By sharing the information you know about how frames work with your patient, you are displaying your value to the patient. You are ensuring they are making a good spend of their money by making sure the frame they choose fits, looks great, is adjustable, and is comfortable for the patient. For those of you who dislike frame styling, remember how important the frame is to how the finished eyewear works, the frame holds the prescription in place and is the delivery driver for ensuring the Rx works as prescribed. It’s a factor in the equation that is great vision.

Designing Eyewear Based on Lens Styling

Here’s the great part. When you’re working with your patient, and you’re asking them about their eyewear needs, likes, dislikes, and best case scenario, the patient is giving you all the information you will need in order to meet and exceed their needs. It’s always important to discuss lifestyle, usage, durability level, allergies, hobbies and a myriad of other things so you know what to recommend and why. Again, when you can recommend a particular lens, material, index, or coating and relate it back to one of the pieces of input they gave you, it reminds the patient of why they came to you for your expert service in the first place. Guess who isn’t asking your patient any questions at all? The Internet. Guess who also doesn’t really care about the outcome for your patient? The Internet. Guess who never has to look your patient in the eye? You got it, the Internet. This is all a leg up in terms of what we can do to really make our patient understand that we’re custom-making a product designed for them specifically, taking into account their needs, wants, and prescription limitations. Good luck Internet, the Optician wins this round every time.

Designing Eyewear Based on Care and Cleaning

Part of the reason patients think they should try and save money and shop online is becausethey feel that the eyewear they spent so much money on didn’t hold up like they thought itwould. Of course they routinely wiped them on their dry t-shirt and didn’t handle them properly.Even though we don’t think this is our fault, it actually is. The reason is because we assumethat every patient knows how to care for their eyewear, when in reality very few people know allthe in’s and out’s of how to keep their eyewear looking spotless. It’s up to us to assume thepatient knows nothing about how to care for their eyewear and to give them every single pieceof information we have about the subject. In my office the care and cleaning part of thedispense takes longer than everything else. The patient leaves with a letter describing exactly what we discussed, spray cleaner, cleaning cloths galore, and most importantly with theeducation to protect their investment. When we arm our patients with this valuable information,it again gives us an opportunity to display our value to them with regard to the future care oftheir eyewear, oh, and this is a great time to schedule a follow up with them. It’s a great idea tolet your patient know that their eyewear needs tune-ups from time to time and that they shouldcome to you for those services.

Conclusions

Often we assume many things about our patients, we assume they know things about howframes fit and what will work with their prescription, we assume they know how lenses work andwhich lens will work best for them, and we also assume the patient knows how to properly carefor the product they purchased. And you know what they say about assuming things, right? I’drather not take the chance and instead of assuming the patient is an expert, I’d rather makesure that I am. It’s time to flex your eyewear design muscles, to be the eyewear expert and tolet your patient know how valuable your service truly is.

Johnna Dukes, ABOC is currently the owner and operator of an optical boutique, with experience in both the private practice sector as well as the retail chain setting. She has a wide range of experience varying from optical support staff to dispensary management to practice ownership. She lives in Okoboji, Iowa.