Preparing for my first trip to San Jose, CA, I went online to check out the airport, SJC in airport code. With only two terminals, it’s much smaller than the New York airport I will leave from, and much easier to navigate, I’m sure. Among the amenities advertised at SJC is an automated kiosk for cleaning eyewear and jewelry called OpticWash. For about $2 you can get your glasses, jewelry or even your water-resistant smartphone cleaned and sanitized in less than two minutes, while you watch.

Opticians are by nature a compilation of many parts, we are a little bit physics, a little bit fashion, a little bit psychologist, and a little bit tactile genius. We listen, analyze, find solutions, order, fabricate, verify, and adjust eyewear and so many, many more things on a daily basis. And as if we didn’t already have enough on our plates, I’m going to add one more task; storyteller. Why, you might ask? Because this single task might just be the thing that makes what we do so much more valuable to our patients.

It has been eight months since I have become an apprentice optician. Every working day is an opportunity to learn different techniques and apply my knowledge. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed since working in this field, it’s that people need to feel comfortable with who is helping them. Although every optician encounters those patients who refuse almost every suggestion made to them about lens treatments, materials, frame choice, etc., it is still important to try to relate to them and fulfill their needs. Being approachable and friendly will work, but patients gravitate more towards confidence. If there is a way to relate to them on a personal level, they value my recommendations instead of viewing me as another person who is solely seeking sales. Furthermore, I establish a comfort-zone and consequently they willingly share the appropriate information to enable me to design the perfect pair of glasses.

During the recent holidays, it was easier to delve more deeply into my secret-shopping of various brick-and-mortar opticals. The increased foot traffic allowed me to blend in more easily, while the influx of new merchandise for holiday and FSA shoppers provided lots of new stuff to look at and created new sorts of interactions with staff. For the most part, it was unremarkable. In spite of the stress of the season, opticians were on their best behavior—no eight “Are you still doing OK?”s in the course of twenty minutes, as I recalled in an earlier column, or belligerent sales staff trying to pressure me into buying something. In fact, my experiences were downright pleasant. I’ve been encountering a certain technique more and more lately, though, and it’s given me a bit of food for thought about how we present our frames to our patients off the frame board.