Lens reps, lens reps... they seem to come and go, but their performance usually is rather consistent (that being 'not very good', here in Southeast Asia). Sure, I've met some good ones, but overall it's pretty much been a bunch of former marketing folks, maybe a former sales assistant from optical retail if we get lucky. But I've been working with a new rep that's rather impressed me, to the extent I feel it's worthwhile to post this up. To all the dedicated and competent lens reps out there, this one's for you, and my sincere apologies for having grown so jaded/cynical that I used to dismiss the bulk of you folks as incompetent and not too helpful
So several months ago one of my suppliers assigned a new rep to cover the small chain I work with, among others. This supplier is one of the Big Three here in Southeast Asia (names left to your imagination), by the way. When I heard we had a new rep, I sent a couple of friendly emails/texts to my peers in the field, to see if they'd worked with this rep before and get a feel of what was to come.
Feedback was mostly positive with respect to technical knowledge and competency, with the exception of two veteran opticians who thought he was the devil incarnate. Their reasons were:
- The first optician was refused a non-adapt claim on a progressive. When he asked the rep why, the rep told him that the patient's previous progressive design was too different from the new design, and that the fitting was doomed from the start. Things were not helped by the rep allegedly telling him any competent optician would have seen this coming from a mile away when the argument got heated.
- The second optician says the rep refused to proceed with a defect claim on a lens returned with complaints of crazing. Supposedly, the rep examined the returned lenses with polarised lenses and saw signs of excessive mounting stress, and proceeded to deny the defect claim on grounds that the optician edged them wrong. Also alleges that the rep once called him up after the optician had scolded one of the lab staff on the phone, and told him something along the lines of 'if you expect my telephonists to respect your qualifications, respect them as humans first'.
These were hearsay, and so I took them with a pinch of salt. Anyway, he shows up about two weeks after we received the news that he'd taken over our small chain account, and so far, my colleagues and I have had the following experiences with him:
- Called to ask me if the PD provided on a ground-in prism order was already decentered to compensate for the amount of prism (which I'd done, but this was a first for rep calls). Also asked me if I'd considered an uneven prism split based on the monocular VA (something I'd overlooked).
- Personally drove a pair of glasses to the airport when the lab delivery got delayed, and my customer was flying out of the country for good. According to the customer's last ever call to my workplace before her flight left, he even brought along a full set of frame adjustment tools in a bag, and carried out some minor nosepad tweaking for her (this was the day I found out he was still a licensed optician, and had spent a few years in practice).
- Called to recommend a longer corridor on a hyperopic back-surface PAL order, as well as suggesting a different, cheaper PAL due to the alternative using flatter base curves and a dual-add design to improve cosmetics and ease of adapting.
- Telling me a case was not going to work out for PALs for various reasons and advising a bifocal fitting even though his lab doesn't sell bifocals. Even gave me a discreet suggestion for a competing lab who could deliver me a flat-top in 1.60.
- A colleague was threatened with legal action by a lawyer customer due to lens coating problems, and it seems the rep got on the phone with the customer and sorted it out. Even got the customer to agree to paying for the redo (what the...).
- Signing off on a free redo when a colleague of mine called to admit she had written down a wrong Rx on one side of a PAL order.
- A colleague asked for product training on one of his lab's more unusual lenses. When there was difficulty arranging for a weekday slot, he agreed to show up on a Sunday night at 9.30 (and he did, apparently!).
- Called a colleague to check the vertex distance on a POW-customised lens, high-minus order, even though she had remarked 'fit as default' on the order form. She's been reprimanded before for this, but so far no rep has called to check things out before proceeding with the order.
- Called yet another colleague to advise him that polarised lenses were not advised for a nylon mount. When my colleague insisted, the rep told him they wouldn't be pretty, and delivered the lenses with the groove cut entirely on the non-polarised layer, which he had instructed the lab to produce with a minimum edge of 2.5 mm (thicker than I'd think necessary, but there goes the risk of delamination). Ugly as sin, but he did say so in advance
- ... he rejected a colleague's claim on crazed coating, and sent her a snapshot of the stress marks as detected with polarised lenses.
- Gave my boss a free pair of premium progressives which the boss requested comped, but billed the company for edging fees. Boss was not pleased when the rep told him the lenses were free, but he'd never skimp on paying lab staff their dues for workmanship.
And the list goes on, crazily enough!
Maybe the lens gods have sent us a decent rep, and hopefully it stays this way! I'm quite satisfied with his work to date, and I do think that for now, he has restored my faith in lens reps.
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It will not stay this way, unless he will get the permission ........................
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