Every optician--in here now.....

**vitalogy44** · 06-28-2003, 12:48 AM

I am wondering how many of you have face-to-face interaction with the patients?? And if you do, what percentage of your "conversation" time during dispensing is spent talking specs/style versus vision/vision disorders?? What is the average amount of time spent dispensing in general??

**vitalogy44** · 06-28-2003, 08:41 AM

Awesome!! 18 views and no responses.............

**Steve Machol** · 06-28-2003, 08:53 AM

Well I account for a couple of those views but since I don't see patients I really had nothing to offer. ;)

**hcjilson** · 06-28-2003, 09:13 AM

although I am somewhat mystified by the question. I see customers face to face. I suppose you could say there is some general conversation in these interchanges but for the most part it is oriented to the reason someone is sitting in front of you. I practice what some have termed "lifestyle dispensing" and in order to do that you need some idea of the purpose of the spectacles in question. This is done be general conversation but always with some "catch" questions which narrows the field quickly. This is part of the dispensing process.

I think your question is a little vague.Perhaps you could restate it by asking for exactly what you want to know.

Face to face encounters during the workday can be to choose spectacles, adjust spectacles, repair spectacles, etc. The definition of vision/vision disorders would lead to another set of parameters. Its dificult to determine what you want to know. It would also be helpful to know the reason you ask the question. If you have an employee you are monitoring and want to know how long it takes to sell a pair of frames thats one thing and if you want to know how long it takes to explain macular degeneration thats another thing all together.

I'll check back later and respond as best I can.

best from hj

**Jeff Trail** · 06-28-2003, 10:24 AM

Harry might be right it is a broad general question, and other than a crazy busy retail store where the optician is there for a "lic." only, I would say all of us have "face to face" with patients all day long (well when I was in retail)
As for time and thinking more a long the line of vision disorders and such it would also depend on your location, when I owned two retail stores one was more hip younger type patients..they were more into style and going fast.. while the second was more low vision and problamatic patients (hey I'm in FL. we are the catch all as people get older and tumble down:)) ... the younger store probably 15 minutes was the average and most often no medical problems (if any it was amblyopia and kids) harder part was fitting and dispensing contacts... The low vision store and more complicted older patient probably averaged an hour or more and had tons of problems and you had better be up on your anatomy and phsyiology and even medications and occular problems..a lot of people with Mac. Deg., Ret. Pigm., cat's, Diabetics and on and on...had an OD in the hip place and a MD in the one where medical conditions ran abound. :)
So I think it all boils down to the conditions you are working in, I just had two places at opposite ends of the spectrum :) Depends on the practice or chain and the OD or MD. Some OD's and MD's do not want the "staff" giving any medical answers, some do.. I guess you just will have a different answer by every poster :)

Jeff"grind'em if you can afford them" Trail

**Texas Ranger** · 06-28-2003, 11:11 AM

Dear Kentucky OD, is it that we'd like to know how much time we normally spend with clients, and do we spend a lot of time chat about their Rx or is it more about their frame selection? As an "independent", i'd say it has more to do with the patient's desires. some folks walk in, drop their new rx on the reception desk, say "here's my new rx, order new lenses for my current frames, and me when they're in..." and leave....not much intereaction at all, the next client is an emerging 42 yr old attractive lady, presbyope, fashion conscious, has an active lifestyle and is pretty outgoing and coordinated, she is going to take a lot of my time, because it'll take a wide range of conversation about her visual problems, colors, shapes, frame styling, lens designs, and time, and money. two hours will be about right! but most of our clients are the #2 kind 15 years down the road, and are more comfortable and develop different visiual problems and require different skills, but a lot of the conversations will be personal, about their grandkids, or the cruise they just got back from, etc, sometimes ,it's not about the glasses at all...and that's okay too. there is no formula...youu be you, they be them, know you're stuff, listen, appreciate them. simple...

**PAkev** · 06-28-2003, 12:39 PM

As every pair of eyewear is unique, so is the folks buying them. It doesn't take a rocket scientest to see through a cookie cutter sales pitch versus genuine interest in their optical demands. This is one reason we have optical retailers that run the gamut of exclusivly high end to internet sales.

Perhaps a better way of looking at it is to look at your average eyewear sale. You then would be able to put a value on the amount of time which is spent with each patient.

With this in mind you can sell perhaps 10 pair SV vlaue packages in and hour at $49.00 and then spend another hour with each of those folks as they return for repairs and adjustments over the next year. On the other hand, you can sell multiple pairs to one person for well over $500.00 who will return if they have a positive purchasing experience since you took the time to demonstrate good communication.

Kevin

**EyeManFla** · 06-28-2003, 12:48 PM

To quote Doc Roy...."It depends!"

Opticians can sometimes be the bartenders of the optical business.

Hey, Harry.......see you Thursday. It's Lions Club day and I'll be here from 9-6. I've got tickets to Daytona, but I may not be able to go, so I may be around all weekend

**palfi** · 06-30-2003, 02:57 PM

Well - I work for Walmarts - and actually count many patients as friends! I'm no bar tender - but we have a good laugh together and several of us meet up once every two weeks to fly our flight sim's in a virtual air club. This has nothing to do with Walmart's its just that the patients and I get on well. I just chat to them at work and all went from there. And that leads me to a question of my own. I started the flying club to explore how to improve the quality of life of my men patients with cataracts. I had a customer who was a flyer in the War and now with cataracts finds reading and TV very hard. I got him to help me learn to fly my flight simulator - he loves it and what set out to be just an evening out at an interesting old fellow's house - has grown and several other fellows with poor vision join in as well. We have great fun - and it has given them something to relive and enjoy and chat about in a clubby atmosphere ( we meet round his house - his wife lays on the sandwiches).
Now the question is - how can I make it better. I noticed that the vision is improved with night flying and bright contrasty landscapes - but is there anything else? Any flight simmers out there ?
The opticians is also the gathering place of many bikers after we did the secretary of the bikers club a pair of specs. (we do work also) =palfi

**BobV** · 07-01-2003, 08:49 AM

The docs want us to spend no more than 15 minutes with a patient discussing frame and lens options. Of course, I disagree with that because there are some patients that require more time due to the fact that there may be more than 10 frames for them to choose from. Lenses on the other hand can be different. Most patients rely on what we say, especially new presbyopes. I find most time spent on lenses explaining the difference between poly and high index. The percentage of time spent concerning frame and lens choice? 99%.

As for discussing their medical maladies, I'd say15% of my time is spent explaining what the doctor should be explaining in the first place. Patients are leaving the lanes confused as to what their visual accuities are and most of the time, it's not in the chart, except for corrected accuities. Perhaps as optoms expand their roles as paraphysicians, a little more time could be spent by them to explain to the patient what it all means instead of herding patients through like cattle.

Two or three docs, two opticians, three patients at one time, plus a couple of walk-ins is not conducive to a professional working enviroment.

**aaron** · 07-01-2003, 05:52 PM

Ok,

So my office is kind of another weird one here. We really spoil all of our patients for being an M.D. office. We have an optician from the old school that has been here for almost 12 years. Almost every day we are brought cookies, chocolate, or other gifts. So needless to say there is alot of time in this dispensary spent on nonsense chit-chat about personal things.

The optician considers all of these older patient like her old friends (as well she should), and so more time that usuall is spent talking. Our patients are old and they are wealthy. So from the sales aspect this is just fine. While they are talking about stuff we just try to communicate while we pick out their glasses and fill out our paperwork. There is alot of trust here so we usually write everything up and then explain what we just did for them. In a perfect world less time would be spent talking. But the reality is that it does help our business and compliment an overall pleasant atmosphere in the office.

I would suggest that noone ever rush a patient for the sake of rushing and moving on. Any optician worth their salt has learned how to multitask several people instead of rushing through each one.

The miracle here would be teaching our senior optician how NOT to dispense round seg and trifocals to emerging presbyopes, while telling them that she can't wear progressives because they "limit vision" and that A/R will be one big hastle.

Thank you for the vent.

ad

**Jeff Trail** · 07-02-2003, 12:04 AM

aaron,

It is not "odd" your office is meeting the needs of that office (dispensery) ..as it should be, if anything you answered the question as everyone did in this thread, the right answer is "what works in that office".
You have a fast paced office with younger crowd, most often they want it fast and quick and super stylish (getting the sales stuck in between cell calls:))
You have an office more technical and leaning more towards heavy medical than it calls for something different..
Hopefully every OD or MD that comes into this thread will understand that you can not put a stop watch on sales and dealing with the people wondering through the optical... I would think if you wanted to look at something it would be the balance sheet at the end of the day.. if you are not happy there than I would recommend more training with the staff to increase lens selection knowledge and the benefits of all the add ons we have...
As well as not putting it all at the opticians door step, OD's and MD's can do a lot by doing a little digging in the conversation and doing some recomendations as they walk out to the dispensery with the person, "oh sos and so is having trouble with glare, explain to them about polarized RX'ing as well"...or "I mentioned 'transitional' lens and so and so would like to hear more about" ..a small word from the Doc. can make or break a medium sale into a high end sale. :)
It is a pesky little thing trying to make everything fit in nice little round holes but you never know the "shape" of the person coming into the dispensery :) After all the years I was in retail and now wholesale one thing I learned a long time ago, you base the sales on each persons response and speed.. forget having that magic "number" of "blank" minutes per sale.. might look good in some magazine or text book but in real life? as my uncle Guido says.."forget a' bout it"
The key to having a great dispensery compared to a "getting by" one is fitting the style of sales and selection to the person sitting across the fitting table from you...

Jeff "I think this is about what everyone said, more or less" Trail

**Judy Canty** · 07-03-2003, 04:22 PM

The vast majority of my time with customers is face-to-face. I don't know any other way to analyze a prescription, discuss options and take accurate measurements. I don't know any other way to properly fit and adjust and dispense them either. We talk about many different things, including how they're feeling and what's happening in their lives. It helps me help them make decisions about their eyewear. It's why my answering machine tells callers that if I don't answer, I'm working with a customer. In my book, no one is more important than whoever is in my shop at the moment.

I do wish that OD's and MD's would include the corrected VA's on the rx. It would save us all a lot of headaches when trying to troubleshoot.

**BobV** · 07-03-2003, 07:42 PM

I'm with you 100% on the phone issue. I worked at a place where you HAD to carry a phone with you at all times for that potential customer. Forget the ones in the store already. They are there. You might just be able to snag one off the phone.

Bob V.

**vitalogy44** · 07-06-2003, 09:09 PM

Those were just some interesting questions I had thought of after a day's work. A little background from me--I, as some of you, am one of those "independent ODs located beside........."--I infrequently visit the lab side and see the mayhem (read organized chaos) that goes on between patients, frame stylists, and opticians. The opticians get to interact with the patients some of the time, but most often it is a relatively inexperienced frame stylist. I'm not flaming the frame stylist--it's about turnover. I would much rather have an optician interacting with the patients because they are more knowledgable about the whole dispensing process. It's trivial, but everyone here knows what can wrong if the PD measurement is off. It doesn't take long to master, but it is very important. Point there is that you have to be taught correctly the first time....... I'm rambling again, but I was just wondering how much interaction you all had.............