hygiene
:idea: If you can, or are fortunate enough to have the dispensary, with a sink in sight of the customer, wash your hands off before you wait on the customer and where they can see you doing that. Customers love it, especially if you just had your hands on some elses glasses or in their hair, customers will notice this and you will never hear a complaint about the wait.
tools
:D having just returned from vision expo west, i was fortunate enough to have the rep from grobet sit down with me and go over the latest and newest tools available, of which there are quite a few.
.....First let me state i do not work for or have any monetary interest in grobet. This actually applies to all the makers of tools for our industry. of which there are many good ones.
.....What i would like to pass along is, in todays market where we have a plethora of new type frames, especially rimless, these newer tools are essential.
.....Have the rep come in and show you how to use these tools and you will see how much easier it can make your dispensing task. While i admit some of these tools are not cheap, the breakage of one pair of Zeiss progressive lenses, because you are using the wrong tool, can easily justify the cost of the correct tool.
.....I am going to try and get permission to show some of these tools on this thread, one at a time, if the details can be worked out.
Here's my tuppence worth...
I believe that the collection is as important a part of the sale process as any other, for many reasons. Firstly, it's all too easy to be perceived as unimportant as the money has already been received. It's therefore a valuable tool for communicating that you're not just interested in the 'sale', but more so in the actual fitting and care and long term happiness of the client. It shows subliminally that service is more important than money.
After fitting the frames, and receiving client's approval of comfort, etc., go one further saying something along the lines of "I still want to make a further tiny adjustment to make them 100% perfect" even if you don't.
If the frames fit perfectly straight away, still make an adjustment (or pretend to, anyway). This shows that you have extremely high standards and that you're a perfectionist.
And finally, my favourite little trick - when you put the glasses on them, gently and I mean VERY gently, allow your fingertips to touch the side of their face. This will (subliminally) bring you closer. They won't know why, but psychological tests prove that people like touching and it makes people like you. Please, please don't stroke them! Gentle touching that they are not conscious of is what I'm talking about!
safety frames
:idea: When working with the more common 7 and 10 difference safety frames that have the mesh type side shields, commonly used by machinists etc., lens glazing can be difficult.
.....It is not unusual to glaze a pair of lenses and then find you cannot push back the side sheilds, as the little peice of plastic that sticks up to hold the side shields in place while wearing is now distorted.
.....To avoid this situation, first do not insert these type frames into a salt pan, but rather use a hot air heater, second before glazing, take the side sheild and have it pushed out all the way as it would be in the wearing postion. Now without overheating gently insert the lens into the frame and let it cool down naturally.
.....The result will be a pair of lenses glazed into the frame with no distortion of the plastic butress piece and the side sheilds will go over like they should and hold in place.
.....It is also good not to insert these type frames into a salt pan as the side sheilds on these type frames are commonly held on with two pop rivets and overheating can loosen them quite easily.
Harry asked me to post this from another post for rimless suggestions. How could I say no??
removing plugs from Titans
Removing the plugs from titans when necessary to switch lenses is an easy matter with a $2.00 toe nail clipper with a flat front. Don't get the concave type. I usually have 2 clippers handy, one to clip off the old plug, and one to trim the new one. Simply hold the clipper flush to the lens, and gently clip it. Then take the clipper and on the metal side, wrap the clipper around the bar and pull the mounting straight out from the lens. I haven;t broken one yet this way
__________________
Money carefully refunded
Adam,
In England they call the "dispensing", "collection"? Collection here involves money...but we understand, when the px comes around to "collect" the glasses when they're ready for delivery. Years ago, I believe at a Bob Bieber seminar, he said that "you make every sale twice". i.e. you sold it when you first evaluated the rx, and went throuhg the frame selection process, and the lens fitting process, they paid you(you "collected"), then they were on their way. in a few days, they come back, and might not remember half of why they got what they ordered, or how they picked out "that" frame! So, we need to go through a reinforcing sale process, while we're doing that "perfect" adjustment. I find that if one optician in the office did the first sale, that person should do the dispensing sale; life's a lot easier that way!
This is what I like about this board. It gives you the opportunity to rethink things and question everything.
I call the various stages of the 'sale':
dispensing - the process of frame and lens selection (dispensing to you is the act of handing it over?)
payment - the enjoyable bit (godforbid we should see some cash) - (what you call collection? - sounds a bit heavy-handed to me)
collection - when they come and collect the specs (what you probably call the dispensing)
Just because this is my terminology doesn't mean that's how everyone in England refers to things. I can only speak from my own experience - as John R will testify, up north they have an odd way about them and may well call these things by different terms, or at least pronounce them in such a way as they might as well be different words.
Bob Bieber? Is he the guy who I remember being played some tapes about optical dispensing many years ago. If so, I'd love to find out about how to get hold of them again. By memory, they were very funny and informative. (Now that I've done some NLP courses I think that they incorporated some of that in them). But only if we're talking about the same person.
Sorry that this reply has no tips whatsoever on dispensing.
Here's one -
Make sure that you ask 'How would you like to pay?' as opposed to 'Would you like to leave a deposit?' Unless you're not interested in good cashflow.
Adam Simmonds
www.adamsimmonds.co.uk
:idea: A tip to promote new business. There is a multitude of free flyers, brochures and paperwork from every manufacturer you deal with. It does not appear to me however that we use it to our fullest advantage.
.....Make up a package of all these free informative brochures, keeping in mind to have it cover different topics, lenses, contacts and anything else you might sell. Include with that a business card and hand out one to every person that walks in to your establishment.
.....A certain small percentage of people will call back wanting to know about some of these products, or a specific one.
.....While we are on this subject, something i have noticed in most all business cards,WHY IS YOUR PHONE NUMBER PRINTED AS SMALL AS POSSIBLE? The patients we see are already having trouble seeing, should we not make it easier?
it sounds good..
checking progressives
:idea: Often when checking a progressive lens, especially with some of the older vertometers, you cannot lower the lens table enough to read the power within the circle. If this happens simply turn the progessive upside down and take the reading, and now the circle will be in front of the apeture on your vertometer.
ink
:idea: When dotting up lenses with your focimeter, it is best not to leave the red ink dots on longer then necessary, as they will sometimes stain the lenses with the red ink, however if this happens insert the lens in some warm soapy water for a few minutes and they will disappear.
transitions splitz
:idea: :cheers: The good folks have a wonderful little display unit for the splitz lenses, which if your selling them , you should have. It consists of the three splitz lenses in a holder. Cleverly they have the top fold over, so half the lens is hidden, so when you take it out in the sun to show the patient how it changes, when you come back in you can see the original color and the changed color both at the same time. Very good demonstration tool. As i must say i do not work for or have any vested interest with the transitions corp.
If you ever see a pair of lenses with spots on them you can't get off with anything, see if Easy Off Oven Cleaner is involved. It eats lenses.
Any one know of a good scource of cheap laurenetts? I mean the kind for demo lenses, would be nice to have a supply where we could put whatever we happen to handle in them.
Chip
spots
:D Chip brought up an interesting point, if you look carefully at a lot of glasses, and more so with ladies, you may see little white spots. These are almost always from hair spray.
.....The patient will usually tell you , but i take them off while i,m spraying, which they do, but they usually lay them right below on the counter or sink and as the spray falls it gathers on the lenses.
.....However this is quite easily solved with a little isopropyl alcohol, and the patient will remark , i can see clear again. Suggest to them to put the glasses in another place, or cover them while spraying.
PAL markings
:D Heres a little tip i picked up the other day. If you ever have progressive and you can only see one of the laser markings, keep in mind that all of the progressives on the market have the markings 34 mm apart, thus if you measure 17 mm from one of the markings, it will give you an idea of where the MRP is, remembering that the MRP itself will be a few mm,s higher.
When the grooved lenses are strung too tight to fit something between the lens and the cord, use your axis plier to rotate the lens a little and that will give you some space.
transitions
:idea: We all know that transition lenses do not activate well inside a car, as the windsheild and windows tend to block out the uv that activates the lens.
.........Heres how you can get around that, simply tell your patients to lower the driver side window(presuming that there driving) and now the uv will enter the car and the glasses will get much darker then normal. There is a tendency for the left lens to get slightly darker for obvious reasons. You only have to open the window a few inches to make this work. Its amazing how much uv will then enter the car.
Almost any OLA laboratory (which is most of the labs out there) will have the OLA lens sample kit that will cost you anywhere from $350.00 outright to free after coupons.
We've had a number of folks order extra lorgnettes from us with other samples, or plain lorgnettes they can add their own samples too. So contact your local lab about these.
Go to the OLA website to see what these displays look like.
Just a thought Harry, but if enough U.V. is coming in through a cracked window to activate a photochromic lens. We are all being fried with the stuff anyway and we are wasting our time putting U.V. protction in lenses. There will be enough coming around and bouncing off the back of lenses to do whatever dastardly necrotic changes it is supposedly making in us all no matter how well the lens protects us from frontal assault.
Chip
harry...
i've found the NG does darken in the car SLIGHTLY when the window is down, but yes the right lens does darken up more than the left, (as i'm sure our british friends also found!!!) the slight colour is still not enough to actually acheive any glare protection... i think a slap with a wet fish would be more effective.
i donn't know about american cars, but all the cars i've had, had the seat ttoo far under the roof, and away from the wiondows--- therefore no UV light,
I'm still not sold on transitions on the whole, but hey... each untoo their own... Australia isn't a really big promoter of photochromic lenses, apparantly we did invent the CR-39 at lonsdale, but thats it... sorry going off at a tangeant...
anywayz, back to reality i suppose!!!
james
ps for your own interest i had a ..... subaru leonie, honda civic, mitsubishi lancer, mazda 323, toyota camry, holden commodore
bridges and seg lines
:idea: It is not unusual to see a flattop 28, 35 etc, come out of the lab at times where the seg appears to be tilted. Normally one will loosen the screw on the eyewire and put the axis pliers on the lens in an attempt to straighten the seg line.
.........However in todays market of mostly unisex single bar frames, it is not unusual to see these bridges bent slightly in the fabrication process, much the same reason that you see one temple bent down more then the other.
........Once you are sure the lens is turned to where it should be, check the bridge and make sure it is straight as should be. If you have the lens in the proper position and the bridge is straight and the seg is still crooked, then it would be conducive to refabricate the lens, as at that point you would have to assume it was blocked crooked or slippage in the edger.
nose pads
:idea: For those of you who on occasion have a patient that is allergic to silicone, you can put them in bohemian crystal nose pads that are completely hypoallergenic.
.....For those dispensing 100 % pure titanium frames you can also change the stock pads to pure 100% titanium pads, or if you want a pad that will virtually last forever.
.....Both these products can be obtained through a number of sources such as Hilco/wilson, whom i do not work for.
Marvelous advice.harry a saake said:
:idea: If you can, or are fortunate enough to have the dispensary, with a sink in sight of the customer, wash your hands off before you wait on the customer and where they can see you doing that. Customers love it, especially if you just had your hands on some elses glasses or in their hair, customers will notice this and you will never hear a complaint about the wait.
I like to use kimwipes instead of towels so that germs are not spread from one clients glasses to another, especially during flu season.
Robert
Is it possible for the add to be any power other than the power engraved on the lens? :hammer:harry a saake said:
:idea: Often when checking a progressive lens, especially with some of the older vertometers, you cannot lower the lens table enough to read the power within the circle. If this happens simply turn the progessive upside down and take the reading, and now the circle will be in front of the apeture on your vertometer.
dfisher, both you and Harry should both know how to put an auxillary prism on a lensometer (focometer for you Limmeys) and read the lens at the actual center. And yes it is possible to for the stamp on the lens to be wrong, especially in the lesser known brands.
It's also possible for the sticker or stamp on the lens to have very little with the acutal lens center (P.D.)
Chip
Rule #1 for the Optical business: "Trust no one." As I have gotten older, I don't even trust myself.
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