non-adapt

[omisliebling]

You do you handle a first time PAL patient if they're already discourage at dispense and after explaining it over and over again they take glasses home just to com back after not even 24 hours, giving up and not even giving you a chance to change into a FT, just wanting their money back. That happened to me about a week ago and it really hurt my feelings, she didn't trust in what I was explaining and didn't want to give me a chance to make it up to her and change into what she was in before and she was the one who inquired about PAL and was very excited in the first place. It still gets me upset and it's not so much the money but a trust issue to me. I have had patients in the past that needed a change of some kind, but I never had a patient like that, everybody else normally "loves" me and is very satisfied when I get done with them :-)
Le t me know what you have experienced with "unhappy" patients and how you took care of the problem, hope to learn from my mistakes and your experience.

Thanks,

[chip anderson]

You can't win em all A Boe. And remember you were working with a woman here, do not expect logic.

Chip

Can hardly wait to hear from the girls on this.

[For-Life]

You can't win em all A Boe. And remember you were working with a woman here, do not expect logic.

Chip

Can hardly wait to hear from the girls on this.

Playing the devils advocate here.

Men can be pretty bad too. It is amazing what they expect. You get some of them who want the best progressives with transitions, the best AR, and they want to pay almost nothing, and when you do process it they are shocked that it takes a few days to do, because they know places that can do lenses in an hour.

[rinselberg]

You can't win em all A Boe. And remember you were working with a woman here, do not expect logic.

Chip

Can hardly wait to hear from the girls on this.

Hey CHIP, whether it is fair or not, the name of your fine old State (of the Union) may sometimes be associated with the phrase "lynch party". But do you really want to serve as "the guest of honor" --?


:cheers:

[ksquared]

How do you handle a first time PAL patient if they're already discourage at dispense and after explaining it over and over again they take glasses home just to come back after not even 24 hours, giving up and not even giving you a chance to change into a FT, just wanting their money back. That happened to me about a week ago and it really hurt my feelings, she didn't trust in what I was explaining and didn't want to give me a chance to make it up to her and change into what she was in before and she was the one who inquired about PAL and was very excited in the first place. It still gets me upset and it's not so much the money but a trust issue to me.

I wouldn't give it a 2nd thought. Accept that there are some (male and female) who you will not be able to please no matter what you do. Plus you really have no way of knowing what was taking place "behind the scenes" . I, for one, would have been "thrilld" to have you explain the pros and cons of PALS and if I found that once I tried them (and found I couldn' t adopt) would have been happy to accept your offer to redo the script using what what I was used to. As long as you are willing to work towards the best solution, you really have nothing to feel badly about.

[Chris Ryser]

................. after explaining it over and over again they take glasses home just to com back after not even 24 hours, giving up and not even giving you a chance to change into a FT, just wanting their money back.

..........................it really hurt my feelings, didn't want to give me a chance to make it up to her and change into what she was in before ............................It still gets me upset and it's not so much the money but a trust issue to me. ....................

Thanks,

omisliebling

1) you need to take a course in sales psychology

Offering and selling a customer something, they do not really want, with a non adapt offer is already telling a customer who has a some brain "that it might work or maybe it might NOT work". This robs the customer of his confidence in you. You were not sure that the case would work out yourself and took advantage of the non adapt policy.
Now you are now upset because you lost the trust of this one customer because you did the same thing before and got away with it. A non adapt policy is an easy way out for an oprtician who does not know when to sell or when not to sell.

2) you got to freshen up on you technical knowdlege

There are opnly 45% (which is actually a lot) of people wearing and liking progresssive lenses.

This still mean the majority is using the other type lenses and liking them. Your customer had ST's before I assume, and it is a no no, or risky to convert them.

Use you non adapt policy for starters with an add from 0.75 to 1.25 maximum and dont let greed, let you become a "progressive conversion activist"

[Johns]

[QUOTE=omisliebling]...they're already discourage at dispense and after explaining it over and over again they take glasses home .

Is everybody normaly discouraged at the time of the dispense? If not, you should have found out what the problem was, and solved it, while the customer was still in the office. If every PAL dispense is discouraged at the time of dispensing , I'd do some serious re-evaluation of what lenses you dispense, and how you're fitting them.

The sales psychology course isn't a bad idea either.

[omisliebling]

Wow, I sure like the last 2 replies, especially what Chris had to say, not !!! Maybe I didn't get my point across, it was ONE INDIVIDUAL and I'm pretty darn good in what I'm doing and don't think I need a course in sales psychology and NO, not everybody is discouraged at dispense. If you're talking to your patients the way you're talking to me here I'm surprised if you have any left. OK, back to my POINT, this lady asked for PAL and I explained it in pretty easy terms and with a picture, gave her the difference between a FT and a PAL and the pros and cons to both of them, she seemed to understand very well and decided to try the PAL. I do not sell a patient what they don't need and that's why I'm a very much liked optician to my patients and they do have confidence in what I'm doing or they would not take the time to drive all the way to my office if they could just go to our main office right around the corner from where they live. I'm not greedy, it doesn't make a difference to my paycheck if I sell $200 or $700. I was upset because she didn't give the PAL she wanted enough time and didn't even wanna switch back to a FT, just gave up within less than 24 hours even though I knew I could help her !!! There you go, does that explain my point better ???

[ksquared]

I was upset because she didn't give the PAL she wanted enough time and didn't even wanna switch back to a FT, just gave up within less than 24 hours even though I knew I could help her !!!

Being in customer service myself, I can certainly understand how frustrating this situation must have been. We all get a difficult customer every now and again. I try and put the situation behind me as quickly as possible (hard to do sometimes). It sure sounds to me like you are not responsible for the reaction your received. When a customer requests a PAL and you've explained the pros and cons and they still want to proceed, well, that's their choice. If they refused your offer to remedy the issues and/or at least give the new glasses a little more time, that's their choice too.

One thing you may want to consider doing the next time is after explaining the pros and cons and the customer still wants to proceed, go over your exspectations (that they give them at least 5 days to see if they can adjust) and review your refund and/or exchange policy. It also may be usefull to have a hand-out with the infomation that you covered available. SOmetimes when you're getting new specs, it can be a little stressfull. Customers may only hear a portion of what your are telling them (and vise versa). Some of what was actualy discussed gets "lost" during the process.

[jofelk]

I get the feeling it is not the satisfaction of the patient you are concerned with as much as they did not trust you. You may want everyone to like and trust you but it will not always happen. Some people may just choose you to take their frustrations out. Realize this and move on, life is finite, do not concern yourself with pleasing everyone.

[Texas Ranger]

My question is why you should refund this person at all? there are certain responsibilities of the buyer when they are having something custom made. you didn't mention the frame, was it new or did they use their old frame? perhaps they had misgivings about their frame choice/or using thier old one, and thought they'd have to pay again for lenses if they changed their mind about that? had you done glasses for this person before? what type of no-line was it? was it a new Rx, and how much change from their old rx was it? When a long time ft bif wearer requests a Pal design, there is sometimes some discussion of "what if I can't wear it, then I explain that we would remake their lenses back to the FT, then they may or may not ask if they get the cost difference back, and I say "no". that's the risk they and we take. a 'refund' is not an option. they are told this up front, and i've never had that problem. we fit about 90% Vx lenses, have a non-adapt of 1/200. I tell new pal wearers that, there is a 'learning curve' in adapting to them, and it usually requires about a month to adapt, so they have expectations and financial responsibility.

[Johns]

There is no insult intended when additional training is suggested.

I am very good at what I do, and I definitely could use ANOTHER course in sales psychology! What's the big deal? Who said training ever meant that the student was incompetent? That's why I take 35hrs of CE's every year, when my State Board says I only need 12. I take optician hrs., od hrs, tech hrs. and anything else that might enhance my optical and business skills. Last Tuesday I went to a course for real estate agents (I'm not, nor do I intend to be). It was 75% psychology, and I learned a lot from it - for free!

In my case, it does make a difference how much I sell. If that one person walks out of my store, after all the materials and time spent, it affects me, and the ability to pay my staff. What I stress in our offices is that it's not how much they spend, it's how much the customer is satisfied. If, after we've explained all the options, they want an executive trifocal in glass, I'm more than happy to sell it to them, and make sure they tell all their (weird) friends where they got it.

As far as conversions into high ticket progressives go, I'd just as soon sell them FTs and concentrate on 3rd and 4th pr sales. The COG is lower, satisfaction rate is as high or higher, and they are happy with their purchase.(Even it is old technology.)

[Rophod]

My question is why you should refund this person at all? there are certain responsibilities of the buyer when they are having something custom made. you didn't mention the frame, was it new or did they use their old frame? perhaps they had misgivings about their frame choice/or using thier old one, and thought they'd have to pay again for lenses if they changed their mind about that? had you done glasses for this person before? what type of no-line was it? was it a new Rx, and how much change from their old rx was it? When a long time ft bif wearer requests a Pal design, there is sometimes some discussion of "what if I can't wear it, then I explain that we would remake their lenses back to the FT, then they may or may not ask if they get the cost difference back, and I say "no". that's the risk they and we take. a 'refund' is not an option. they are told this up front, and i've never had that problem. we fit about 90% Vx lenses, have a non-adapt of 1/200. I tell new pal wearers that, there is a 'learning curve' in adapting to them, and it usually requires about a month to adapt, so they have expectations and financial responsibility.

TR, I like your approach and try to use it most times. Sometimes we are in a position of having to refund to satisfy a difficult patient. This happens very infrequently but sometimes is the best way for us to handle it. Sometimes it is just not worth the fight.

[CME4SPECS]

A couple of weeks ago we had a thread on refunds. Take a look there and see some of the comments.
So... you have them keep the glasses for a few days, to try. You don't know whether they actually try them or keep them in their dresser drawer. Thye'll be back in in a few days and you will be right back where you started. This person, is probably one that you will not satisfy, no matter how well liked you are or no matter how good you are. Refund them and get them out of your hair. SLeep good tonight!

[Chris Ryser]

I am very good at what I do, and I definitely could use ANOTHER course in sales psychology! ...................... It was 75% psychology, and I learned a lot from it - for free!

........... What I stress in our offices is that it's not how much they spend, it's how much the customer is satisfied. .................

As far as conversions into high ticket progressives go, I'd just as soon sell them FTs and concentrate on 3rd and 4th pr sales. .................. satisfaction rate is as high or higher, and they are happy with their purchase..............

Johns, you said it all and very well.

I am just wondering why...........................why is everybody defending the sales on the most expensive lenses even when technically or for other reasonms it should not be done.

I am also wondering if and when the manufacturers and the labs would suddenly discontinue the non adapt warranty........................?

How would the retailer then act? would like to hear some input into that one.