Should we wear glasses at work?

[chrome surfer]

Our office consists of one doctor, optician, receptionist, & tech in training. Doc owns the practice and I run it. Doc wears glasses, two wear contacts, and I do not like wearing glasses. I am 48 soon my only rx being an add of +1.75. I happen to be one of those patients we all don't like working with. Do not want to wear glasses, I need to see small print, progressive yuk. BUT I want everyone to wear glasses with the best options.

My question is do you all wear glasses to promote your best eyewear? During a VE west class someone mentioned wearing a pair of glasses one lens with ar the other without.

Yvette

[For-Life]

Our office consists of one doctor, optician, receptionist, & tech in training. Doc owns the practice and I run it. Doc wears glasses, two wear contacts, and I do not like wearing glasses. I am 48 soon my only rx being an add of +1.75. I happen to be one of those patients we all don't like working with. Do not want to wear glasses, I need to see small print, progressive yuk. BUT I want everyone to wear glasses with the best options.

My question is do you all wear glasses to promote your best eyewear? During a VE west class someone mentioned wearing a pair of glasses one lens with ar the other without.

Yvette

If you are trying to show off your frames then yes.

[cocoisland58]

This should be a no-brainer. All of our employees wear glasses. Some of us actually need them. For our young and pretty apprentice they are a non-rx pair with AR, actually she has four pair now. One of our dispensors wears just a reading rx and they are mostly perched on top of her head but she puts them on to show the benefits of AR and to show off her stylish frame. If you wear your products with flair and confidence it will reflect in sales. How many times have I heard "I love your glasses, can you show me that frame?" I declined a free lasik procedure years ago. I don't sell lasik. If you won't use your own products how do you tell your customers the benefits honestly?

[gemstone]

I know a lady that I suspect was fired for wearing glasses. She worked for an Ophthalmoligist.

[OptiChick21]

I know a lady that I suspect was fired for wearing glasses. She worked for an Ophthalmoligist.

LOL! I suppose their employees are supposed to only promote getting corrective surgery and not wearing glasses! :hammer:

[EyeFitWell]

I agree, wearing glasses is a must.
If you hate wearing glasses, make yourself some plano AR lenses in a rimless frame.
I sell what I wear all the time, and I wear the highest end products we carry, so this really works out well.
I am actually very nearsighted but I found on days when I wore CL's to work, customers would make comments like, "Well, you wouldn't know about this but when you wear your glasses all day..." and I'd have to explain that I actually understand perfectly, as I've worn them since Kindergarten! After a couple of those, I started wearing plano AR lenses in a fun frame over my CL's just so people assumed I know what it's like to wear glasses!

[gemstone]

LOL! I suppose their employees are supposed to only promote getting corrective surgery and not wearing glasses! :hammer:

Yep!

[Cindy K]

I couldn't even begin to count the times a client has said "I want EXACTLY what you have on"! We also have plenty of gals who stop in just to see what I'm wearing these days. Remember the Silhouette 1940? We were told by COS, our Canadian supplier, that our office made that particular frame their top selling frame of all time in Canada and I attribute that to the fact that I wore it for several years.

Also, lenses should have all the bells and whistles. One of my favorites is when I'm offering the Silhouette rimless is to mention how the addition of Transitions to the lenses imparts that slight bit of color in the lenses in their unexposed state and allows the lens edge to blend in with the complection of the wearer; less noticable lenses with the added bonus of either a sunglass when outdoors by using the grey or a comfort tint with the brown. Of course, the addition of Alize (demonstrated by smearing my perpetually hand-creamed fingers across the lens then wiped off spotlessly clean with the inside of my jacket)shows the transparency of the lenses.

So in answer to your question whether the dispensary staff ought to wear glasses, I would have to say OF COURSE THEY SHOULD!!!!

[For-Life]

I also want to say this. I laugh everytime I walk into an optical store and the employees are wearing old glasses with no AR.

In my opinion the employer should not only allow, but encourage at least one pair a year (must be a board frame). You show off the product in stock and help promote the business. You do not even know how many people ask me about my glasses outside of work. Additionally, the employer should put the employee in the best lens. That means premium AR, thinner lens, transitions if desired and so forth.

I have five competiting opticians and one frame rep wearing my product. That is not a good thing for their business, but a great thing for mine.

[EyeFitWell]

I think maybe optical shops get sick of the turn over and stop giving out free pairs until the employee sticks around a while...

[For-Life]

I think maybe optical shops get sick of the turn over and stop giving out free pairs until the employee sticks around a while...

Well that is definitely a problem. But here is the thing, that staff member becomes an employee in your store. Before that he or she worked at Wal-Mart and is wearing Wal-Mart frames. A client comes in and says "I like your glasses." How is that handled?

We had a co-op student from a high school and the first thing we did is put him into a pair of our frames. We knew he would be there no longer than four months, but it was worth every penny.

[EyeFitWell]

Oh, I completely agree. I have an expensive Rx, though, and have usually had to wait around 3 months for free comp spex anyway.

When starting a new job, I try to find out what they sell and wear anything I have by those brands. It's always best to wear your product though!

Would you buy Make-Up from a woman who never wears it?
Would you buy a TV from a blind man?
of course not! :-)

And while we're at it, I think we should all be wearing fun, funky products to help get our patient's courage up to try new things. If I can pull it off, so can you!

[nickrock]

I agree one hundred percent. When is the last time you went to Foot Locker and the staff are wearing a product they don't offer (or walking around barefoot:D ). Never. If you want the patient to perceive a valuable product, your staff should only wear the best. I had Lasik over 6 years ago and it was the best thing I ever did for myself. With that said I have two plano pairs at work that I wear every hour I am there and I constantly receive compliments about them. They both have premium AR and transitions (1grey and 1 brown) and it helps when I recommend those features. The biggest mistakes we make are not wearing the products we sell.

[Dave Nelson]

I'm always amused by the people who claim to know as much as I do about glasses, by virtue of the fact they have "worn glasses for fourty years." I can't wait till I've been driving for 40 years so I can tell my auto mechanic I now know as much about fixin' cars as he does.
Glad I'm not dispensing hearing aids. Do young hearing instrument dispensers have to wear fake hearing aids to convince their clients that they "understand" having a hearing disability? ("Ohhh blue hearing aids. Do they come in chartreuse?")

[For-Life]

I'm always amused by the people who claim to know as much as I do about glasses, by virtue of the fact they have "worn glasses for fourty years." I can't wait till I've been driving for 40 years so I can tell my auto mechanic I now know as much about fixin' cars as he does.
Glad I'm not dispensing hearing aids. Do young hearing instrument dispensers have to wear fake hearing aids to convince their clients that they "understand" having a hearing disability? ("Ohhh blue hearing aids. Do they come in chartreuse?")

It is not showing that we understand glasses. It is showing off our dispenseries selection and keeping up to date to reflect that.

[mlm]

I used to have the opposite problem. When I wore contact lenses very part-time, every time I did an I&R training the patient would ask how I can teach them about contacts when I wear glasses. Since my job is 50% contact lenses (and 50% pretesting), I got tired of all the second-guessing.

Now I wear contacts full-time and talk to patients about my experiences with different brands. I keep 2 pairs of glasses at my desk to show people the need for back-up glasses (and show them what a minimal arts mounted with 1.74 lenses in -8.00 looks like).

I'm getting a new pair of Paul Smith glasses soon. Woo hoo!

[FVCCHRIS]

BUT I want everyone to wear glasses with the best options.

My question is do you all wear glasses to promote your best eyewear?

Yvette

It will be easier to "talk the talk" if you "walk the walk".:bbg: Chris.

[EyeManFla]

Geez...nothing inspires less confidence in a patient than an optician who will not wear glasses......or worse, one who wears contacts!

[k12311997]

I'm always amused by the people who claim to know as much as I do about glasses, by virtue of the fact they have "worn glasses for fourty years."

my response to that in 40 years even if you got glasses every year, and since you've been coming here for ten years and I know you haven't, that would have been 40 pairs of glasses. I deal with that in less than a week and I've been doing this for 10 years.

[Jubilee]

Geez...nothing inspires less confidence in a patient than an optician who will not wear glasses......or worse, one who wears contacts!

It depends... our practice is 50% contacts, and our Doctor is considered a CL specialist. We also have patients who want our opinion on what we think about certain types of lenses, what the expect with certain rx's and the knowledge from someons besides just the doctor.

I occasionaly wear contacts, and I keep a pair of glasses at work for my extended near vision and computer work. I am not ready for bifocals yet, since I don't know anyone making a +50 add and I am only slightly farsighted....in one eye ;)

I did recently order a new frame, and have a coupon to try some lenses with the Kodak CleAR. So we will see if I wear those more.

[T KNIGHTON]

Glasses are a must in our office. How can a dentist relate to his patients if has no teeth. I also have greater success selling anti reflective coatings when wearing glasses. also wearing your high end frames helps sell those frames.

[cocoisland58]

I think maybe optical shops get sick of the turn over and stop giving out free pairs until the employee sticks around a while...

We don't ever do freebies for employees. Our policy is you can have as many pairs as your little heart desires at cost plus ten percent. Works for me.

[Chris Ryser]

LOL! I suppose their employees are supposed to only promote getting corrective surgery and not wearing glasses! :hammer:

Wrong........................they should wear ugly badly fitting glasses in that case..............so patients do not want to look like them, and spend theyre thousands of $ for corrective surgery. :D

[Happylady]

I rarely wear my glasses to work. I wear my contacts almost all the time. We sell contacts, too.

I would wear glasses more often if I could find some I think look good on me. I just don't look good in today's styles. I can't wear rectangles and I can't find a plastic frame that looks good on me. Rimless styles make me look old.

I have several pairs but I don't love any of them so I don't wear them to work.

[RGC_man]

I worked for company without any staff discount, so they started wearing glasses from their rivals saying they couldn't afford anything else. The bosses soon gave everyone a good discount.