Wwyd?

[drk]

Just happened...

(Optician is doing a CL training, I'm in her station)

Walk in, new person, 50-ish, white female: "Hi, I just wanted to look at glasses".

Receptionist: "OK, the ladies are over there, there, there, there, and there..."

Lady: "Thanks".

(DrK on alert because walk-ins just don't happen that often in this location. Doesn't fit the racial profile...kidding, but you know when things don't look right. Not likely a shoplifter.)
(DrK notices taking selfies. Selfies are weird, but OK.)
(DrK now notices she slyly is taking photos of insides of temples before putting back on board. DrK is not happy. DrK knows, though, that he deliberately puts tags over the frame name, and this showroomer is only getting eyesizes and color codes! But still...)

DrK: "I'm sorry, you are not allowed to take pictures of the numbers on the glasses."

Lady: "Oh! I just can't see myself with glasses on so I take pictures."

Drk: "Yeah, but you can't take pictures of the numbers on the frames."

Lady: "Oh, sorry." And leaves quickly and sits out in her car for an inordinately long period of time.


Showroomer.

[Kwill212]

Or optical employee elsewhere, seeing what the competition is doing.

[CME4SPECS]

She was probably writing a negative review on you! Several years ago I had a gal walk in, she said she was just looking for frames she liked so she could get them on line. Seriously?! I told her that I didn't offer those services, she barked at me and told me I was rude and went storming out the front door. A couple hours later I had a negative review on Yelp. That is the only negative review I have ever had.

[CME4SPECS]

I have people take selfies quite often, sometimes I will take pics for them. I think it is beneficial for people, not everyone can see what the frames look like on. They also can send the pics via text and get hubby's or whoever's opinion before they make the purchase. It is rare that someone takes pics of the frame info, but it does happen. When I have seen them doing it, I tell them to just save the pic and I will know what frame it is when they come back. The reaction will pretty much tell you what they have in mind. Then you know if it is time to give them a swift kick in the *** out the door.

[optical24/7]

I have people take selfies quite often, sometimes I will take pics for them. I think it is beneficial for people, not everyone can see what the frames look like on. They also can send the pics via text and get hubby's or whoever's opinion before they make the purchase. It is rare that someone takes pics of the frame info, but it does happen. When I have seen them doing it, I tell them to just save the pic and I will know what frame it is when they come back. The reaction will pretty much tell you what they have in mind. Then you know if it is time to give them a swift kick in the *** out the door.

+1

[waynegilpin]

I have people take selfies quite often, sometimes I will take pics for them.

Ah yes. Those cell phones kicked the people selling Smart Mirrors to the curb.

I opened a bottle of champagne the day the Smart Mirror fried its motherboard and stopped working. I thought is was an overpriced waste of space.

[Elvis Is Alive]

Our practice carries only independent frame lines. It greatly reduces the problem. We also won't carry any independent line that also sells directly online.

[DanLiv]

Our front desk greets everyone who walks in and asks them to sign-in with their name and contact info, queries them about any insurance, and pages an optician to assist them (unless they are here for clinic). Attentive service is not only an excellent theft-deterrent, but also freaks out showroomers. If they balk we insist we are not a public store and serve only our registered customers, which they are invited to become.

We have the privilege of being an out-of-the-way where everyone who walks in is either known to us or coming in to make an appointment, so those rare strangers are pretty clearly not interested in being customers and we have no compunction about turning them away. If your optical has frontage and regular foot traffic this is not a viable, you are by definition a showroom already, but hopefully you are able to make converts out of the looky-loos.

And as Elvis Is Alive said carrying product that isn't available online makes showrooming pointless. Plus it has the added benefit of making you more valuable to your customers by providing product they can't get just anywhere. That's why I don't carry Ray-Ban or Oakley or other sought-after commodity brands, because no matter how much I pride myself in my service, if I sell an Oakley it's exactly the same thing they could probably have found online for less. It's hard to fault them for wanting the exact same commodity cheaper. I do it myself, browse the showrooms at Best Buy, then Google and buy the same model online if its cheaper.

[KrystleClear]

I get people asking me to give them all the frame information of whatever frame they liked. I just say we don't give that out but I can write it down and put it in their chart so when they return to buy these glasses, I know what pair it was. This usually settles it. I'm not confrontational enough to try to stop them from taking photos of the frames though. Honestly though, we mostly sell "old people" frames from Kasperek and those aren't super prevalent online.

And as DanLiv said, brands like Oakley and Rayban are VERY easy for patients to try on in your optical and then just order online, likely much cheaper. There are sites selling them at rockbottom prices and it's hard to compete. If it were up to me, we wouldn't carry those lines but alas it is not. Had a patient try on our Women's Rayban suns and really liked the Jackie Ohh. Two weeks later she came in with that frame purchased elsewhere wanting me to adjust it.

[drk]

How did THAT go? She theft-of-serviced you twice?