The Optical Vision Site

Dealing With Patient Requests For Contact Lens Prescriptions

Eye docs and optical professionals are constantly struggling with competitive online contact lens sales. Refusing to give Rx’s for contact lenses can make a patient frustrated, confused and a little angry as well it might be against the law: I recently read From The Student Doctor Forum, not to say it’s against the law not to give the Rx and they were questioning the optometrist.

Hey all,

I need some advice/opinion on my experience with an optometrist today. I am a resident in a different field so thought I would ask you guys.

So I went in for a routine eye exam and needed new glasses and contacts because my vision has slightly worsened since my last exam. The optometrist gave me the prescription for my glasses but then refused to give me a prescription for my contacts. Basically she gave me a pair of contacts from a particular brand and said i would have to follow up with her in 1-2 weeks to decide whether I want that brand and if her exam of my eyes would indicate it would be safe for me to use them. Only then would she give me a prescription for contacts for that brand. If I do not like those contacts, I would have to try another brand and follow up with her again.

Is this routine practice or am I missing something? I thought we were supposed to get our contact prescription and we can choose what brand we want to buy from. Also if I did get a contact prescription from her for the brand that I tried, can I use it to get the contacts from a different brand instead or are prescriptions written for a specific brand. Please help!

This is probably not the only patient that is confused about contact lens scripts and types. From what I read- The doctor or staff did not adequately explain contact lens types and prescriptions to the patient to their satisfaction. The doctor did not tell the patient hey, here is your RX, and you have a choice to get whatever type of contact lens you prefer. They may or may not fit, they may or may not be the best for your eye health, they may work the best for you, but it is your choice to come back to get the best possible contact lens for your prescription and the safety and health of your eyes.

I went to Optiboard and asked them how they handle patient Rx Requests:

• There is a difference not only between the Acuvue Advance and Acuvue Oasys, but between the Oasys and Air Optix. Basic measurements, such as base curve, diameter, thickness, and power parameters can differ. The actual material composition including wetting agents are different. What feels good and works well for the the 10 minutes in the office may not continue to do well a week out. The combination with patient/lens/solution could cause comfort issues in a few days due to high amount of protein deposits, etc.
• Its quite possible that even though your old lenses felt fine to you, the doctor saw some internal signs of irritation or overwear.. thus the desire to see if a different combination might be better.
• This is all part of the reason why there are extra fees involved with contact lenses. It isn’t simply tossing a dart at a brand and handing them out. There is some art and science to it, and extra steps above a routine exam. How come no one ever questions a follow up to see if a medication is doing its job, but do in regards to contact lenses? *sigh*
• I understand that your vision changed, and that you need spectacle and contact lenses, updated to your new power. What was the reason for changing to a different lens type/brand? Was it because of power limitations, lens discontinuation, pending presbyopia, overwear, oxygen deprivation , tear exchange, occupational needs, complaint about existing contact lens????? All of the factors listed above could be a reason for a refitting.
• All brands do not fit the same, just like a small T-shirt in one brand doesn’t fit the same as another brand, nor do they behave the same in your eye or environment as your present contacts(brand) do. I feel that there is some things left out of your observations about what transpired, or you didn’t like what you heard at your exam, or didn’t listen, or didn’t ask enough questions.
• Since the brand is part of the prescription, it is illegal for a contact lens seller to deliver anything other than the written product. Contact lens manufacturers and contact lens sellers lead patients into believing that they have the definitive choice in selecting their contact brands, but this is untrue. When you see an ad for Acuvue contacts, it is identical to what you experience when you see an ad for Vasotec. If you get a prescription for heart medication, you cannot use it to get a different heart medication. Contacts are no different.
• When the doctor writes or signs the space on the Rx that says “Brand necessary”, only the exact brand is acceptable. If the doctor signs without specifying “Brand Necessary”, a substitution is acceptable when the generic and the brand item are substantively identical. There are some rebranded contacts that are identical to those available as a name brand product and these may be substituted for the like item. It is not acceptable to substitute a lens that is not identical. For example: a patient may not purchase Acuvue lenses on a Soflens prescription. Does that make better sense?

I hope you got some ideas on how other eyecare professionals are dealing with patient requests for CL prescriptions

Resources

Federal Trade Commission- The Contact Lens Rule: a Guide For Prescribers and Sellers

Texas Department of State Health Services- Contact Lens Dispensing

What Are Your Eyes Worth To You?

I would rather have a cup of coffee than to see and look better

The viral campaign has begun on the high cost of eyewear and lenses. You have all read about the Today Show article plus all the other articles on why pay more. Then I came across this other article on What Are Your Eyes Worth To You about measuring your PD.

‘So what should we, the customers, do about this? Well, first, you can ask your eye doctor to measure your PD for you – they might not, but it is worth a shot. Second, you can measure it yourself, by a variety of methods. Third and finally, you can ask opticians to do it, and then walk out if they are unwilling to measure your PD, even for a fee.  (Read the links, the article and the comments) The article goes on to say you can walk out and order from Zenni Optical.

Conversely, if someone is balking at the price of their eyewear and or wants to take their PD online, I would ask them ‘If they think their eyes are only worth $8.00?’ What is worth more- a $100 purse or better vision? Would you rather have your eyes/face look good all day or your purse look good occasionally? Would you rather have your eyewear dispensed by a licensed and educated professional or a non-entity that you have no idea if they were flipping burgers yesterday. Are you saying your eyes are worth the price of 2 cups of coffee?

Here is what I think- the very human reaction is to be defensive – try turning it around and be proactive and ask your patients- Tell me ‘What Are Your Eyes Worth To You’.

9 Tips On Charging For Services

Photo:Damian Yerrick

One topic that has come up over the last 20 years, is what to give away and what to charge for in eyecare offices. Today with the consumer increasingly shopping online and coming into the office and wanting free adjustments, free nosepads, free advice, the question always arises- Should you charge?

OptiBoard had some some great tips on how and when to charge for nosepads, adjustments and all the little things that can nickel and dime an eyecare office. (Thanks all Optiboarder’s for these great ideas)

Tip #1

• Let’s say you sold a pair of nose pads for $5. You made $5. You are ahead of the game by $5. You sell 10 pairs of nose pads and now you are at $50. So now you have some money to buy a pizza for the staff. Isn’t that nice? Now, some clients (and we are talking about clients getting the nose pads for glasses they bought from you) may not like this and they may go somewhere else. That client spent, let’s say, $300 on glasses from you. That means you have to sell 60 pairs of nose pads to make up for that one client who left you. And that is if no others leave you for similar reasons. Now, thinking that if this client buys a new pair from you every 3 years at $300, then over a 30 year span, that is 10 pairs of glasses = $3000. So now you have to sell 600 pairs of nose pads to make up for that one lost client.

Tip#2

• If a pat. has purchased eyewear from us, we don’t charge. If a pat. has not purchased eyewear from us, we charge. The only exception to the latter is adjustments. Here are some opinions on this topic: http://www.ecpmag.com/1webmagazine/2…e-services.asp

Tip #3

• Another solution is you could record the name of the person getting the freebies. If they come in three times (non-customer) and never buy, or if you recognize a different frame in between, you can mention that the other times were freebies and this time you are charging. Also, always tell them the fee before you do the service, not after.

Tip #4

• We price our frames and lenses to include essentially a lifetime of nosepads, temple tips etc. We let our patients know this so that they don’t even think twice about where they are going when they need anything at all remotely having to do with their eyes or glasses. We MUST always be the only place they think of going to for help.

Tip#5

• You would be surprised how many people come back to lay down $500 because of a free pair of 50 cent nose pads and a good cleaning.

Tip #6

• We live in a tourism area and charge a $10 donation to our charity. We do get a few per year that want me to do it for free and they then need to wait until they get home. Our clients we don’t charge but they put in more money than anyone.

Tip#6

• I work in an ophthalmology office. The Drs. stress customer service, and every couple years, they have us watch the video “Give em the pickle” (you can watch it on youtube. It’s from Farrell’s ice cream parlour). We don’t give away the store, but we make sure we keep the patient happy. Our giveaways usually consist of nosepads, adjustments, and an occasional frame case.

Tip #7

• In this day of “discount” chain & Internet customers you have to teach your patients and those who are not the value of their purchase. you charge for your SERVICE & TIME for non-customers, explaining that it is a free service only to your customers who have purchased the glasses from you for as long as they have those glasses. MAKE SURE your own customers are informed at time of dispensing of this valuable lifetime service, which is included in the cost of those glasses. They have paid for your service, make sure they know it. We all like to get value for our money spent!

Tip#8

• Ultimately I started using a method that Chris Ryser brought up some years back, we would do the repairs and charge it to an account that we set up in the system and then I would zero it out. The Majority of patients would look at the receipt and be perplexed sometimes they would complain that they shouldn’t be charged anything. I would tell them that the service costs money we just choose not to charge them for it as a courtesy. You would be amazed at how well that worked. I think Chris said it came from a jeweler that would do that with watch batteries. I like Craigs idea of having them donate to your favorite charity as most people won’t complain about it and the charity gets money so it’s win win for everyone. It’s always nice to let people know that it’s not FREE, and that you don’t think they should pay for it if you do provide it at no charge.

Tip #9

• This problem came to my attention about a year ago when we started having many patients from other local optical stores come in for adjustments and what I refer to as consultations. I decided that since these other practice owners were not paying the salaries of our well educated staff, we would start charging non patients a $10 optical service fee. This fee applied to any glasses not purchased in our office and included taking PD’s, adjustments, minor repairs such as nosepads, temple tips and screw replacements. We also charge this fee if we have to analyze and troubleshoot glasses filled elsewhere. This fee covers 1 year of these services and we give them a business card with the expiration date and $20 coupon towards their next eyewear purchase in our office. This policy lets patients know these services have value, but the discount rewards the person that is going to be a loyal new patient to the practice.

Frames Data – Success Stories from Eyecare Professionals

We at the Optical Vision Site are always interested in the competitions and freebies  going on in the optical industry. Our main reason  is to see if there is something we want to pass on to our readers and if provides new information that we should know about. Sometimes we find that a competition will refocus us on an important topic – Frames Data did this for me i.e. using the tools we have for better customer service.

Frames Data has been around for a long time and many of us use it as our “bible” of frame reference. Even thought they are not new they have been running a competition that we think is interesting as it asks people what they love about Frames Data. It is a great way of polling the customer and creating customer involvement in their product! (Each month during the promotion a winning story is selected and the winner receives $100 and there will be a  $1000 winner at Vision Expo West in October.)

When we did our recent competition and poll one of the areas our optical readers wanted more on was success stories so I checked out the Frames Data competition with this in mind. It is good to look at the tools we have that help us be more efficient taking care of business and especially taking care of customers. One of the ways I would suggest using this particular tool is for customer service and going that extra mile that maybe a big chain optical, locked into specific eyewear brands would not do. Just like Eve Hancock of Brillen Optical, Fredericksburg, TX says:

“I have been using Framesdata since 1980. My optical is very service oriented. Frames data has helped us find things for patients other opticals wouldn’t even attempt to look up for them. Patients are always impressed with the information and visuals we have to offer through our hard copy and now that we can show them other color options online, they love it even more and so do we. I will never give up our subscription to Frames Data. We use it everyday.

Here is another example of dong what a chain optical would not do from Mark Dawson of Martinsburg Optical, Martinsburg, WV

“Back in 2000 a very particular customer entered our store looking for a very specific frame type. After being turned away at all the major chainstores she remebered our store on an obscure side street. She was very direct and knew what she wanted and wasn’t going to settle for anything less. I said “oh they don’t make very many of those anymore” and with disappointment she began to walk out! When I said Wait!!! I’ll get my Frames Data book and we’ll find one., And we did!”

Simple but good success stories. For more information on “Why I love My Frames Data” clink on this link.

Optical Comments Are Rewarding – Update

Thanks to everyone who already commented on Monday’s post Comments are Rewarding – for You and Your Optical Business. We received really helpful feedback which will help us improve our optical blog. Plus we got some good ideas for future posts and projects.

Nearly all the comments were positive (sigh of relief) but not all of them so we know we have to make a few changes and we will do our best to address those. Gift cards will be emailed next week to verified subscribers who made a comment and we will announce the $50 winner.

Picture: Courtesy "Ugly Betty"

Here is a quick overview of all the comments, the good, the bad and the ugly! There was a large range of preferences and almost every category was mentioned. We have a long list to review so these are just the most frequently mentioned.

Favorites:

• Marketing and Selling Strategies are definite favorite categories closely followed by new products, new eyewear and technology.
  
• Optical Vision Site Readers want to see more on selling strategies and success stories in private optical practice as well as more about lens performance in unbiased layman terms.

Improvement: We understand that you don’t want to read long articles that are “ads” for our optical sponsors and advertisers. We have some ideas on how to work on this. Some of you like the daily emails and others find it too many so we have to think on this some more!

Thanks again for your participation.

Comments are Rewarding – for You and Your Optical Business

The existence of  Internet and Social Media sites allows a lot more visibility of any comments your optical customer may make about an experience with your business. This makes it even more important to be aware of comments both positive and negative. Feedback from customers can be a helpful way of improving your eyecare services and for positive customer testimonials. Use customer feedback as the measure of performance, it is one of the Eleven Keys to Eyecare Customer Service.

Using optical customer complaints and handling them well can be tools to improving business and can even make an initially dissatisfied customer become an ambassador for your optical business.

Make a comment - get a gift card!

We would like your comments about the Optical Vision Site so that we can improve our service to you our readers and subscribers. As a little incentive and reward we will provide gift cards valued from $5 to $50 to verified subscribers that answer questions on this post. Great ideas get $50. (Comments have to be received before July 19, 2010)

Here are a couple of questions for starters but feel free to add any helpful comments:

Question 1: Posts and Articles – Which categories are you most interested in? e.g Customer Service, Eco Optical, Human Resources, Education etc. (See full list on the right of the page)

Question 2: Do you have a favorite topic that we do not cover enough or at all? If yes, what are we missing?

Question 3: What do you like best about theopticalvisionsite.com?

You can answer any or all of these questions in the comment box below or just make a  comment. Thanks for your feedback!

Yahoo Answers Consumers-Eye Damage From Wearing Magnifying Eyeglasses?

Lens Chic over at EyeOverHeard has been on a roll sending us little consumer eyecare questions, that you might want to address in your eyecare office. For once, Yahoo answered right!!

‘Recently I have made a habit of wearing magnifying eyeglasses. Like the kind that you can buy at pharmacy’s. I wear the lowest magnification, and when I take them off my eyes feel strained and I get a headache.

Can I suffer permenant damage from wearing these? Or will my eyes just re-adjust back to normal’?

Best Answer – Chosen by Asker

when I take them off my eyes feel strained and I get a headache.

So, why are you wearing them ?? If you are walking around with them just for the looks, that’s kinda dumb.

Your brain is telling you that your eyes aren’t comfortable with that…so stop doing it

Eyecare Patient Sign Offs On Policies And Warranties

Photo:farm4.static.flickr.com

I love Optiboard, they have all sorts of great information and for the record it’s free to join Optiboard and it’s fun to browse and participate in the forums. They just redid their forum format and it’s easier to use.

I happened upon this topic: Patient Warranties, Lens cleaning instructions, care of eyewear and think this is valuable eyecare customer service information that every eyecare office can use. Thank you Striders Wife and others who participated in this forum:

Striders Wife: I’ ve just in the last month finished a prototype of a receipt folder with our warranty/redo/cleaning instructions printed on it. It has a slot for my business card, and there’s no way someone could come back with “well, she never told me that.” I don’t like to suggest to people that something is going to go wrong with their glasses in the future, but it is important to have your policies in writing and accessible to the patient. It still needs to be fine-tuned and approved by all the docs, but here’s what I’ve got. I don’t mind sharing.

• Warranties The purchase of a new frame entitles you to a one-year warranty, against manufacturer’s defects and minor accidents. Should the damage be due to obvious abuse, warranty replacement will be at the discretion of the manufacturer. Applying superglue to a broken frame will void this warranty.
• Lenses with scratch-resistant and non-glare treatments will be covered under warranty for two years, or the life of the prescription.
• “Redo” Policy In accordance with our agreement with our lens supplier, we are allowed one “redo,” within 60 days of original purchase. This includes, but is not limited to, Dr. Rx changes, frame style changes, non-adapt lens style changes, or patient satisfaction. Any lenses fabricated after this “redo” will be at full price.
• Cleaning Suggestions- Always wet the lenses first, using an approved lens cleaner (not GLASS cleaner), then use a soft cotton cloth to dry the lenses. Tap water and a mild dish soap are acceptable methods of cleaning. Your cloth should be washed occasionally, either by hand or machine, then left to air-dry. Please do not use fabric softener. Refrain from using any type of paper product to clean your lenses. Even if your lenses are scratch-resistant, they are not scratch-proof. Paper towels or facial tissue will scratch the lenses. A clean, soft cotton cloth used exclusively for your glasses is best.

Another Idea;

On one side ours says,

• These lenses are scratch-resistant, not scratchproof. They are warranted for one year from date of purchase. This warranty covers scratches caused by ordinary wear. Scratches caused by abuse (concrete, knives, etc.) are not covered. Application of any agent except ordinary lens cleaners voids the warranty.

The other side says,

• This frame carries a one-year warranty from date of purchase. This warranty covers any manufacturer defect. This warranty does not cover loss,accident, or abuse. This frame is NOT suitable nor warranted for playing any sport – permanent eye damage and/or blindness can occur.

Another Idea From an Optician Who worked in another office:

• With every glasses dispense, they gave out a couple of PAGES (typed up very nicely, with full color graphics and pictures, on company letterhead) explaining glasses, frames, full warranty information for frame and lenses, including their scratch warranty, proper maintenance of specs, proper lens care, explaining micro-fiber cloths etc. It looked really great – extremely professional – much like what I’ve gotten when I’ve purchased expensive jewelry in the past.
• At the bottom, they would have each patient sign their warranty packet at dispense and take it with them. A copy was kept in the chart so that if there was ever a question of what was covered, or for how long, it was there in black and white. The dispensary manager I was talking to said that when they implemented that process, their remakes dropped “a noticeable amount” due to pt. inflicted damage to glasses. He also mentioned he felt it was easier to remedy problems down the road when things weren’t officially covered under warranty any longer. It gave the pt. a bit more ownership of their warranty process, and at least until they lost it, a much more comprehensive info sheet on not only how to properly care for eyeglasses, but how the practice would HELP them if/when they had a problem.
• While that system wouldn’t likely work in *every* practice, it struck me as very professional and not something I’d seen anyone else doing. A little information goes a LONG way!

Other Resources

• Eyecare Biz Giving Away Your Profits