When researching a first or new lab for your practice, on
what basis does a practice owner make this important choice?
My mantra for judging a lab is my Q.C.P.S. system: Quality
of the finished Rx, speed and ease of receiving Credits,
competitive Price, and Speed of Service.
Every optical practice I have visited during my
twenty-five years in this industry has wanted to use labs
that deliver a quality product consistent with the order
placed. Every optical lab is run by humans, and humans may
strive for perfection, but none of us produces a perfect
product consistently. Therefore, a practice chooses a lab
that usually gets the Rx right the first time and delivers
it quickly. But the real competition among competent labs is
based on the 15% or less of jobs that need help getting out
the laboratory door. Are errors corrected quickly and
without hassle, and are returns for credit processed
expeditiously?
Many good labs choose to focus on quality over speed. I
believe that delivery time for these labs may take three
days to two weeks for uncut lenses with AR added, and other
jobs may take 2-3 days to deliver, but almost 98% of the
jobs are received right the first time by the practice.
Practices with a client base that can accept deliveries of a
week or two appreciate that the internal lab inspections
catch most errors, and returns for redo are mainly handled
internally.
Credits are the bane of the industry, and there is no lab
that advertises how it handles them. The crediting process
uses valuable time to process returns, and track credits,
which might otherwise be lab time and sales time used to
maintain practice profits. From the manufacturing side,
every warranty credit processed is an attack on the Lab's
bottom line.
Price is usually the first thing mentioned when a
practice is debating about choosing a lab. "Send us
your price list, and we will compare it to the prices of
others before we decide which lab to use." But the
published price list may not give you, the optical
manager/owner of a practice, all the information you need.
Ask for one, but then ask for a manager or sales rep of the
lab to contact you about negotiating better than list
prices.
If you have a track record of annual lab business, give
that information to the various labs you are considering. If
you are a new practice, give each lab an estimate of that
volume. And don't forget, unless you are leaving a lab
because of bad service or quality, tell your current lab
that you are considering other labs and ask them to compete
for your business. The lab will appreciate your honesty, and
will much prefer to keep you as a customer than to find out
from your diminished ordering that you have "gone to
the competition."
I can almost bet you dollars to donuts that at least one
of the labs you contact will want to differentiate
themselves from other labs on one or more of the Q.C.P.S.
parameters to compete for your business. Once you know the
best pricing a lab is willing to offer you, the warranties,
crediting ease and speed, and the speed and quality of
service they offer, then you are better able to compare what
Laboratory vendor might be best for you.
Some practices fear "putting all their eggs in one
basket." They say, "what if the lab falters -
another lab will not give me the service I expect." I
believe that this is a false fear. Any good lab is willing
to compete for volume customers.
So each practice determines on what basis it will choose
the labs it deals with. Some practices avoid change and
stress their lab loyalty, some avoid negotiating pricing or
policies, some take pride in shopping for the best deal, and
some like to deal with only one, or very few, labs at any
given time. These lab relationships benefit both the
competitive edge of the practice and the sales volume of the
lab. Every lab has customer relationships that reflect all
these types of practices. The lab, a good lab, values each
one of them.
