Sometimes something I have written about will
motivate you to send me comments or reactions. Once in
awhile it is anger, other times agreement. For better
or worse something that was written actually motivates
you to make a phone call, mail a letter, or fire off
an email. Whether positive or negative – agree or
disagree – I am always grateful and impressed when a
reader takes the time to engage in a dialogue and
interact about the positions we share as ECPs. It
tells me that you care.
Based on
that, I must assume that we all “care”
more about the issue(s) I wrote about in the previous
two months than anything else in our industry. They
lamented in general the goods and services we too
easily give away for “free,” and more specifically
encouraged all ECPs to proactively formulate a
strategic policy with regard to how they approach
getting involved with consumers who choose to purchase
their eyeglasses over the Internet.
In a few short weeks I received over 100 comments
– and I therefore thought it worthwhile to share
some of them with you. I even received notes from
optometrists and ophthalmologists. To summarize, 98.2%
of respondents “agreed” with my position – some
of you vehemently agreed; 1.8% disagreed on some
level. (All of the words in the remaining paragraphs
are the actual words of the ECPs who wrote to me. In
the interest of practicality, I have not bothered with
quotation marks, or identifying the writer’s last
name or location. I also decided to correct a few
misspelled words and grammatical errors – sorry it’s
the OCD kicking in.)
Gary said: Excellent article! If you say, "no
charge" enough times, you start to think that
what you do has no worth. You then become more
resentful of the people that you provide the service
to. Therefore, there really is a price - the price of
a happy staff and an efficient business. Anything that
is provided for free ends up being abused and again
the price will be the more abbreviated service that
you will have to give to the good patients, for the
sake of those just stopping by for their
freebies!
Mark wrote, in part: At our Optical Shop, when a
patient takes up our professional time only to end the
transaction with a request to "write it
down," it drives me crazy. What we do is to tell
the patient that we don't give out that information
but we have a “Hold/Information” file and would be
happy to write it down and keep it for when they
return. Most people are embarrassed that they even
asked and politely leave. Others are offended and
rudely ask why. I have many stock answers. If they are
really rude, I usually tell them that this is not a
library and, after taking up my professional
time, I'm not going to make it easy for you to
purchase these exact frames for $5.00 less
somewhere else. If they're nice, I have the most
success for getting them to return to buy when I give
them enough information to shop the line, like tell
them it's a Prada women's plastic frame, and
impress upon them that our prices are very fair and
competitive and I will try and match anyone's price
for the same item.
Debbie shared: As an optician we have all had those
no charge circumstances come up everyday. We do charge
for some of the repairs that you mentioned in your
article but for the minor repairs we actually have a
donation jar to the children’s hospital and we match
the donations at the end of the year. At least it
makes me feel better that the money is going to a good
cause. Customer's actually love the idea & don’t
mind putting a few bucks in. You get what you pay for
or purchase over the Internet. Most people do
appreciate the service that you provide for them.
Barry was certainly entitled to his opinion: I
strongly disagree with your position. It was very
broadly-brushed. It wouldn't work for me (no Doc,
No Insurance, no "carrot" other than my
"convenience" to the neighborhood.) Methinks
a rethink would better express your true intentions.
Tommy emailed: In my office, I now attach a memo to
every glasses and contacts lens prescription, with a
list of services and value-added services provided by
my office when you purchase materials through us, and
list of services not included when you choose not
to. I think that a mixture of pre-warning,
awareness, shame, and a feeling of possible future
abandonment can keep orders in house. For now, I
have a menu of service prices for glasses purchased
elsewhere, but I plan to stop servicing outside
glasses all together in the future. I look forward to
the next installments in your series and getting more
ideas on this important topic.
Dr. Dan said: I loved your editorial in the May
2010 EyeCare Professional. Thank you for
eloquently stating what many of us have been
thinking. ODs are the slowest learners
sometimes....
Colleen was fired up: Oh don’t get me started! I
have to deal with walk-ins, carrying in printouts from
online eyewear suppliers, looking to try them on
before they order online! Thank God for my loyal
clients who remain and refer. That’s the name of the
game now! In fact I’ve stopped any advertising
except for yellow pages. Only when we Opticians
collectively treat our profession as it IS….EXPERTS
IN ALL THINGS OPTICAL, will we receive what we DEMAND,
respect and proper compensation. Money paid for
service is an exchange of energy, nothing more. When
we are always giving away our talent, we diminish its
worth. I read your monthly articles and always enjoy.
This one had me jumping out of my dispensing seat
yelling…..”HECK YEAH! FINALLY, somebody says it
like it is in these times of change!
Dr. BP said: …In my opinion, ECPs will keep on
dishing out "No Charge" until they learn to
respect their optical skills and know how and
learn to put value on what they do to earn a living.
In my office, I charge $10.00 for taking a pupillary
distance to patients who request eyeglasses
prescription that they will bring someplace to buy
their eyewear. Additionally, I tell them measuring a
PD is really the responsibility of the person who is
filling the prescription. It is a risky endeavor, but,
as a player of the optical industry, I have to risk
losing patient in order that optical business does not
go to the dogs.
Stephen articulated his disagreement: I have been
an optician for over 50 years and have owned my own
dispensing business for more than half that time… I
was struck by the passion that the writer had for eye
care professionals and the welfare of our industry. I,
too, share this passion. I believe that the Internet
is a tool that cheapens eye care much like frozen TV
dinners cheapen home cooked meals. There must be some
reason why we started doing this [giving away free
things] in the first place, right? There’s got to be
a logical explanation for our unified counter-cultural
act of giving something away for free. Well folks,
there is. It benefits us; simple yet true. It is worth
it for us to provide these things to our clients (and
non-clients). Not only are these services implicitly
included in the mark-up prices of our products, but
they are also a form of advertising. Especially for
smaller businesses, these services can be crucial to
maintaining a solid client base. We could collect the
$10, $15, or even $25 for services rendered, but we
would just turn around and spend that money on other
forms of advertisement. Now, I’m not entirely
opposed to the idea of reframing the way we as ECPs
operate. It may behoove us to implement an alternative
method of advertising – perhaps one that utilizes
the very source of our grief (the Internet). The
writer of “Food for Thought” states that he plans
to explore how ECPs can “tactfully and skillfully
deny your services.” I beg to change our paradigm.
Let us shift our motives slightly and explore how we
can tactfully and skillfully create clients from
non-clients, without jeopardizing the integrity of our
profession. Thank you, Anthony Record, for bringing
this very important issue to the forefront of our
minds and creating the space for us to discuss it. I
hope it generates positive and fruitful changes.
Finally, Kate chimed in: Kudos, kudos,
kudos! I have been practicing many of the things
you’ve suggested in my practice for the last several
years. AND (you’d be proud of me) I have been
charging a reprocessing fee for doctor’s remakes.
When eyewear started to hit the $800-$1,000 mark, I
began using a sales agreement and warranty form that
the patient/client signs when they order their
eyewear. We go over our warranty, remake policies,
etc. Among the various things that we mention, is
the charge to remake a pair of lenses when the doctor’s
office issues a remake RX. I have had no
resistance from this charge from my clients. The
only blowback that I’ve gotten is from one referring
M.D. that has chosen to let his “tech” do the
refractions for the past several years. He mildly
suggested that he was reluctant to send his patients
to me because of this charge. Apparently, one of
my clients charged this doc the $35.00 he paid me
because the client knew who was responsible for the
error. After 38 years in this business (24 of which
have been as a business owner) I’m glad to see one
of my fellow brethren with the nerve to say that we
need to start charging for our labors.
