Words

I say deceptively simple because it was filled with sincere sentiments, infectious harmonies, and was commercially successful. In his unmistakably recognizable signature falsetto voice, brother Barry observed, “It’s only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away.”

And so it is with an eye care professional. While many preliminary things are also important – things like appearance, experience, knowledge, the office environment – in the success or failure of the patient/professional relationship, once an ECP says, “Good morning, how may I help you?” all he or she has left is words. And while eye care professionals are not there to technically win the patient’s heart, in many ways they are. After all, the professional is seeking to establish trust and credibility in order that the patient will accept his or her recommendations; and the dispenser has a very limited time to achieve that lofty goal. Choose your words wisely.

Notice that even in the above example of a typical greeting, words were wisely chosen. What if the greeting had been, “Good morning, may I help you?” That greeting would give the potential patient the opportunity to reply with a no. “No thank you, I’m just looking.” But asking how may I help you will stimulate more interaction. Generally speaking, 90% of the questions you ask your patients should be open-ended questions – questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no.

Perfect is a powerful word. For years I have urged opticians to use this singularly effective word to increase patient acceptance and satisfaction when it comes to progressive lenses. Imagine the following scenario: You place the glasses on your patient’s face and say, “Don’t worry, you’re not going to be able to see for a second. There are plastic decals on these lenses to make sure that I measured them correctly and that the lab made them to our specifications.”

As you close your eye and say look here…now here…in a hushed yet audible voice you say, “Perfect!”

As you remove the decals and make any minor adjustments, the patient is awaiting her perfectly measured, manufactured, and adjusted eyeglasses. What if instead of “perfect,” the patient heard, “Look here…oh the reading area is a bit low; let me fix that for you.” First, the patient is wondering why you have to “fix” her $600 glasses, and in her mind, every time she has to raise her head to bring an object into focus, it’s because you made the progressives too low.

With apologies to any optometrists who read this, is it better at one…or two?

1. “Studies show that these Acme brand lenses are the best in the industry?”
   

2. “I’ve tried at least half-a-dozen different brands, and I have to say that I prefer these Acme lenses over all the others. They provide the sharpest and clearest vision I’ve ever experienced.”

I hope you agree that #2 is far superior to number #1. Why? The simple word “I” makes it so. Whenever you can use first-person language to describe the efficacy of your products, patient acceptance levels will soar.

Using the right words to craft effective questions can literally make or break your success as an eye care professional. Here are a few classics: Where did you get your last pair of glasses? This one gets answered fairly quickly, and must be followed with, “How come you didn’t go back there?” When you ask those two questions, the next step is shutting your mouth and listening…no…really listening. You are not listening with the intent to reply, you are listening with the intent to understand. At that point, you have unique insight into what caused such patient dissatisfaction that the patient switched eye care providers. Another important question to ask is whether or not a patient has ever had to return to the examining doctor for a “re-examination.” This one is a little tricky and you should experiment with your own words to come up with effective verbiage. Finding out that there is a pattern of non-acceptance of prescriptions alerts the optician to the necessity of trial framing the patient. This could save you hundreds of dollars in unnecessary remakes.

Years ago in my first management position, my regional manager was on my back because my office’s accounts receivables was much higher than my apparently more experienced colleagues in our district. After speaking with him for a few minutes we decided the words I and my team members were using to conclude the dispensing process were the main culprit when it came to my store’s unacceptably high receivables. The words we had been using went something like, “That comes to a total of $453. Would you like to pay for that or leave a deposit?” Changing that to, “That comes to a total of $453…will that be cash or charge?” reduced our accounts receivable by 50% almost overnight! Ah, the power of words.

Sometimes when it comes to words the reason we are not effective is that we have never learned the right words to use in a given situation. In a recent leadership seminar I was facilitating, I asked the attendees to raise their hand if they felt they deserved a raise. As you might suspect, nearly everyone raised a hand. Then I asked how many people had actually asked their boss for a raise in the last few months. Not one hand was raised. I felt obliged to share with the attendees powerful words I learned from one of my colleagues at Rockhurst University, Jordan Davis. Jordan’s audio presentation, The Power of Persuasion, is filled with almost magically persuasive words and phrases. Here’s the phrase he created to confidently ask for a raise: I believe it’s time my salary be raised to match my efforts and accomplishments. Wow! After sharing that sentence, I asked how many people were going to ask for a raise in the next few weeks. Almost everyone raised a hand.

Of course sometimes the shoe’s on the other foot. As a manager or practice owner, has an employee ever asked for a raise, but doesn’t really deserve one? As their boss, how do you handle that uncomfortable scenario? Here’s a suggestion: Your raise will become effective as soon as you do. See, not only are they powerful, sometimes words can be funny too.