Why They Walk
Feature in June 2006 LabTalk
Lab Operations - June
2006
Why They
Walk
By Seth J.
Bookey
Everyone
likes paying less–and when it comes to lenses–that includes
optometrists and optical retailers. However, saving money is no bargain if jobs
are coming in chipped, scratched, too late, or in the wrong prescription.
Failing to relate to a customer’s dissatisfaction, or being completely
unresponsive, can ensure that a lab customer will walk.
As one optical store manager, Susan
Presti of Pearle Vision in Ozone Park, N.Y., said, “When you get to a
point where you’re ordering a special job and you’re holding your
breath and you’re saying a silent prayer, hoping it will get done on time,
that’s a pretty good indication that you’re having trouble with your
lab.”
Getting to Know
You
“We wanted someone who connects
with you and is not part of a conglomeration of labs–someone that makes a
connection with you individually,” said Harold Stried, owner of Family
Vision Care in Marion, Ohio. “We like that our new lab is privately owned,
and that they are into building business and relationships, compared to our old
lab’s complacency,” he added. Stried changed labs more than two
years ago, the main factors being service and his sales rep.
“Our previous lab was part of a
big group. I worked with them for 15 years, and I finally felt like I
wasn’t getting very much individual attention at all. My dissatisfaction
was in not being able to get someone to come in and talk to us about new
products. We wouldn’t see anyone for eight months at a time,” he
noted. With his new lab, Stried said his rep comes in every five to six weeks,
allowing Stried’s staff to get to know the rep as well, and allowing the
rep a way of understanding the dispensary’s needs. “I also have
access to him at any time,” he added. “If there’s a difficult
job, there’s someone I can call who outlines all of my
options.”
For Joe Slapnicher, OD,
owner of Rivertown Eye Clinic in Hastings, Minn., feeling left out of the loop
led to a lab change for him. “The new lab includes me, not just the
opticians, in what’s going on. They are calling more often, too,” he
said. Slapnicher relates a good example of being in the loop. With his old lab,
second-pair sales got a 50-percent discount, but only on the same prescription.
With his new lab, the second-pair discount is only 30 percent, but can be used
for a patient’s family members. Knowing the new lab offers this pricing
has allowed him to bring it up as a sales initiative at a recent staff meeting,
since he is now aware of the lab’s policy. While pricing is a major
consideration for Dennis Miller, OD, of Miller & Miller Optometrists,
VanWert, Ohio, being stonewalled by this lab was his main reason for changing
labs. “They could have given us better service, but the rep definitely
should have returned phone calls about
problems.”
Not connecting with the
lab was also a problem for Susan Presti, manager of a Pearle Vision store in
Ozone Park, N.Y. “A lab we used to use had a lot of service issues. I
didn’t feel like we were getting the attention we needed once the problems
were known to them. They passed the buck a lot. I need to have a person I can
call. Now, there are two key people I can call who will give me an answer.
It’s comforting to know they’re there, watching out backs,”
Presti said.
Now, Presti also has a lab
rep visiting once a month. “He’ll do a training about new
products’ benefits so we can educate the patients. My rep knows my staff,
and they know him and can call him.” She also noted that while her old lab
used to send a lot of literature about new products, she appreciates the live
demos, saying work is too busy for her to read all the new product
information.
No Time to
Waste
Service
is also a big issue to Presti. “Our old lab had competitive pricing, but
service and turnaround time is key,” she said. “We are a high-volume
store. I cannot afford to deal with a lab that is not giving me the service that
I need. I don’t have time to send back jobs that are incorrect or bad
quality.” Kelly Reynolds, optician and office manager for Insightful
Eyewear, Troy, Ohio, echoed similar concerns. “We’re pretty patient,
but don’t’ have time to babysit labs. We’re basically a
two-person facility here with the doctor. I only have time to service my
patients,” she said. “We have no problem with lab costs as long as
the lab keeps up its end of the bargain,” Reynolds continued. “We
cannot wait three weeks for a job. Most of the time, our problems with the lab
are the time factor such as when you have breakage on a job that sets you back a
week. Sometimes, labs haven’t called us about lens choices, or they
didn’t get the frame and didn’t tell us for three
weeks.”
Reynolds noted that unlike
her previous optical job, which dealt mostly with simple Medicaid Rx jobs,
Insightful does a lot of work with rimless and AR, and more complex jobs. In her
one year on the job at Insightful, she has used as many as six labs, and is
still having problems with quality
work.
“It’s been frustrating.
I haven’t had to deal with this in a long time. One of the labs I
recommended was the one that lost me three families. Once it took three months
to get a pair of glasses right. These people pay a lot of money for their
glasses. I want for my patients what I would want for myself. I wouldn’t
accept frames or lenses that were scratched up.” While human error
accounts for some of the errors in Rx or time delays, Reynolds noted that her
practice uses DVI for ordering, and that 65 to 70 percent of their jobs are with
VSP, so these problems have persisted despite error reduction through remote
ordering.
A responsive service rep can
make all the difference. For Pamela Krieger, owner of Mt. Sinai Optical in Mt.
Sinai, N.Y., she changed labs mostly because she wanted to keep the relationship
with the sales rep, who changed jobs. When the rep switched labs, she was able
to offer Krieger better pricing, but, Krieger noted, “Because of her
follow-through and attention she gives us as an account, I would pay even more.
She comes to do training, and the staff knows her. She stops in at least once a
month.” Krieger added that she has used most of the labs on Long Island
(where her dispensary is located) and that she prefers to stick with one lab
whenever possible.
Bob Marsh, owner of
Marsh Optical in Jamaica Estates, N.Y., uses five different labs, and notes that
he has switched mostly due to service problems. “I like to get the best
from each lab,” he said. “Quality is the most important thing. Some
labs are more expensive than others, and sometime, after a rep comes in, I will
try them, but I always go back to the regular lab. It pays to have lab
options.” Marsh noted that common service problems for him have been
mistakes on the phone when placing orders, and not getting credits for returns.
“Inconsistency in customer service is a big concern,” he
added.
While good service is a major
concern to most ECPs when picking a new lab, for some, price is still a major
consideration. For Greg Call, president of Eye Time Optical, with two locations
in Minnesota, getting a better discount was his reason for recently switching
labs. “With the economy going the way it has, we found that our patients
were beginning to watch their dollars more closely,” Call said.
“There were many more patients that were comparing prices. We had to look
more closely at our bottom line. Price was the reason that we switched, without
losing the service, guarantees and quality.” Overall, ECPs are most
concerned with timely service and quality. As Insightful Eyewear’s
Reynolds said, “I’m the first one to hear about problems. This can
put my name on the line, and in this industry, your reputation follows
you!”
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Posted: Thu - June 1, 2006 at 09:34 PM