High Plus Aspheric Lenticulars Available Again
About three months ago, Essilor and Signet Armorlite (AKA Essilor), the only major manufacturers of high plus aspheric lenticulars discontinued production both single vision and bifocals.
For those of you unfamiliar, high plus lenticulars have often been prescribed for patients with aphakia. Aphakia is a condition where a patient’s eye is missing the lens. Aphakia can occur as a from a congential defect, injury, or most often as a result of cataract surgery.
Used to obtain a steeper curve than would normally be possible while still fitting into a frame, the lenticular is formed by placing the higher curve known as the aperture within a flatter curve known as the carrier. The result is a “fried egg” appearance. The carrier permits a steeper-curve plus lens to be cut out and fit into the frame.
While it’s true that advances in surgery, implants, and contact lenses have virtually eliminated the need for high plus lenticulars, there is still a small percentage of patients, particularly among the very old and very young, not suitable for these options that can still benefit from lenticulars. Since there still is a need we’ve managed to locate an independent manufacturer.
Aspheric lenticulars are now available in single vision: CR-39, aspheric lenticular +14.00 to +20.00 base; and bifocal round seg 22s +14.00 and +16.00. Adds are available +2.50 to +3.50. More curves and add powers will be available within the coming weeks. Feel free to call with questions: 800.525.1274.
May Is Healthy Vision Month
In addition to May Day, May the Fourth (Star Wars Day), Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, and my wife’s birthday, May is also Healthy Vision Month. Millions of people live with undetected vision problems, eye diseases, and chronic conditions. Healthy Vision Month was created to promote eye health, the importance of eye exams for the early detection and treatment of various diseases, and proper eye safety practices.
Below is a list of conditions that can be uncovered during an eye exam.
Common Eye Diseases:
• Cataracts
• Glaucoma
• Macular Degeneration
• Retinal Detachment
• Dry Eye
• Corneal Degeneration
Systemic Diseases That Can Be Detected During An Eye Exam:
• Diabetes
• Hypertension – High Blood Pressure
• Hypercholesterolemia – High Cholesterol
• HIV/AIDS
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Graves Disease
• Herpes Simplex/Herpes Zoster infections
• Carotid Stenosis – a narrowing of the carotid artery and a risk factor for strokes
The NIH has put together a list of educational resources aimed an increasing awareness of eye health and related conditions here: http://www.nei.nih.gov/hvm/education/
Screwing Up: Your Chance To Shine
I recently came across this post on Google+.
Shocking service from an optician who has just sent me an email saying please don’t post negative things about us as it drives small businesses to the wall… then please get your act together and start delivering what you promise…
This optician chose not to shine. He failed to listen to his customer’s complaint and shifted blame, caring only about how her comments affected his business. Really? A better move would have been to apologize (even of the customer is off base), then offer to take conversation offline to make things right. If handled the right way, his screw-up could have turned into a positive opportunity for him and his business. Instead he has negative comments to deal with.
Customers expect consistency and usually something close to perfection. At the very least, they expect to get what they are promised. Sometimes in business we fail to meet expectations. Let’s face it, as Forrest Gump said, “it happens” and even the best of us screw up from time to time. Fortunately, screwing up can be your chance to shine. Not delivering on customer expectations can be a huge opportunity to showcase why the customer made the right decision in choosing you to begin with and why she should not only continue to do business with you, but recommend you to her friends.
When you screw up, you are no longer talking about a routine transaction, you now have your customer’s full attention. It’s up to you what you do with it. You can dismiss the problem because it’s too much trouble or shift the blame to your customer. Or you can correct the problem, show them you care, and surprise them by exceeding their expectations. In doing so, you may gain a customer for life, and if you surprise her enough she may talk about it to her friends or post her experience online. Of course, surprising your customers in this way shouldn’t only happen when you screw up, it just provides an excellent opportunity to do so. The key to pulling it off, is that you actually have to care; care enough to listen to customer complaints and then care enough to go the extra mile to make things right.
Complaints Are a Gift
Not long ago, an optician customer began to notice a consistent problem with prism in our freeform product. The deviations were only around a two to three degrees and maybe .25 diopters. His patients hadn’t noticed, but the fact that he was seeing the problem only in freeform, and that it was occurring consistently made him uneasy. He brought the problem to our attention and we began to look into it.
We had no other complaints nor were we seeing anything on our end. But this optician, like so many of our customers, is among the best at what he does and we respect his expertise. He demands perfection not only because he is accountable to the doctor, but he wants his customers to have the best possible vision (and look good doing it).
So we had challenge. This is what get us up in the morning.
We had just purchased the AR Dual Lens Mapper and saw an opportunity to run it though its paces. We used the lens mapper to analyze his Rxs and troubleshoot our processes. We changed our polish, swapped out our cutting bits, and made minute adjustments to our generator. We even processed a set of test lenses and sent them to Germany for analysis.
After three months of troubleshooting and our customer trying other labs, the issue had improved, but remained unresolved. To cover all his bases, the optician sent his B&L lensmeter out for refurbishment. Adjustments were made to the lensmeter and from that point on his problems cleared up.
The optician called, told us about his lensmeter, and apologized.
We refused his apology and thanked him.
No matter the outcome, his complaint and especially his willingness to work with us to get it sorted out, enabled us to improve our process, become better at what we do, and ultimately provide better service to our customers that demand more. In doing so, we earned the trust of a valued customer.
The point of all this is not to brag, but to show how the part of your job that can be the most difficult, customer dissatisfaction, can be the most beneficial to your business. Complaints let you know your customer still cares and wants to do business with you. Most people are reluctant to complain and would rather just take their business elsewhere. Look at a complaint as found gold. In fact, encourage customers to complain, let them know you are open to it and want their feedback, then seize the opportunities to become even better at what you do. Yes, there are people that live to complain and will never be happy. Often, it is better to rid these people from your business (or life). But, don’t let yourself become so jaded that you can’t find and appreciate the gifts that come in the form of complaints. While we strive for no complaints, we are grateful for our customers that take the time to let us know how we can improve.
OpticianWorks.com
Our friend John Seegers has taken his education site for opticians to another level. With a site redesign, added content, videos, and more, eye care providers owe it to themselves to pay opticianworks.com a visit.
Here’s a sample video from John’s site.:
Why Kiss the Feet of the People Who Kick You?
…when you can be anything that you want to.
Our new anthem. 
Enjoy…
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