Speaker 1: Hello, I would like to welcome you to the Laramy-K OpticianWorks Training Center, where today we are going to learn how to win the game of consistent messaging in an optical store. So how do we win the game of optical versus miscommunication? Well, we've got our game board here. We've got a six-person team with one goal in mind, and that is to get customers and patients to come through that front door. We've got six people on the team. We've got a receptionist. We've got a tech. We've got an optician. We've got somebody who works in the lab. We've got a contact lens specialist, and we've got a doctor. Now your main point of contact is going to be your reception area, because all the phone calls get filtered through there. The receptionist must be saying the same thing as everybody else in the store, and they must delegate. If in doubt, ask. If in doubt, delegate. If a call comes in for optical, they need to transfer that call. They get a call for contact lenses, it has to go to the contact lens person. This is a huge problem. For some reason, the receptionists feel like they want to, I don't know, control or something. Anybody who's worked in optical will understand what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2: Well, isn't that nice?

Speaker 1: Watch for the red flags there. It's okay to snitch. This is one of those cases. If you work in the optical, you are the optician, you are the primary driver of income into this practice. And you hear the reception, you know the question was, how much are your glasses? And the receptionist person is saying, glasses are $99. No, that's not all right. Your frames start at $135 or something. Maybe you have a special package for contact lens wearers that's $99. They can't say that. You must put an end to it. You have to cross-train, or better maybe saying, cross-talking. She must, he must learn what is the right thing to say so that we get those customers in the door. So reception delegates, if they have a question about a recent exam, well, they would go to the tech. They would go through the tech to get to the doctor. If we get a contact lens question, it would go to the contact lens specialist. They might have a question about where a job is, so they go to the lab person. And any question at all about glasses, we'd end up going to the optician. From here, right, optical, they have someone who just came out of the exam rooms. They have a question. Well, they would go back to the tech. Optician has a question about a lens choice. They would go here. Person came out, was asking about a contact lens question. Well, they would go to the contact lens person. Poor doc is sitting out here in no man's land at the moment, but the doc often, right, comes out and talks to the optician. Now they have to be on the same page. The doctor handing off to the optical department has to say, you know, and we talked about this. I said to Mr. So-and-so, I would recommend this. So the optical knows, communication, talking. He doesn't just walk out, she walk out, and just hand you something. You talk a little bit, do the intro, whatever it might be. Again, optical reception, big one, big, big, big one. You must watch what the reception is saying, and if they are not saying the right things, you need to correct that. The message must always be the exact same one across the entire store at all times. How do you do that? Staff meetings, role play. Heck, if you record your incoming calls, play them back and analyze them. There's no guessing here. The reception can never say, I don't know. They can say, I don't know, but I'm going to connect you to the person that does, or I will have that person call you back. Reception should be fielding phone calls for appointments and answering any insurance or vision care plan questions. Beyond that, reception should be delegating every other call that comes into that practice. So if in doubt, ask. The message must always be the same, or to put it another way, regardless of who the customer or the patient is coming into the store or calling it, regardless of who they talk to, the receptionist, the tech, the optician, the lab person, the contact lens specialist, the doctor, the answer to their question is going to be identical.

Speaker 2: So remember, next time you get the big head and think you can do everything by yourself, remember nobody can, not even Mr. T.

Speaker 1: Use this video in a staff meeting to drive the conversation and find out how well you're actually doing. Let's talk specifically about the optician and consistent messaging. Always keep in mind that you say your schtick five times, 10 times, 15 times a day. Yes, after years, you actually get a little tired of hearing it. That doesn't matter. Remember that your customer only hears it once a year, maybe even once every other year. It's part of your job. Newbies, super crazy important. Nothing will come back harder and bite you on the bum than telling the husband one thing and telling the wife something else. Don't ask me how I knew this. I was new once too. Don't do it. How do you avoid it? You work on that schtick. You work on saying the same thing to every customer every time. In fact, before you ever open your mouth, your coworkers should already know exactly what you're going to say because the message must always be the same. If in doubt, ask. Great rule of thumb, don't guess. Say I will find out and I will get back to you. Nothing wrong with that. We've talked about that before. We're talking about optician to optician talk. As soon as there are two, three, four opticians, you guys have got to get together. You've got to be on the same page and you've got to be producing that consistent message that is always the same. Thank you so much for watching. If you're watching us on Facebook, please do give us a like. Watching us on YouTube, please go ahead and hit that subscribe button down there in the corner and to make sure that every lens in your optical store that communicates well comes from Laramy-K. I will see you again next week.