Opticianry
is ultimately defined by how well the eyewear makes
contact with the Patient, not by the number of customers served.
Therefore, a conscious, precise, and personalized process
of frame
selection, lens design, and in-place,
hands-on fitting is required. In too
many cases unrealistic and excessive sales goals override
the Optician's
mission of providing professional health care, whereby the
personalized,
custom fitting of eyewear is given only the most minor consideration, if
any.
Hands on the patient
dispensing is a soon-to-be lost art. If the trend
to
the narrower and strictly retail approach to ophthalmic
services continues, a)
The marketing of ready-to-wear, over-the-counter and Web-source eyewear
will continue to flourish; b) Hands-on-the-patient dispensing
skills and services
will disappear; c) Patients will continue to suffer from
substandard quality of
service; and d) Prescription eyewear will continue to
be delivered by an ever
increasing number of unskilled dispensers. The fact is
that the majority of today's
eyewear dispensing professionals require major upgrading
in their hands-on skills
without which they will become increasingly irrelevant
in the eyecare industry.
"There
is nothing wrong with people making money and
corporations being involved...provided there is an avenue
in
which those marketing forces are not the deciding factor
in
what we are doing." -- Keith
Olbermann, Commentator
"When
owners and managers discover that their people are their
ultimate assets and not their perpetual liabilities, everybody's
economy will prosper and grow." -- The
Thank You Economy.
