The Product-Specific Doctor’s Handoff When an OD recommends a specific lens product and material to their patients, it makes for a much easier sales process as the lens is often already decided. Then, all the optician has to focus on is the frame and lens enhancements.

As a team, select a progressive lens and material of choice (e.g. Zeiss Individual in Trivex, Hoya ID Mystyle in Phoenix, Varliux X in 1.60 index, Shamir AI in Poly, etc.) and have that be the lens presented by the doctor on handoff, every time.

If you uncover other needs throughout the process and decide the patient would benefit from a different lens, set the patient up to look at the frame boards, then go verify your findings with the prescribing doc. Assuming they agree, tell the patient that you've confirmed with the doc and that your practice is making this change together for their benefit and move forward.

This process will lead to better patient outcomes in a shorter period of time while reinforcing the idea that the doctor and the optical are working together on the patient’s behalf.

This same thing applies to frames as well - the more seamless the transition from the exam lane to the optical, the better the results will be in both places. As the OD, keeping frame information in mind is a challenge and you’ve often handed off control to your opticians because you rightly have other things to concern yourself with.

What may be an effective tactic, then, is to have a few frames of choice in mind to recommend for the bulk of your patients. Find one collection in each of the below categories to recommend as appropriate, and add it to your handoff conversation, the results you see will be staggering.

• High Fashion
• Durable
• Hypo-Allergenic
• Lightweight
• Sport
• Sunglasses

Static Frame Boards

A well-known but underutilized method of frame board management centers around drop shipping frames to the lab, as opposed to selling directly off of your frame boards. With your best selling product, it’s best to keep the boards consistently stocked and intelligently merchandised. The products the office wants to carry, as defined by a combination of optician preferences and ongoing sales data are going to be given more space on your frame boards to allow them to shine.

Ordering these best selling frames as they are sold and shipping them directly to the lab accomplishes several things:

• Best sellers are always available
• Fewer, more efficient visits from frame reps
• Less time spent opening boxes and tagging frames
• Inventory data is more consistent and easier to maintain
• The office has a better feel for the products that are working and which ones aren’t
• More important than ‘feel’, concrete data will exist to guide the office’s next choices.

Static Frame Boards Logistics

The drop shipping process has many benefits, but it does come with an increase in the cost of frame acquisition because we may be paying for shipping costs with each frame sold. To account for that, add $15 to the retail price of each frame for your best-selling collections. This will more than cover your added shipping costs. Remember, you will be giving at least 20% off of your frame prices, so you’re rarely going to be charging the full $15 to patients. Over time, you will uncover which individual frames are your best sellers and will use that information to adjust the collection for an ideal assortment.

Consider this typical approach to frame boards:

• Rep arrives.
• Optician selects frames.
• Frames arrive and are entered into inventory
• Frames are put on display.
• Sell frames, ship to lab
• Adjust the frame board to fill the gap left by each sold frame

What we are suggesting avoids that last step, and keeps your best sellers on the board to sell again and again, with less of a need to constantly adjust your frame boards to account for the products sold each day.

A Note on Inventory Entry

Enter frames in such a way to be able to identify long term sales trends in the optical department. Your inventory systems are only as useful as you make them, so the more information you enter, the more knowledge you can glean over time and the better service you can provide to your patient.

If you carry sunglasses and ophthalmics of a collection, you want to be able to differentiate those over time. (E.g. Petite frames, Large frames, etc.) you want to be able to identify the results among women’s, men’s, kids’ and sunglasses so you can better adjust your inventory to the successful collections. Over time, this will make you more efficient and successful at taking care of your inventory and your patients.

These rules are not all encompassing. You will add to these with time, and there may be some things that you take away. It is important that you’re always working toward a stronger optical that better addresses your patient needs and your staff’s capabilities. Wrapping up The goals are simple: let’s make opticians’ lives easier and work processes simpler. Let’s become a more profitable, more efficient Optical practice.

The guidelines that will allow the office to accomplish that:

• See fewer frame reps and go deeper in the collections that have been and continue to be successful
• Dropship bestselling collections to labs directly to ensure that bestsellers can do their jobs and help patients find their favorite frames more quickly.
• Raise the retail price of these frames by $15 to account for the added cost of shipping.
• Resist the urge to have all black and brown frames on your board, even if you consistently sell more black and brown frames. Saying "this frame comes in black as well" is far easier than explaining the perfect shade of aubergine. Black and brown walls look boring.
• Bring in new collections with a purpose and with a method to measure success. Variety is important and patients want to see what’s new and different.

The office will be better equipped to make data-driven decisions that increase profitability and save precious optician hours to serve customers instead of frames.