7 Surprising Ways to Reduce Costly Remakes

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7 Surprising Ways to Reduce Costly
Remakes Do-overs were great when we were kids,
but theyre not so great now that were grown up
and trying to run a profitable optical shop. Joy
Gibb, who presented at Vision Expo West, shared 7
ways to reduce remake percentages and boost
profit margin in your optical. 1 Get
perspective. Ask your optical manager or your lab
for your opticals remake stats and how they
compare to other opticals your lab works with,
Gibb recommends. The benchmarks Experts
estimate that fifteen percent of all spectacle
lens orders from optical labs require remakes
because of inaccurate measurements, transcription
errors, and lab mistakes. If your opticians are
good and your optical is well managed, you can
get down to a 5 percent remake rate. If you have
a 20-25 percent rate, you know you have some
problems to fix. Overall, dispensaries in
ophthalmology practices have higher remake ratios
than those in optometry practices, Gibb
notes. 2 Understand that hard skills may be
only part of the problem. Yes, remakes can
originate from an opticians inexperience with
progressive lenses, inaccurate fitting height
measurements, incorrect PD measurements, or lens
materials that are ill-matched with frames, but
not all remakes are directly connected to an
opticians lack of technical skill or
experience. As you look to lower your remake
ratio, dont underestimate the importance of
system improvements or soft skills. 3 Doctors,
examine your own soft skills first. Like it or
not, most patients trust the doctor more than
anyone else in the office. Doctors, make sure
you set up your optical for successful
interactions with patients. When you hand off
patients to your optical, make sure you treat
optical staff like professionals, not the girl
who is going to style you from the old days,
says Gibb. 4 Optical managers, learn to spot
habitual offenders and have your most
experienced staffers take care of them. A big
red flag that you have a remake risk on your
hands is the client who comes in for the first
time and
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says, Ive been to every doctor in town, and no
one can get it right, Gibb notes. Before you do
anything else, sit down with that client and have
her list whats made her unhappy with her eyewear
in the past. Then ask, What can we do to make
you happy? Sometimes the patient herself will
realize that nothing can make her completely
happy and then you can set realistic
expectations. 5 Implement standard operating
procedures in your dispensary that all staff
follow each time. If you become very regimented
in how you do things and the sequence in which
you do them, you dont accidentally emerge
without a PD, Gibb says. You develop a kind of
muscle memory that allows you to converse and
connect with the patient more effectively. Make
sure your SOP incorporates double checks for
measurements and data entry. 6 Make sure
optical staff know they can double check with the
doctor if they see a drastic prescription change.
Sometimes opticians spot things in a script that
seem strange. Better to check with the doctor now
instead of having to do a remake later. 7
Understand that changes in lens materials or lens
styles may be disorienting. A patient who has
just made this kind of change may hastily
conclude that he needs a remake if you dont
prepare him for an adjustment period. In these
cases, opticians should say Youll need a couple
of days to get used to these when fitting and
when delivering the glasses.