The sun is finally out as I write this, which can only mean one thing – exam season. I eagerly await the next intake of future optometrists. I wonder what technology they will come across throughout their careers – there have certainly been great changes since I qualified. With all the evidence of machines that can accurately refract and even apps that attach to our phones to take retinal photos, I am well aware that our careers will look very different in 10 years’ time.
When they first came out, I saw iPads just as something for taking notes, playing games, or the odd email. However, we now have many within practice to help the smooth running of the business. We have recently started using new apps to help with queue control and with frame selection.
Having a large, busy practice means we have many people walking through our doors every day. We always aim to give them the best attention and to not ‘forget’ the one who has taken a seat around the corner. Of course, they don’t arrive in a steady stream. At times it feels like an invisible bus has stopped outside full of customers, followed by a distinct lull 30 minutes later. To deal with this challenge we used a ‘daily sheet’ where names and needs were written down as patients arrived or left their optometrist and then crossed off by the next available team member. It worked, but was a little scruffy, and chaotic if a member of staff left the store with the daily sheet in their hand.
Thankfully we now have an app to do this for us. As soon as a patient needs help they are entered onto the system into a ‘queue’. The queues are specific to the patient’s needs and an average timing for each episode means we can give them an idea of how long they’ll be waiting. They are then far happier to wait or can decide to pop back when we are less busy. Patients can be added to the queues on any device with the app. There’s now no such thing as someone who jumps the queue, although we sometimes have to explain to a patient that they may be in a different ‘queue’ to the person sat next to them.
A recent, welcome addition is the Frame Styler technology that scans a patient’s face and analyses their face shape before selecting a range of frames that can be remotely tried on, on the device. This seems to have completely changed the way that spectacles are dispensed. Somehow narrowing down the range to look at what will actually suit a patient’s face shape focuses on styles that a patient will want to consider and that will suit them without them spending needless time picking frames off the display, to find that they aren’t suitable, or for us to find that we misread the clues and the patient actually wants a trendy, ‘loud’ pair rather than the conservative one we felt suited their accountant lifestyle – as was the case with a patient recently.
We appreciated it most for a 31-year-old customer who had no spectacles and yet desperately needed them to reach driving standards. He admitted to me in my consultation that at school he had been laughed at when he wore spectacles for the first time and had never worn them again. He now felt very self-conscious about trying on spectacles, even in front of trained staff, for fear of being laughed at. With the new technology we were able to show him wearing a range of frames so that he could make a decision about which would suit him and build up his confidence to actually try on frames in front of people.
This was an extreme example. Usually the technology just gets a conversation going with the patients about when they will wear the glasses; maybe a conservative pair for work and a more outgoing pair for socialising? They don’t necessarily go for the exact frames the device has selected, but it gives a starting point and they are very impressed when we can go with them to the frame display and straight to the shapes and styles that it has already narrowed down.
Both customer satisfaction and our sales have improved significantly with this new technology. Our technology tends to be focused in the consulting rooms and pre-screen areas and not in the largest areas of our stores, where the frames are, so this has been really well received by staff and patients alike.
Now I’m off to find an app that ensures all patients turn up and on time for their appointments!
Judy Lea is optometrist director of Specsavers, Longton, Staffordshire.
