“Oh no! Here comes Mr. So and So, always complaining about his glasses! If it's not the fit, it's his vision. Nothing I do seems to please him, nothing I say makes him happy!”
Sound familiar?
Every optical has them. Unhappy patients. Complainers. Problem people. They make you cringe and you just want them to go away. Let me tell you how to handle them so they become your biggest fans.
Except for the truly psychotic, most people who complain are seeking you out to solve their problems, not to make your life miserable. The first mistake opticians make is to minimize, or worse yet, dismiss a patients complaint. Let me recommend a different approach that will turn around most situations.
Number one: Remain calm. Yes, he may be angry, even raising his voice. Raising yours will only amp him up more. If he’s not doing so yet, ask him to sit down so he can describe his issue(s).
If you can, pull his records. Ask questions. While he talks, TAKE NOTES. Not only will it help you solve his problem, it shows you are taking him seriously.
This next piece of advice is important. Believe him or her. Nothing sets a person off more than not being believed, or being dismissed as not knowing what they’re talking about. Even if you think otherwise, their problem is real to them. Start with the premise that what they are complaining about is real and then seek out reasons why this is happening so you can fix it.
This is especially true with visual problems. The pat response to a person unable to see clearly is: “Try it for two weeks. It takes time to get used to your new prescription.” That’s often what an inexperienced optician says to make the problem go away. The problem is, that “problem” will be coming back, angrier than ever that their vision is still off.
Having their records in front of you may give you several clues.
* How much did the RX change?
* Did their lens material change? (Different indexes of refraction can cause vision to feel different)
* Did their base curve change? (You’ll need a lens clock to check both sets of lenses)
* Did they go from a solid bridge to nosepads or visa versa? Vertex distance changes can and will affect how a person sees their world.
* Did they switch from flat top bifocals to progressives?
* Were the segs measured too high or too low?
* Is the PD (pupillary distance) correct, or similar to the old pair?
Of course, the very first thing you should do is take the new pair and recheck the Rx with a lensometer as well as all measurements. Document everything. (If the RX and/or any measurements are outside ANSI standards, this must be corrected promptly and courteously).
If the patient says they can see better with their old glasses, make sure they bring them with them when they come in. Then compare the two pair to see what’s different. If you believe you’ve discovered the cause with any of the above mentioned changes, I recommend you call your lab and discuss the issue to see if they concur with your solutions. They may offer other, unthought of solutions once they have all the information about both pairs of glasses.
It may be that the patient needs to be reexamined. Your job as an optician is to eliminate all other possibilities first, so you don’t waste the patient's or the doctor's time.
If the problem is a poorly fit frame and/or wrong lenses, the solution may be remaking the glasses into a better, properly fitting frame with better lens choices. We are the experts and it’s our job to recommend and/or dissuade a patient from making a poor choice if we know it will end in a less than ideal set of glasses. (If a patient insists on choosing something we do not recommend, it should always be documented on their record.)