As an eyewear stylist, time management isn’t just a good idea, it is VITAL to your success and a happy work/life balance! All sorts of factors can leap into your day and mess up your flow, creating extra work or causing you to fall behind on tasks. with those days we do the best we can! But on the regular, you should be able to find a healthy time management flow that will allow you to complete all of your work in a timely manner.
The big challenge is that we work with patients who often aren’t thinking about your big to do list (and we don’t want them to), so they are taking their sweet time and slowing you down. Here are a few scenarios that might cause you to fall behind and some solutions that can be helpful to you staying on track without compromising stellar care for our patients:
Scenario: an exceptionally indecisive patient is taking a looooong time picking out their frames.
Solution: There are two parts to this one. First, make sure you are bringing the frames to the patient! We always want to make sure to go select frames for the patient and bring them over to our table. If they are already looking on their own, then join them in the process and once you have a few selected, direct them over to your table to try on. Second, have the patient compare only two frames at a time and decide which they like best, then physically remove the frame they don’t like best and say something like “okay, we can rule this one out, then.” If they can’t decide between two frames start asking questions like “which one is most comfortable?,” “which one can you see yourself in every day?,” or “which one do you feel the best in?” You can also work on making your spec screen and other things while they are making their choice. In genearl, keep the patient experience under an hour. Any optician can tell you the worst thing that can happen is you work with the same patient for an hour or longer. Especially, if they don’t buy anything. Typically, even if you are selling that patient 5 pairs of glasses, it shouldn’t take that long! Keep an eye on the clock and steer the patient along in their decision making process.
Scenario: a patient is giving you their life story while you are working with them.
Solution: This is truly something to celebrate- they trust and like you! But it can be tough to keep things moving. Beat this by being polite, but continue working while they are talking with periodic eye contact and responses.
Solution: If it is before payment start working on the glasses screen, contacts, etc.
Solution: If the patient isn’t dilated start submitting their exam/ job.
Occasionally, you will get the patient who just won’t stop talking, and you have already done their photos, submitted their orders, and there are other patients waiting.
Solution: It is totally appropriate to let them know, “hey I am so sorry to interrupt and I really enjoy talking with you, but there are a couple of patients waiting on me that I need to help out. You are welcome to hang around and grab a drink or something until I wrap up with these patients.” They will definitely understand and leave.
Scenario: you are working with the doctors for the day and you have a schedule of walk-in appointments as well. Someone walks in without an appointment and wants to look at glasses.
Solution: this can definitely throw you for a loop! BUT, we don’t ever want to turn patients away. We want to give the patient a realistic time frame in which they can expect to be seen. Keep in mind when the next paitent may be coming out from the doctor and check when the next walk-in appointment is due in. We want to be respectful of the patients that made an appointment at a specific time while meeting the needs of the ones who just walk-in as best we can. Add the patient who walked in to the walk-in schedule at the next available time, if there is one, and let them know what time we have open! If there are no open slots, let them know that we have a full schedule and if they would like to wait we can try to squeeze them in when we can, but it may be a couple hours. Usually, the patient will choose to come back when they can be seen sooner, but if they would still like to be seen that day we want to make that happen for them! If the patient chooses to wait they can take the time to look at frames on their own and have one selected already.
Again, we never want to be rude or make the patient feel rushed. However, there are ways you can tastefully keep the flow going, direct the patient along, and give realistic expectations by trying the tips above.
A quick note about another common distraction that can make us fall behind: the doctors and team members of PVC! lol It’s true, we are a chatty bunch that like to talk about life, rehash patient stories, and laugh it up. We LOVE this culture of care for each other, and it is 100% welcome in the office as long as everyone is able to complete their work! We think that chatting it up with our coworkers and managing our time wisely can coexist happily, but it’s up to you to make it work! Make sure you are getting all your responsibilities done while socializing. Again, we love our coworkers, but we should not be in the lab talking just because there are no patients ready to be seen by an optician. There is always something to do (if you don’t know what to do with extra time, just ask!). If you have this mindset you will be able to submit all your jobs, and get out at a decent time.
Let’s get out there, and manage our time so wisely it will make owls blush! :D