The Eyewear Stylist position, like all positions at PVC, can be very challenging. There are soooo many details to remember. there is a responsibility of fulfilling the doctor’s eyewear prescriptions with as many patients as possible. there is the need for high accuracy and strong attention to detail. There are the daily tasks of patient care and ordering. How does anyone do it?
The answer is prioritizing your time wisely! Sounds simple enough, right? But in reality, many Eyewear Stylists find themselves working later than they were scheduled to work because, due to the volume of the day, they were unable to get their tasks done in a timely manner. Sometimes its because they saved some work for the end of the day instead of chipping at it throughout the day; sometimes it’s because everything was going smoothly and then the afternoon got crazy; sometimes its because a simple task ended up taking three times as long as you thought for any variety of reasosns outside of your control.
This training is all about providing you a few tips on managing your time wisely and figuring out how to prioritize your tasks.
What tasks are the highest priority as an Eyewear Stylist?
Our number one priority is always our patients and providing an outstanding patient experience for them. We want to make sure we take care of them in a timely manner. We do not want our patients waiting because we are submitting, cleaning, or worst of all talking. We want to make sure we are giving them the best impression of our expertise and work ethic!
After that the next priority is submitting/ ordering glasses and contacts efficiently and accurately. The reason why this is next is because this affects when the patient gets their glasses/contacts, and we want it to be on time. Always make sure you print out your daysheet at the end of the day (you can even check it midday before or after lunch if you want!). Forgetting to submit an order could result in the patient not getting their eyewear for weeks and our practice not getting paid for the hard work our doctors, team members, and YOU did. You are given a 3 day window to submit and order your jobs. If you find yourself struggling to post and submit in a timely manner, talk with Anna on possible solutions or talk with a fellow ES and find out their tips. Don’t forget checking your payment reports at the end of the day, as well! These need to be done every day to ensure you don’t have any errors that will prevent the offices from balancing out each day. You will learn more about the payment reports and daysheets as you do your training.
Next, make sure all the Eyewear Stylist duties on the checklist get done. At this time, the sheet doesn’t necessarily need to be filled out everyday, but all the tasks should be completed. Talk with your fellow stylists to see what still needs to be done for the day if you are caught up on submissions and have a spare moment.
Clean and organize frames! This is a duty on the list for PR to take care of (at Westerville), but it can always be helpful to do. There are so many frames on our frame boards and patients don’t put the frames back in the correct place for us. Plus, everything gets dusty and nasty. Would you want to select new frames that are covered in dust? Cleaning supplies are in the lab, and this is a great thing to do when you are caught up on everything else. You can check with the front desk PR person so see what section needs to be cleaned for that day, or you can just jump in where you see needs cleaning. Also work on tidying the patient care areas to maintain a clean, professional atmosphere!
If all of the above are done and you have extra time, please ask a manager what you can do to help out. We often have extra tasks that we would love help on!
Very important note: save chatting with your team members for AFTER your important tasks get done if you cannot chat and work at the same time! You will be tempted to get caught up in lively banter and story telling, but even if its about a patient, if its slowing you down, you need to prioritize your time and pass on the chatting.
As mentioned earlier in this training, you could prioritize like a charm and STILL things can mess up your rhythm and force you to fall behind. This can be very stressful, so here are a few tips and tricks on how to keep cool in the heat of stress and continue to provide an exemplary work ethic that you can be proud of!
Mentally put the stress/frustration in its place.
Stress will overtake your thoughts, actions, and attitude if you DWELL on it. Fixating on something that is stressing you out will only make that stressor look bigger and badder than it actually may be. You start to add to that stress by inflating it like a balloon when you put that frustration on instant replay in your mind, and yes-that balloon could get so big with worry, anger, or panic that it could pop, aka a “meltdown.”
Rather than choosing this clearly unpleasant line of focus, mentally CHOOSE to put that frustration in its place. Tell your brain-“This crazy will pass,” or ask your brain “is this worth getting worked up about?” For example, let’s say there is a seemingly unending amount of patients that need your help. You could either go this route in your brain: “Oh my gosh, there’s so many people and I don’t know how I am going to help all of them and they are going to be so mad if they have to wait and gosh my team sucks why are they going so slow and I have to do everything myself around here my life sucks.” ORRRRR, you can put the issue in its place and tell your brain: “There’s tons of people here. Noted. But we will get to each of them as fast as we can and all will be well!” Rather than letting your thoughts get out of control with the rising stress and tending towards exaggerating the stress, you are simply putting that stress in its place-“it’s present, but it won’t be forever.”
Look for humor.
It may sound silly (no pun intended, though a terrible pun it is), but when things are getting stressful, humor can really lighten your mood and ‘tude. Think of something hilarious, like a puppy in a spider costume scaring the tar out of your neighbors or a baby falling asleep while eating, and watch as you begin to feel less tense. Debbie Mandel, author of Addicted to Stress wrote “Don’t take yourself and everyone else at work so seriously. Pretend it’s a sitcom. If it happens to someone else on TV, we’re laughing, but when it happens to us, we take everything so seriously.”
Its pretty incredible the power laughter and smiling have on your disposition, and the best part about this method is that it has great impact on those around you!
Learn and Adapt
If you have a “frequent flyer” stress factor at work, learn from yourself what worked and what didn’t work as you worked through that day/situation. Think about what you could do instead if this stressor comes up again to ease the frustration. If you are having a hard time figuring out what could be done differently, talk to your peers or a manager-a fresh perspective is sometimes necessary to brainstorm something new! Being proactive and planning ahead can often thwart the stress before it happens!
Avoid the Doom and Gloom Attitude
One of my biggest peeves is when folks “assume” terrible things will happen BEFORE THEY EVEN HAPPEN! For example, let’s say there is a call off at the start of the day. I literally cringe when I hear staff say “well today’s going to suck, so and so called off.” While I understand that when stressors like call offs arise, its not always “yippee skippee” and history has shown that days with that same stressor have been unpleasant, the truth is that TODAY hasn’t even started and its already being cursed.
Another example that I really struggle with is the “looking at my workload and feeling defeated” attitude. It drives me NUTS when I fall into this mindset, because why all the doom and gloom? I know that I can chip away at it bit by bit and that I will have great satisfaction as I finish each task, so what purpose does getting worked up about it serve?
Instead of using our imagination to depress, scare, or worry ourselves-avoid the attitude altogether! Attack every day with vivacious positivity and determination that regardless of the present stressors, it could turn out to be a great day. In fact, having this attitude will likely make the day be okay, vs the doom and gloom attitude which guarantees a hideous one.
Breathe, Count to 10, Pray, Meditate: Find Your Chill
If you google “how to manage stress,” just about every article will say something about using relaxation techniques, and in my experience they really work! Taking a few moments may seem impossible if you are very busy, or it may not seem feasible while on the floor. However, if you sense your tensions rising-and that stress balloon inflating-taking 10 seconds to say a quick prayer, count to 10, do focused breathing, etc. It’s worth it! Better for you to take those 10 seconds and find your chill, then to keep going and pop. Besides, being 10 seconds behind schedule isn’t toooo crazy.
Choose Confidence!
For me personally, the best line of defense against stress is CONFIDENCE. A “YOU GOT THIS” mentality that REFUSES to give up, melt down, or let stress win. It’s like treating stress as an opponent in a competition---I WILL WIN, and stupid stress will lose. In my experience, I often play several rounds-sometimes stress will win one, sometimes I will, but then I have had enough and aim for victory.
As I am writing this, it sounds kinda odd…but I’m telling you it works! As an Eyewear Stylist manager, there have been A LOT of occasions where I have had to work solo with two doctors and walk-ins by myself. I took on this confident attitude, and even pushed myself to decline help-determined that even though working by yourself is crazy busy and challenging, I would be able to do it, and I wouldn’t let myself get flustered or frustrated. What’s interesting is that I’ve done it so many times that the stressor has diminished because I have become the champion of it so many times,that it doesn’t pose much of a threat any longer.
Tread this carefully, as you can also slip into the “arrogance” or fail to delegate when necessary, but if used appropriately, it can give you just that bolster of awesome you need to swat the stress bug in the face.
Hopefully this training helped and can be a constant reference of help as you continue your Eyewear Stylist career with PVC! We hired you because we had great confidence in your success, so you will absolutely do great!