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Building Patient and Customer Loyalty

First in a three part series exploring the core requirement of Quality.

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IN HIS BOOK, Kaizen, Masaaki Imai, a Japanese management consultant, explains that customer satisfaction and loyalty depend on meeting three core requirements: quality, cost and delivery. These certainly apply to providing eyecare and eyewear. Over the next three columns, I will focus on one of each of these areas.

What do customers or patients consider quality? Well, we know because we have asked them. Quality of care and prescription eyewear consists of the following:

Expertise and Professionalism. At the heart of quality eyecare is the expertise of the optometrist. Customers value professionals who are not only well-educated but also keep up with the latest in technology and treatments. A thorough eye exam, where the practitioner takes the time to understand the patient’s visual needs, history, and lifestyle, is valued. Professionalism extends to the presentation of the personnel involved in the exam. It involves how the doctor and staff are dressed, how they speak, the respect they show the patient and anyone who is accompanying the patient during the exam.

Patients are not able to evaluate whether or not they receive a technically accurate and thorough exam, but they do form opinions based on features that may seem superficial. Maybe that’s unfortunate, but it is what it is. I recommend professional business attire and a full-length white lab coat for doctors.

Accurate Prescriptions. One of the most critical aspects of quality eyecare is the accuracy of the Rx. The presentation of retinal images and impressive technology won’t mean anything if the customer cannot see. It means you do not provide quality. Visual acuity is much more important to the customer’s definition of quality than Italian frame manufacturing, titanium or a designer brand.

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Time and money must be invested to ensure the accuracy of the prescription and of the work done by the optical lab. Your patients don’t care who’s at fault for an error, it is a reflection on the doctor and the office.

How the eyewear is dispensed also conveys quality. If it is done with intentional presentation of the complete pair using a dispensing tray and delicacy in handling, it says that what they have paid for is something of value. Simply pulling it from a paper with a rubber band wrapped around it conveys something quite different.

Beauty is quite subjective. What one person finds beautiful may be perceived quite differently by another. Quality is the same. It is only what the customer believes is quality that matters.

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