Ok....so let me preface this by saying that this applies to those of you in practice outside of places like the VA hospital or HMOs or academia. If your job is dependent on actually seeing patients, this applies to you. Of course, as always....IM(nsv)HO
Everyone who said that they are in the "eye business" or the "eye health business" or the "primary eye care business" or the "health care business" the "helping people see better business"...you're all wrong.
Let me tell a story...it's a long one but please bear with me.
A few years back I went to Vision Expo in Las Vegas. I stayed at the Wynn Hotel which is a big fancy place on the strip. I loooove to eat and being a big fat guy, the Wynn hotel was a perfect match for me because there are so many tasty things to eat there!
So I'm having dinner one night by myself in this restaurant and before dessert, the waiter brings over a little plate that had about 5 or 6 little chocolate treats on it. A few of them had nuts sticking out of them and I don't really like nuts with my chocolate so I tried one that looked just like a solid chocolate ball. It was filled with marzipan. Marzipan is probably one of my most favorite things in the world! And when you combine it with chocolate....perfect. So I ate that one and to my delight, the other "solid" chocolate ball also had marzipan in it.
When the waiter came back he noticed that I only ate the two marzipan balls and commented I must have really liked them. I told him I didn't really like nuts with my chocloate but that I loved marzipan. He laughed and went off to get the peach melba I had ordered for dessert. When he came back with the peach melba, he brought two more marzipan balls. And we both laughed again.
Ok so that happens. Now....fast forward a year and I check back into the hotel for Vision Expo again. I get up to my room and sitting on the bed is a little box with a little ribbon on it and a little note.
Of course, I assumed it was some silly little thing but the note was a hand written letter from the manager of the restaurant saying that they knew how much I liked their marzipan balls and to please enjoy some on them and how they hoped I could join them for dinner sometime during my stay. I opened up the little box and inside were eight little marzipan balls.
Of course I went back for dinner.
But wait....there's more......
After vision expo I had two free days in the hotel and I went on an incredibly hot run at the craps table and won $5000. I am NEVER that lucky in a casino. I once won $3500 playing poker against some drunken frat boys but usually when I gamble I win a couple hundred or lose a couple hundred and that's that. But here, I caught a hot pair of dice and combined with a couple of very lucky hands of Let It Ride, I had $5000 in my pocket.
In the hotel, next to the casino there was a Cartier store. I wandered in. Now, I had NO BUSINESS being in Cartier. I had no money. I had just bought my practice a couple of years prior and I was still paying it off. We had a mortgage. I had two small kids at home. I should NOT have been there.
But my wife and I were coming up on ten years of marriage and when we got engaged, I was a 4th year student with no money to my name so the only engagement ring I could afford was whatever I could charge in my American Express card from Zales at a shopping mall in Woodbridge, New Jersey. I thought that maybe she deserved a nicer ring.
So Im browsing around in this Cartier store and the saleswoman comes over we start talking. I tell her my story and she nods sympathetically and says let me show you a few things. So we go over to a counter and she pulls out about 4 or 5 rings. All very beautiful.
The cheapest one was $10,000. I said that there was no way I could do that because it would be a divorce ring. No trial separation. No marriage counseling. D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Again, the saleswoman laughed understandingly and suggested perhaps a watch. They had very beautiful watches ranging from about $2000 to skys the limit. I told her my wife probably would not wear a watch that fancy.
So she pulled out a few different necklaces. And I ended up spending $2000 on a small, simple Cartier necklace with a teeny tiny diamond chip in it. It was very beautiful but it wasnt over the top. I knew my wife would wear it out and not only would it look nice, I wouldnt have to worry about her getting mugged.
So the woman proceeds to wrap it up in a pretty little box with a pretty little ribbon and then proceeds to pull out a stick of sealing wax and a lighter and seals the box shut with SEALING WAX. I mean, WTF is that? What was this
.the year 1635? When was the last time someone used sealing wax on anything?
So I get home and give the gift to my wife. Of course she loved it.
But wait
.theres more
..
Two weeks later, theres a call on my cell phone from a number I dont recognize. I pick it up and its the saleswoman from Cartier!
Did she like it?
Oh yes
.thank you so much. She loved it a lot.
Oh thats great. Im so happy to hear that. Please come in again the next time youre in town.
Oh yes. I will!
So I hang up and in my head Im thinking come in again? Are you kidding me? I had no business being in there in the first place. I aint going back! LMAO.
Fast forward another year and again, Im back in the hotel for vision expo and another hand written note on my pillow FROM HER welcoming me back and inviting me to come say hello.
Now again
.I had NO BUSINESS going there. I had NO MONEY. I was NOT going to buy something. Yet I WANTED to go in there and say hello. I felt like an ******* for even thinking about NOT going in to say hello.
So I did. And she greeted me by name. Asked how my wife was? Did she come with me this time? No? Oh thats too bad. And she asked if I wanted to look at anything and I, slightly embarrassed, declined and told her perhaps sometime I would bring her in when she could accompany me and we could do something about that ring.
The saleswoman, without blinking an eye and with the smile on her face never wavering said that she would like that very much and that she hoped to see me again soon.
So I walked out with a shiny happy feeling in my stomach having not bought anything.
BUT I ALSO LEFT WITH THE FEELING THAT I NEVER WANT TO BUY ANY PIECE OF JEWELRY EVER AGAIN FROM ANY PLACE OTHER THAN THAT CARTIER STORE AND NOT JUST THAT CARTIER STORE BUT FROM THAT WOMAN!!!
And why? All she did was put some sealing wax on a box with a pretty red ribbon and left a little hand written note in my room. Big deal, right? Yes. BIG DEAL.
And THAT my friends in the business you are in. You are in the shiny happy feeling in the stomach business!
Think about it! I probably bought the CHEAPEST THING IN THERE. And that woman treated me like I was buying a $4 million dollar diamond studded tiara. I was the Cartier equivalent of a vision plan patient! I bought the cheapest thing. But she didnt care. Or at least, she sure didnt show it and she rolled out the red carpet for me and my silly little necklace. And come hell or high water, I dont want to shop anywhere else and I feel like a jerk for even THINKING of shopping for jewelry anywhere else!!
Theres another thread on here that talks about cell phones and how annoying patients can be. One poster, whos had all kinds of bad experiences with Walmart talked about having patients sign forms and posting signs on the wall saying NO CELL PHONE USE.
Well, weve taken a bit of a different approach. Cell phones, annoying as they can be are a fact of life. Weve added a cell phone charging station in the waiting room which always gets a positive reaction and which is used daily by probably 50% of our patients.
And you know what? It hasnt had a negative increase in cell phone usage in the exam rooms at all. Its still less than 1 in 100 patients.
People complain all the time about small children in the exam room and how annoying they are. Doctors lament the ignorant parents who let their children run wild in the doctors office. Other optometric forums are loaded with stories of doctors sternly information patients to curb their children or asking patients to come back when they have a babysitter.
Well, instead of just having a few old, germ infested issues of Highlights in the corner of the waiting room, weve converted one of our unused exam rooms to a kids play room and one of our technicians is a licensed babysitter. Im not sure what licensed means in this case. She just had a bunch of certificates from a bunch of courses she had taken. So she volunteers to watch kids in the play room while mom and/or dad get their exams and pick out their glasses. No charge.
If youre a busy, working parent whos probably already scheduled time off from work or rearranged a schedule to come in for an exam, which office do you want to go to? The one with the kids play room staffed by a free licensed babysitter, or the one with the doctor who asks you to reschedule some other time?
Which practice is more likely to give you the shiny happy felling in your stomach?
Some people may bristle at that notion. Thats CRAP! Were DOCTORS DAMNIT! Patients should be grateful that they can avail themselves of my Acuvue fitting and blepharitis management skills. Patients should RESPECT MY AUTHORITAY! (Cartman voice.)
Get over it. Remember what business youre in.
I think the OD education costs a hell lot more if you don't like optometry.
