OK. So, you wouldn�t use the Pony Express to submit orders to your lab. But, when the information you�re sending is wrong or incomplete, you may as well be using smoke signals or a tin can because the result is the same. If the Rx isn�t communicated correctly, the order can�t be filled. Worse than the delay, however, is the possibility that the frustrated patient may be required to return to the dispensary to be re-measured or to select a new frame.

Simply put, poor communication between laboratories and their accounts can become a hindrance to good service for all concerned. As Carol Michael, customer service supervisor at Hawkins Optical, puts it: �The great cost to the dispenser is the loss of the patient�s confidence. This is why it�s so urgent that this doesn�t happen.�

When you place an order to the lab for eyewear that has an omission of information, the consequences just ripple through the entire process. The best answer is to find every way possible to communicate with your lab.

I recently discussed this sticky situation with industry leaders to see if we could get the creative juices flowing and narrow the gaps in our communication.

According to Don Lepore, general manager at TOP Network, �We go to great lengths to train people about new products and their availability parameters, but we put very little emphasis on the Rx. However, 15 to 20 percent of delays come from inaccurate or missing information on the Rx.�

So, what can the lab do about it? �There isn�t a lot you can do about it but pull it out of the system and put it into another system where somebody can call or write to get the missing information,� explains Lepore. �And you have to call or the job doesn�t go anywhere, and before you know it there�s two, three, maybe four days turnaround on it.�

What kind of information is most likely to be missing? �It�s everything from the color of the frame to the size of the frame to leaving the axis off one eye, or perhaps they omitted the seg height or the add,� he says. �We run some 1,000 prescriptions a day and when I say we return 15 to 20 percent, that�s not an exaggeration.�

Lack of Education

One reason communication suffers is a lack of experience and education. We are in a business that has relatively high turnover of employees. This can lead to communication breakdown and sometimes frustration on everybody�s part since the new employees don�t know what the procedure is.

Many companies have gone through the TQM phase (Total Quality Management methodology, adapted from Demming, Crosby, Juran, and others) and learned to continuously improve their expertise. Unfortunately as time goes on, and attrition takes its toll, these principles are lost. I believe one of the most valuable things that has come out of that philosophy for business is the concept of thinking of each other as the customer. Of course one would think of the customer as the one to whom the merchandise is sold, but that�s only half the equation. As business people we need to consider those with whom we place orders as a customer as well.

If omissions are the biggest problem between a lab and their account, then an understanding of the process should help to eliminate the situation. Forgetting seg heights, PDs, tints, coatings, materials, etc., are the most obvious. Labs are always glad when their accounts use the technology available such as fax machines, e-mail, and electronic data transmission. These types of order placement make it easier to spot omissions and errors right from the start. Some electronic order programs won�t even let you send an order unless it is complete.

At Winchester Optical, Art Waite adds, �In an ideal world it would be great if the order entry person could hand the job to somebody who would immediately call that customer and say, �We have an omission here, and need some additional information.� What we should add is, �Oh, by the way, if you haven�t considered faxing or e-mailing, this would kind of speed up the process, especially when we run into these glitches.� But let�s face it, that really doesn�t happen.�

Too Many Forms

Surprisingly, one of the main causes for options being mistakenly omitted is the form on which the order is placed. Of course the lab is accustomed to finding the required information easiest on its own form. It�s not that labs can�t take orders using different forms, but having to decipher 40 or 50 different forms that are not alike is bound to lead to some errors.

If you are able to give the order to the lab in the way they are most accustomed to seeing it, the order will be more accurate. A good rule of thumb is to give the lab the most information you can. Even seemingly insignificant tidbits might end up helping avoid a delay.

�The difficult thing for us,� adds Lepore, �is when you train people in the laboratory, whether it be customer service, data processing, or final inspection, they are taught to look at the top of the prescription and run down it in a given format. But there are no two prescriptions even close to each other.�

The Dispenser�s Situation

At times there may be communication problems in the office if the lab calls back, for example, when a new trainee in your place of business (desiring to be helpful and needing the experience to learn) tries to get the answer that the lab needs. This has prompted many offices to seek the educational assistance offered by their labs.

Waite adds, �Many of the people in our business work by appointment, even for dispensing. If they tell a patient that his eyewear will be ready on Wednesday, and then we call with a delay, not only does it strain the dispenser-consumer relationship, but also the working relationship between the lab and their account, and it just doesn�t have to be that way.

�If we�re talking to each other and there�s a good flow of information, everybody wins,� he continues. �But you run into snags along the way, and it�s those gaps in the communication that can make things smoother when we communicate better.�

Labs face many of the same problems as dispensers. Finding employees can be tough.

� Personnel. �Labs have had to change a lot,� explains Waite. �Back in the �70s and �80s we might have had one or two people standing around just in case. Today you�re probably running a half-person shy. Everybody is wearing a variety of hats in the lab just to stay efficient, but if you get a hiccup, it just ripples through the whole system.�

� Training. Training is more important than ever, especially when it comes to educating sales people about lens processing and lab operations. At Winchester, they start out with six weeks in the lab. �They�re often chomping at the bit to get on the road,� explains Waite, �but we tell them, �We don�t expect you to become efficient at it, but we want you to know every phase of the operation.��

� Staff interaction. Also, bringing sales and customer service personnel together is increasingly important, as well. At Winchester, explains Waite,

�We have several meetings throughout the year, but we�ve started to back our annual sales meeting and our annual customer service meeting together. They don�t necessarily get the same instruction, but they get an opportunity to interact with one another and, again promote communication.�

� New technology. Labs are also investing in computer programs that will help isolate problems. �We have Trace �n Transmit now,� says Lepore, �which immediately spits a job out if there�s something incorrect about it. It won�t let the job go in to the queue without correcting the problem.�

� Resource. Labs know that there is an ever-changing learning curve and are constantly on the lookout to help keep their accounts up to snuff on the best possible options. According to Waite, �If the lens material is left off, or something is ordered that is not available, we try to call back and make recommendations. This makes the best of an unfortunate situation and helps our people to think of us as an educational source.�

Lapore agrees, adding that it�s important for labs to conduct seminars and workshops, as well as offer tips on dispensing and information about product categories.

� Customer service. Several labs agree that customer service is an increasingly important piece of the service quotient. While technology will continue to help make the lab�s role of processing lenses better and more efficient, the expanding number of products will make it necessary to add more customer service employees. Customer service will also become a stronger point of differentiation among labs.

As Waite sees it, �I think the playing field is becoming so level on the technology side that the difference is going to be the way you treat and communicate with these customers.�

That�s one of the reasons Winchester has started faxing daily job reports to some of its key accounts and plans to expand beyond just those accounts.

Labs that don�t take pro-active steps like those outlined here will see their problems mount, as more customers have ever-increasing problems with communicating the Rx.