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Always Asking Questions
How to use lifestyle questionnaires to increase patient satisfaction and even second-pair sales
By Erinn Morgan

Are your patients bored? If they are like many consumers today, they may be. Many trend researchers cite the �boredom boom� as a recent consumer affliction caused by the proliferation of too many choices�think 300 cable television channels and nothing to watch.

�There�s a psychological reason for that,� says Tim Fortner, national director of training and education at Transitions. �Dr. Carol Moog did a study that showed if consumers have too many choices they become overwhelmed and bored.� According to Moog�s study, this boredom has propelled consumers into a new trend of self-invention. �People can go online and design their own products�at the Levi�s site you can design personalized jeans, at General Mills� you can design your own cereal mix,� says Fortner.

What does this mean to the eyecare professional? �It�s saying that the patient wants the dispenser�s recommendation and advice, but they also want to add their own input,� he says. And this is where lifestyle questionnaires come into play. If utilized correctly in the dispensary, they afford consumers more choices and options. In addition, they will also realize that it is an interactive process where they can customize a pair of glasses just for themselves.

�You want to make them feel like their glasses were designed and made specifically for them,� says Wael Yassein, optician/owner of The Eye Shop in Ontario. �Sometimes a lifestyle questionnaire helps with multiple pair sales, but its real benefit is in making the patients feel as if they�ve had a custom pair of glasses made just for them. Even if they paid $550 for their eyewear this time instead of $300, the one thing they feel they did get is customer satisfaction.�

Second pair sales can be originated from information on the questionnaires.

Learning About Lifestyle

Introducing a lifestyle questionnaire into your initial dialogue with the patient can open many doors. It allows the patient to put his or her needs down on paper�a process that will bring things more into focus for both of you.

�We didn�t realize it at first, but using a lifestyle questionnaire opens up more choices for patients,� says Yassein. �Even if they end up getting the same thing as they did the last time, they still want to know that those choices are there.�

Questionnaires ask patients about their outdoor activities (such as fishing, gardening, or sports), their hobbies (i.e. woodworking or sewing), and their work habits (i.e. extensive computer use, driving, or reading). Once the doctor and the optician understand the daily lives of their patients, they can explain the many options that are available to them. If you do not have this information, the types of products that can be offered will be much more limited. �When we know more of what they are looking for, we can offer them more choices,� says Yassein.

�One of our questions asks how much time they spend outdoors and what they do there,� adds Paul Feinberg, O.D., owner of Lynn and Mall Optical Center, which is located in the Pontiac/Waterford area of Michigan, just north of Detroit. �If they are into gardening or athletic pursuits, then we discuss how different lenses will benefit their lifestyle. If they are golfers or into boating, I will often discuss progressives or polarized lenses with them.�

Feinberg�s survey also asks about computer use, a question that will indicate if they need special glasses for computer work. And questions about their desire for lighter and thinner lenses can lead to conversations about high-index lenses and progressives.

Benefits to the Dispenser

Utilizing a lifestyle questionnaire in your daily routine with patients will definitely put you more in tune with their needs and wants. In turn, this will make your job easier in knowing what ground to cover with them and which products to present.

With an arsenal stocked with this added knowledge of the customer�s habits, hobbies, and work routine, dispensers may also be able to increase their second-pair sales. �In addition to using the survey, one doctor has even developed a nearpoint reading card,� says Transition�s Fortner. �It says, �Anyone who wears glasses all the time should consider having three pair of glasses (a sunglass, a reading glass, and one for regular wear).� He asks his patients�after they read the card�if they would like the optician to price out an additional pair with a special second-pair discount. Almost everyone says, �Yes.� As a result, this doctor has a much higher amount of second-pair sales than national average.�

Even anti-reflective coating sales can benefit from the line of questioning in a lifestyle survey. �How do you use your eyes at work? What do you wear when driving your car during the  day and night? Are you bothered by bright sunlight?

�Are you bothered by reflections off the computer screen or car headlights at night? This line of questioning has definitely helped some people selling AR coating to 90 percent of their patients,� says Fortner.

Additionally, the questionnaire that is filled out by each patient can be kept on file and referenced before their next visit. Dispensers are then prepared to make the patient�s experience even more personal and interactive.

The questionnaire you develop for your own dispensary should include some general questions about eyewear history, hobbies, and work�but it can also be tailored specifically to the type of patient you cater to. Many dispensers reference the Transitions lifestyle questionnaire (see page 50) as a good base from which to develop their own.

	Questionnaires can bring the patient into the dispensing decision.  Photo courtesy of Transitions.

Putting It Into Practice

�The Transitions questionnaire is very close to what we�ve been using,� says Feinberg. �When we print new records we may incorporate even more of what they have into ours.�

There are several ways to introduce a survey to patients when they arrive in the office for the first time. Some dispensers ask them to sit down and fill out the form before they get started with the doctor.

�We would set them up with a clipboard in the waiting room,� says Mary Seguiti, a vision consultant from Lutz, Fla. who worked at the Florida Eye Center in Tampa for 15 years. �However, if it was a particularly busy day, sometimes a technician would ask the questions and write down their answers. But most often we would just give them the questionnaire and let them add their own comments.�

Others, however, reside in the camp of running through the questionnaire verbally with patients. �People fill out forms all day,� says Yassein. �They don�t want to do it here, too.

So we�ve memorized our lifestyle questionnaire and in our initial communication with the patient we ask those questions verbally. A few of the questions are asked by the eye doctor, but most of it is really handled by the optician.�

Whichever method you choose, having a clear record of their answers is important�as well as having that record in an easily accessible spot. �We�ve been using our questionnaire for four or five years now,� says Feinberg. In fact, he has the exam form on the front of a sheet and the questionnaire on the back for easy access. �This way, I can reference it and make my recommendations,� he says. �Then I pass it along to the folks in the dispensary and they emphasize what I�ve talked about.�

Many optical dispensaries choose to first have the doctor discuss lifestyle activities and products which are available to meet the patients� needs. Then his conversation is expounded upon in the dispensary. �In the exam room, I look at the questionnaire carefully and direct many of my statements to what they have filled out,� he says.

While some patients may be hesitant to take the time to fill out yet another one of life�s �forms,� dispensers agree that most patients want to share this information to obtain a more personalized, �interactive� experience. �This survey has tremendously helped our practice and business,� says Feinberg. With a bit of personalization to create your own unique lifestyle questionnaire, and the attention to employing it in your product presentation and discussion with patients, it can be one of the biggest boosts to your business.

The Real Thing

Below is the current Transitions survey. Use it to get started on the road to utilizing a lifestyle questionnaire in your daily routine with patients.