Putting the wrong label on your customers
I have four eyes, and like any other four-eyed person, I set out to get a new pair when necessary. So for the past week, I’ve been checking out spectacle stores looking for the glasses that will give me sufficient style and functionality.
So far, I haven’t been lucky. The one specs I found that I loved was unfortunately not well suited for my prescription. So said the very honest salesgirl at Ferreira’s Optical. Back to square one, I visited another store, Optometrists Today, and caught it just before closing time. Optometrist’s salesgirl was pretty helpful, but I just didn’t find what I was looking for. The last customer in the store, I had to get the guard to let me out. As I was walking towards him, another salesgirl passed by and told him to “let the patient out”.
Surprised, with all four eyes twitching, I said, “did she just call me a patient?”
“Yes”, was the casual response from the guard, while the other salesgirls silently consented. “We treat your eyes, so we call you a patient.”
Well call me silly, but I never thought of myself as a patient when purchasing glasses. If I wanted to be called a patient, I’d go to a clinic or hospital. Yes, I’m a little, okay, a lot short-sighted, and thus visually impaired, but come on, patient? That’s not my label.
If I have a cold and there’s a particular medicine that will take it away, I’m making a fully rational decision. I forego the emotional part – “does it taste nasty?” – because getting better as fast as possible is paramount. If I’m buying a specs, I’m a customer, not a patient. I’m looking for style with functionality. I’m looking for something that I can stand looking at for the next two years before returning to the optometrist. I’m not going to spend money on an arbitrary frame. I’m not a patient. I’m a customer who is going to make a decision based on looks, feeling, brand association (I mean I’ve got Armani, Dior, Nike, Boss, Burberry, and others to choose from), and yes I admit it, a thumbs up on the specs from a friend.
A patient doesn’t try on a leopard print, cat-eye-shaped spectacles, giggling at her reflection with her friends. A patient doesn’t get caught up in how her friend looks trying on another specs, which by the way the friend does not need. A patient I am not. Well, not now, and hopefully not for anything serious in the future.
I’m one of those free shoppers. I go for my eye test at a small, service provider because for some rational, but equally emotional reason, I decide that she knows what she’s doing. Then I take my prescription, because I don’t like her specs, and visit a trillion other stores until I find the specs I like. I like the freedom of making my own decision, as opposed to taking it to a big store like Ferreira’s or Optometrist to do my test and having no choice but to buy a glasses there since they don’t give you your prescription to take elsewhere. I customise things. On a silly note, I’d like to say that that makes me a customer. But really, it certainly does not make me a patient.
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Comments
It was Optometrists who had the patient talk. Ferreira’s had me hooked on an Armani frame. They get the whole customer thing.
Wait. I thought you were going for teh contacts? As an aside, I didn’t realise the Express got a new editor. Drop me a personal email and let me know what you think.
oh that’s funny…I used to go to an opthamologist and I guess I would have been HIS patient. Proper set up - you go to doctors’ offices, wait in a group of sick people who are there to see other specialists - and then you get a prescription.
A dispensing optician, however, even where they could possibly give you a prescription…isn’t a doctor, therefore I am not a patient. Last time I changed my glasses, I didn’t need a new prescription. I really liked the optician at Ferreira’s, who accepted I was getting new glasses for “style”. It prompted me to get a style that was bolder than anything I ever chose before - having worn glasses since age 9 or 10, I usually go for invisible. Blend.
Perhaps Ferreira’s is trying to change people’s perception of their business. Maybe, in order to set themselves apart from the many other optometrists/ ophthalmologists out there they are trying to create an image of them being more medical than aesthetic in nature. Or maybe the assistant was just being an ass.