The Art of Engaging Optometrists

Do your Optometrists care about your practice?
Will they go above and beyond to help your practice achieve it’s goals?
Are they in sync with the rest of your team?

Read time: 2.5 minutes

A topic that is is avoided in practice to avoid confrontation. Is my Optometrist truly engaged with the practice or are they just there to do their hours, get paid and go home? If it’s the latter then you may find yourself in a difficult position. You have an Optometrist who’s just doing the basics but has no interest in helping you achieve the practice goals. You can either confront them and be ready to hear the dreaded ‘I just want to do my hours and go home’ or let it be and live with the fact that you can’t rely on them anymore.

However there is a third option - ENGAGE. Optometrists just need to know you care about them, their goals and aspirations. As a practice manager/owner, your staff are your responsibility and engaging with them on different levels is part of that.

So how do we engage with an Optometrist?

3 ways:

1) Discuss their own aspirations and goals with them. They must know you care about their future (and you must genuinely do so). They may want to achieve further clinical qualifications in their career such as Independent Prescribing, Myopia Management, Medical Retina, Glaucoma and many more. Do your best to enroll them in these courses or signpost them. Some practices fund these courses for their Optometrists as part of a tie-in. It’s a win-win, you get to keep them with your practice and they get to pursue further skills at the same time.

They may want to go down the professional route in order to get their own practice down the line. Give them more responsibility at work, coach them through management skills and set them up for success. The skill-set they learn whilst doing this will benefit your practice too. When your Optometrist sees you taking an active part in their future and helping them achieve their goals, they will automatically want to help you achieve the practice aims and will then share the values of the business too.

2) Take them on the practice’s journey. Consult with them and take their feedback on board. Optometrists can see things from a different perspective. Inside the testroom, patient’s open up and it gives a variety of insights into the practice. This is all invaluable information. When someone feels involved in the journey, they take the wins and losses personally too. It drives them to achieve higher, sort out the problems and set the team up for success. They are now working towards a larger goal as they are invested in it too. You’ve taken them on the journey, through the highs and lows. Your Optometrist no longer feels isolated in their testroom but part of a larger team all sharing the same values.

3) Reward them! It’s vital to recognise good work, especially when they meet a target/KPI of something that you are working towards as a practice. It’s makes them feel valued and that their hard work isn’t unnoticed. There’s nothing worse than doing what your manager has asked of you, only for it to not be acknowledged. Rewards come in different ways; time back, vouchers, bonuses. See what works for your team. Your Optometrists will be a lot more engaged and will be even more determined after getting a taste of success.

Ultimately, it comes down to your leadership and people management. If it’s something your struggling with, get in touch with someone who does it well. I struggled with getting Optometrists engaged when I was an Optom Manager 7 years ago. I learnt from my director at the time, put certain things in place and had the team engaged who then went on to be an integral part of a successful practice.

Once you have this sorted, life becomes a lot easier. It’s easy to manage the shopfloor because you can see what’s happening. But what’s happening in the testroom? Is the Optometrist making the right recommendations? Have they explained the options? Once you have engaged Optometrists, this will be one less thing to worry about.

I hope this was of benefit to you. Share this valuable resource with fellow managers/owners looking to enhance Optometrist engagement. Together, let’s grow The Optics Room community and empower practices for success.

Regards,