Disc 5: Warranties and Remakes
Disc five provides training for optical professionals on how poor warranty and remake policies can damage a practice. This disc provides your staff with the knowledge necessary to create successful policies for your practice and how to increase your patients’ satisfaction and confidence in their eyewear purchase.
The Evolution of Warranties
Warranties were first introduced to the industry in an effort to make opticians feel more confident dispensing new products. This section will provide training on how warranties were used to transition glass lens wearers into newer lens materials, bifocal lens wearers into progressive lenses, as well as introduce the anti-reflective lens technology.
The State of the Industry
As advancements in lens technology, designs and processes continued, more dependable, high performance lens products became available. Section two will provide training on how warranties, instead of fading away like manufacturers had planned, have become a crutch for inexperienced office staff as a get out of jail free card or even worse, as a sales focus.
The Pros & Cons of Warranties
Warranties enable you to be the hero and replace lenses under circumstances you feel are necessary, or under "normal use" occurrences. Section three illustrates how incorrectly positioned warranties can be damaging to your practice. When the warranty is recommended first instead of the features and benefits, the warranty often overshadows the merits of the lens product.
The Real Cost of Warranties
Are remakes really free? Section four helps practices to realize all the time and effort spent by staff dealing with patients who come in for replacements (time not spent generating revenue). Training also includes diminished patient confidence issues, resulting poor word of mouth and the extended buying cycle problem.
Developing a Plan
Section five provides guidance for practices by providing strategies for developing a plan consistent with their practice. Specific training topics include devoting more time to staff training, promoting lenses by benefits, recommending lenses with a top down approach and lens care and maintenance training for patients.
Easy to Understand Policies
If a practice must have a warranty program in their office, this section will help them create a clear and easy to understand policy. Specific training topics include charging a nominal fee for a warranty, documenting their warranty choice and offering a one-time replacement for a discounted amount.
Presenting the Plan
The presentation of a practice’s plan and having an easy to understand policy is very important. Section seven includes in-depth training on how to present warranties to patients in a way that is complimentary to the practice and not damaging.
A separate section on the disc features:
- Interactive review quizzes at the end of each section of training.
- A comprehensive test of the training material on the CD-ROM upon completion.
- A “Cost of Remakes Calculator” to help you determine the actual cost of warranty remakes in your practice.