Lens remakes are the bane of any optometrist’s existence.
Not only are they costly for both the practice and the labs, but they also create frustration with patients and clients who may have to endure one or more lens remakes before they are actually able to see clearly.
No one wants them and every optician and optometrist works hard up-front to avoid them.
However, they do happen every now and then.
Why?
Well, unfortunately, sometimes a lab will make a mistake and get the script wrong.
Sometimes what a patient thought was “clear vision” during the exam isn’t so “clear” when they actually put the finished glasses on.
Other times, we just need to “tweak” a prescription and lens a few times, especially for new progressive wearers or people with complex vision correction needs like prism.
In very rare instances, a person’s vision may literally change between the refraction and the delivery of the finished frame and lenses.
In all of these cases, we continue to work with the patient until we get the finished product right, and often we do this at considerable extra cost to Urban Optiques – both in additional lab rework fees and the staff’s time. It’s just part of the process of providing good vision care and an accepted cost of business for us (even though we want to minimize it.)
The good news is that when we actually perform the eye exam and refraction at Urban Optiques, we have an extremely low remake rate. There are few specific reasons for this, which I’ll touch on a bit later.
But first, let me tell you about a recent “mystery” at Urban Optiques around remakes.
Last month, Sunglasses Magazine — the leading trade magazine for buyers and sellers of quality sunwear — approached us about doing a interview and profile on Urban Optiques in the magazine’s regular “Sun Selling: How the Pros Do It” column.
The magazine’s editor, Ana Montoya, discovered Urban Optiques online, and was intrigued by the way we use our website to present and promote our eyewear and sunwear online.
Ana wanted to know if we’d like to be interviewed as an example of a full-scope optometry practice that also put a strong emphasis on sunwear product alongside our vision health care services.
Since the whole vision behind Urban Optiques is to literally change the experience of going to the eye doctor from something sterile and clinical, to something exciting, high-touch and memorable, we were happy to see Sunglasses Magazine describe our website as “stylish” and our practice as out-of-the-ordinary.
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This afternoon the buzz around Urban Optiques was all about the video: Specifically the launch of Optiques TV, our new YouTube Channel dedicated to keeping our clients and patients (and the world, really) in the know around eyewear trends and vision care health.
For the launch of Urban Optiques TV, we decided to put together a fast-paced, stylized video featuring one of our favorite (and most popular) eyewear designers and manufacturers: Lafont.
The whole idea was to produce a music-video inspired short film that brought Lafont’s nearly 100 year tradition of crafting chic, dazzling French eyewear together with images of the world’s most fashionable and romantic city.
Since purchasing Urban Optiks from Dr. Rob Diegel this month, we’ve had a number of clients and patients ask why we made a name change.
After all, Urban Optiks and its neon “Eye Exams” sign has been a prominent downtown-Northville fixture for years, and renaming a business can not only cost you considerable money but it can also cause confusion among existing clients.
The answer, surprisingly, is actually quite simple: We did it because of the Internet.
We actually loved the name “Urban Optiks” from the start and our initial intent was to continue operating under the “Urban Optiks” moniker. People knew the name, they knew our product and it would have cost us a lot less as a business to keep it — no need to retool our logo, letterhead or signage.
However, because Dr. Diegel also has an optometry practice in Indianapolis that shared the same name as the Northville “Urban Optiks” location, there were certain consequences from an Internet perspective that we had to take into consideration — namely, how would we share a domain name for multiple locations that offer very different eyewear lines and potentially, different promotions?