Motivating Dispensary Staff

Motivating Dispensary Staff

Motivating Dispensary Staff

Motivation comes in many forms; the key is keeping initiatives fresh and within dispensary control.

By Valerie A. L. Manso, BA, ABOC, FNAO

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Opticians are motivated to sell products by a variety of factors. The main driver for most opticians is the desire to do the right thing for their clients—ie, provide them with eyewear that will keep them safe, healthy, and seeing well. What they perceive as best meeting these criteria is almost always a product they are familiar with.

External motivation—external to the optician’s interaction with the client, not necessarily external to the dispensary—can be a powerful way to encourage opticians to try new products or reach certain business goals that the dispensary manager has identified as important for the practice. Use of external motivators should be carefully controlled so that they enable the dispensary to reach predetermined goals without becoming a drain on the practice.

Monetary Rewards

Money is a universal motivator and works particularly well when the goal is to change behavior. Monetary rewards can, for example, give staff members the incentive they need to break out of their comfort zone and try a new product or technology that the practice has identified as potentially beneficial for clients. In this situation, the practice may offer each optician a small monetary reward, perhaps $2 each time they sell a specific type of lens.

Individual monetary rewards are also appropriate for helping a dispensary reach specific sales goals. These rewards can be straightforward (as in the example above) or designed to stimulate healthy competition between staff members. For example, opticians may get points for every pair of XYZ lenses sold. At the end of a month, the optician with the most points wins a prize—typically a predetermined amount of money.

Monetary rewards can also be used to help the practice move in a new direction. Perhaps the neighborhood that the practice is in is experiencing gentrification and the practice is looking to transition its dispensary from middle-market to high-end clientele and products. In cases like this, where the goal is to move the business in a new direction, team objectives are often effective.

Not only do team goals get everyone in the dispensary involved, they create positive peer pressure among coworkers so that all feel they must pull their own weight in pursuit of the group’s goals. If the goals are met, each optician may receive a predetermined monetary reward, or the group may “win” an outing to a sporting event or restaurant, which is worth a certain amount of money, but is not necessarily money in the staff member’s pocket.

While monetary rewards can be the spark that encourages opticians to try new technologies and sell new products, there is potential for these types of rewards to cause problems. Dispensary managers must consider the length of the offer. It takes at least 30 days to make a lasting change in behavior, but rewards lose their freshness after about 45 days. So, monetary incentives should continue no more than 45 days.

Incentives should be designed to keep staff members thinking about what they are doing and engaged in the patient’s product selection process; if the incentive period is too long, recommending the product will lose its excitement. Even more problematic, continuous incentives could turn staff members into product pushers who always recommend the same product because they are rewarded every time they do. Limiting the duration of the incentive eliminates this danger.

Additionally, all monetary rewards should be carefully tied into the practice’s business goals. Properly structured incentives boost the practice’s bottom line, not reduce it. 

Incentives from Manufacturers

“Spiffing,” the act of providing something of value in exchange for the sale of a particular product or brand, is a fairly common practice in the optical field. Lens companies tend to provide the most “spiffs,” while frame companies and laboratories do so to a lesser degree. Such spiffs—which can take the form of money, free trial pairs, and small prizes such as gas cards—can be useful, if the dispensary manager mandates that all spiffs from manufacturers go to the dispensary not to individual opticians.

By mandating that all company incentives go through the dispensary manager—spiffs may never be sent to addresses outside the dispensary—practices are able to control any influence such a spiff might have on product recommendations.

In addition to being channeled through the dispensary manager, all manufacturers’ incentives should be tied into practice goals. For example, a dispensary manager might call a manufacturer and say, “I see you have a promotion running during the month of October for product X. We would like to try that product in our practice, but we have other promotions going on in our practice during that period. Could you switch your offer to November, when our opticians will be able to give your product the necessary attention?” It makes good sense for dispensary managers to utilize manufacturer promotions, which cut reward costs for the dispensary. But the practice’s goals must come before manufacturers’ goals.

Non-monetary Rewards

While money is a great motivator, it certainly is not the only way to rev up staff members to sell new products. Recognition is extremely powerful, and should always be employed as a means to elicit great performance. For instance, I have seen employees perform better than ever because they were named “employee of the month.” Putting an employee’s picture up on the wall, having an “employee of the month” parking spot, and letting the employee choose the meal for his or her celebration lunch costs the practice very little but can be a significant motivator.

Everyone from CEO to assistant janitor craves recognition for a job well done, and providing a means to offer such recognition makes employees mindful that their work, whether it is the number of frames they sell or their demeanor with clients, is being noticed. 

Role of the Manager
 
Implementing reward systems is a good way to motivate staff members, but it is up to managers to keep employees aware of how these rewards, and their performance in pursuit of them, relates to the bigger picture of patient care and practice success. Key to this effort is the manager keeping the staff continually abreast of where the dispensary stands in relation to its stated goals.

Sales goals can be broken up by employee, by day, week, or month. (When looking at per employee sales, the numbers should be stated in terms of sales per face-to-face hour with clients; this evens up employees who work part time or have duties in addition to selling.) If the team, or an individual, is within reach of a goal, the manager should let the employee know how much he or she needs to sell to reach the goal and encourage the employee to get there. Communicating proximity to dispensary-wide, as well as individual, sales goals will help employees see how their contributions fit into the overall plan for the dispensary and encourages staff members to stay focused on the goals set for them.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Opticians are motivated primarily by the desire to provide their clients with the products they need for good vision. But within this mindset, it is easier to stay with the tried and true than branch out and try new products. In order to encourage opticians to step out of their comfort zone, external motivation is often appropriate. Monetary rewards work best as motivation to change behavior or move the dispensary in a new direction. Monetary and similar incentives should be relatively short-term (between 30 and 45 days) and should always come through the dispensary manager. Non-monetary rewards, such as naming an employee of the month, can also encourage a high level of performance. Recognition is inexpensive, but effective. Finally, dispensary managers provide essential motivation by communicating how close the practice, staff, or an individual optician is to achieving sales goals. 

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Valerie A. L. Manso, BA, ABOC, FNAO, is president of Manso Management Resources, a training and development consulting company for the ophthalmic industry. She was assisted in the preparation of this manuscript by Refractive Eyecare associate editor Diana Friedman.