Not being able to respond to patient objections in your optometric practice can hurt your optical dispensing sales and could affect the relationship with the patient. As an OD, you give your patient guidance for specialists they should see, treatment plans, and lens recommendations. However, the final decision on what should happen is entirely up to the patient.
So, what do you do when your patient objects to your suggestions? Below are three tips to help you respond to patient objections in your optometric practice.
How To Respond To An Objection In Your Optometric Practice
Hear Them Out
Hearing a patient say no, or tell you a common objection reason is frustrating. However, while the objection means that you and your staff are going to have to do a bit more work to pursuade your patient, you are given the opportunity to work towards handling the objection instead of letting the patient leave.
When your patient voices an objection to a treatment plan or your suggestions for frames, listen to their complaints to get a better understanding of how you can respond.
Probe For Clarity
Usually, the patient won’t disclose the entire reason why they are objecting. Whether they say the price is too high, they want to keep shopping around, or that they have to check with someone else, odds are there’s more to the story.
As with conflict resolution practices, you’ll want to ask open-ended questions to uncover what’s really going on and pinpoint the precise reason as to why they are objecting. Once you have pinpointed the main reason, you can develop your response.
Show Value
When a patient objects, it’s a sign that they are on the fence. This is the time to reinforce your value proposition and use what you’ve learned from questioning them to respond to their objection. Take the patient’s pain points and use them to highlight the value of your suggestions. If the patient says that your frames are too expensive, remind them of the value they receive by purchasing frames from their OD. If they continue to say that the frames are too expensive, then ask more questions to figure out if there’s another reason behind the objection.
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