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IN FOCUS Givers and takers John Hare tells Andrew McClean about the patients who sustain Black & Lizars Aperiod of consolidation has started at Black & Lizars with a focus on patients who value quality service amid changes to the wider landscape of optical practices in Scotland. Competitors such as Hakim Group have partnered with reputable independents while Duncan and Todd outlined expansion plans and large investment in its lens business. As competitors made moves, Black & Lizars was firmly set on delivering clinical excellence at its 11 practices, predominately based in Glasgow and Edinburgh. John Hare, owner of the optical group, told Optician there were no further changes planned after selling nine of its practices to Duncan and Todd in 2019. Hare has been at the helm for 15 years and operations were run by the group’s management team, but Covid-19 meant he adopted a more active role in the company. ‘Fundamentally, the focus of Black and Lizars has not changed in the way that we still want to do our best for patients. It’s been going for 193 years and our philosophy has always been service-led. This is what we do and the quality won’t be changing,’ Hare explained. John Hare, owner of Black & Lizars major changes to the group, he said it had reacted to shifts that had taken place around the optical practice group. ‘We have to acknowledge that the industry has moved and we recognise the company has to recover the time and energy spent on services. We have to start focusing on who wants to pay for it, who appreciates and values it to the the group provided services, rather than the ones who might be looking for an experience that costs less, Hare explained. SUSTAINABLE PATIENTS Hare described this method as a fine-tuning process that started when the pandemic hit and he became more active in the running of the company. Hare’s background “We have to acknowledge that the industry has moved and we recognise the company has to recover the time and energy spent on services.” VALUED SERVICES Hare said optometrists at Black & Lizars performed one-hour eye examinations, which afforded time for a full range of services to be delivered. He said: ‘Opticians are one of the few health providers that spends time regularly with a patient. You spend more physical time at your opticians than you do with a doctor or dentist. We provide lifelong care and deal with all the family. That isn’t going to change. That is ultimately our philosophy.’ While Hare did not anticipate extent that they’re willing to stay with us through to the end of the dispensing process. It’s a change brought about by what others are doing. ‘We have to know who are the givers and who are the takers, which is easy to do. You’ve got to match the capacity we have with the number of loyal givers.’ The concept of ‘loyal givers’ was the patients who Black & Lizars had long-standing and established relationships with. These were the patients who were invested in how in accounting meant he immediately looked at the numbers. ‘We emerged from pandemic more aware of the reality of where things were going commercially. I started going into stats that we’ve never previously looked at,’ Hare commented. ‘In the past, like many businesses, we would look at turnover as an easy thing to track. If turnover goes up everyone assumes it’s a sign of success but the process we’ve started is more sustainable.’ facebook.com/opticianonline Pandemic restrictions meant the number of people allowed in a practice at one time was reduced and when restrictions eased it was not immediately possible to hit the button on recalling patients. ‘We looked at the people who sustain us,’ Hare explained. ‘We came up with the concept of a sustainable patient, which meant the numbers of sight tests fell by around 50%. We’ve got no desire to get back to 100% because we knew if we did that, we would harm ourselves. It’s more of a partnership to give the best possible service. We have to become more sustainable and the patients gets the value because other service providers do not have the time to provide that level of care.’ The pandemic gave Black & Lizars the opportunity to look at how it operates differently and Hare noted patient attitudes had changed too, such as less desire to travel into city centres. ‘What we’ve seen is that the practices in the suburbs are more resilient than the ones in the city. More people are working from home and those who might have visited for a day out aren’t so keen to do that anymore. There’s a question over whether our city centre sites will be as strong as they were in the past,’ he said. QUALITY NOT QUANTITY Hare explained that 80% of its business came from 20% of its patients, and of that figure, twothirds were over 60. He added that Black & Lizars’ response to the pandemic was not to cast a wide net to bring the masses back but to keep its focus on providing quality service to those who valued it. ‘There’s an opportunity in spending more time with patients and understanding what more we can do to help. That might take us outside of our normal brief into wider healthcare, but it’s not a million miles away,’ he said. • 6 OPTICIAN 20 January 2023 opticianonline.net
page 7
Twitter @opticianonline efocusing efforts, trusting the process and emerging stronger were among the themes highlighted at a day conference and awards evening held by Black & Lizars on January 8. Nurturing energy R Andrew McClean reports from the Black & Lizars conference in Crieff Practice teams from the Scottish optical group convened at Crieff Hydro Hotel in Perth and Kinross for the first time since 2018. ‘In five years, a lot has changed,’ John Hare highlighted during the owner’s opening address to delegates. ‘For example, who knew what the term furlough meant before Covid-19? What would’ve been strange to us then is now accepted as normal.’ practice, which could be affecting business. She said low impact habits included a preference to refract the right eye before the left, which did not matter much to patient outcomes. However, high impact habits included common assumptions that led to missed opportunities, such as thinking that only patients who worked at desks required occupational lenses. Some ECPs also believed that if a patient ignored a recommendation last time, they will do so again and the service will not be offered. Hare said Black & Lizars was a smaller business than it was in 2018, but this helped the optical group navigate changes. He told the 60-strong team in attendance that the business was financially better placed to deal with pandemic-related challenges, such as patient’s searching for quick, easy options online and cheaper products because of the cost-of-living crisis. However, Hare noted that the longevity of Black & Lizars was something staff and patients could have confidence in. ‘Looking forward, in seven years’ time we will celebrate 200 years of Black & Lizars. It is a sign of how durable the company is that it has lasted 193 years. Trust our heritage and the way we have been operating,’ he said. PRESERVING ENERGY Hare said Black & Lizars should think about whether its efforts were generating or taking energy. ‘We don’t want to become exhausted,’ he said. He explained there were patients who were willing to share their appreciation by returning the energy the company gave to them and these ‘loyal givers’ should be prioritised. Hare identified that 63,000 patients drained energy from the company (72%) over the last 10 years, which equated to 6,000 a year who did not return appreciation. ‘Over 10 years, 53% were new Black & Lizars team at Crieff Hydro Hotel in Perth and Kinross patients. We were filling clinics with new patients, which was too random. We devoted our time and they went elsewhere. These takers damage the business,’ he said. He said the 10-year findings were reflected in weekly and monthly statistics, and Black & Lizars was now operating with a four-month recall backlog for ‘loyal givers’. Looking forward, Hare said change was currently taking place and, although it could be turbulent, the state of things would improve. ‘The Covid years were chapters one and two. Chapters three and four will be bumpy, but society will be better by chapter five. We need to think about how this transition takes place and protect our energy in order to thrive. The energy at Black & Lizars needs looking after and with more energy, the stronger we’ll be,’ he concluded. BACK TO BASICS Hare’s opening address was followed by Amy Baig, head of professional services at Nikon, who presented on the art of communication in dispensing. Baig drew on her 16 years’ experience as a dispensing optician and practice manager, and told attendees that the key to effective communication was not what was said but how it was said. When discussing how to optimise communications between the practice team and patients, she explained: ‘There’s no magic formula. This a is a back to basics approach.’ Baig shared results from a survey of optometrists and dispensing opticians that identified points in the patient journey where communication could be improved. When asked what the biggest challenge was when converting from sight test to dispense, reasons included that the patient was happy with their current spectacles or they had concerns about prices. Baig noted these reasons were closely linked to value for patients, which related to an understanding of the recommendations made in practice. ‘Sow the seed earlier about benefits of lenses, for example,’ she suggested as a way to improve awareness of how products could improve a patient’s lifestyle. Asked what further support would improve conversion, optometrists said visual solutions were suggested to patients every time, but dispensing opticians said this only happened half the time when patients were handed over to a dispensing team. ‘Patients have to consistently hear what they need to convert from the testing room to the dispense,’ Baig said. CHANGING OUTCOMES Baig also explained the concept of low and high impact habits that all eye care professionals (ECPs) do in Baig asked attendees to think about common phrases used in practice to highlight how patient outcomes were affected by what practitioners said. These included: ‘Would you like to look at frames today?’, ‘No change in prescription’, and ‘Come back if a problem occurs.’ Baig said these phrases could all lead to the practice not converting from test to dispense. A group discussion identified that asking about the condition of frames and if the patient was nearing the end of their warranty could create an opportunity to sell a new pair of spectacles. ‘You can normalise a change of specs by finding out what would make them happier and improve wear,’ Baig said. If no or minimal change in prescription was identified during the eye examination, then the term ‘stable prescription’ was noted by one attendee as more appropriate because ‘no change’ indicated the patient did not need to buy new frames. It was also noted by Baig that lifestyle changes continually occur, such as the increased use of screens during lockdown, and these should be highlighted to patients. Suggesting a patient come back to the practice if they experienced a problem implied they would encounter an issue, Baig said. Instead, highlighting aftercare services and not the problems that might be encountered would be more beneficial to the practice. • opticianonline.net 20 January 2023 OPTICIAN 7

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IN FOCUS

Givers and takers John Hare tells Andrew McClean about the patients who sustain Black & Lizars

Aperiod of consolidation has started at Black & Lizars with a focus on patients who value quality service amid changes to the wider landscape of optical practices in Scotland.

Competitors such as Hakim Group have partnered with reputable independents while Duncan and Todd outlined expansion plans and large investment in its lens business.

As competitors made moves, Black & Lizars was firmly set on delivering clinical excellence at its 11 practices, predominately based in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

John Hare, owner of the optical group, told Optician there were no further changes planned after selling nine of its practices to Duncan and Todd in 2019.

Hare has been at the helm for 15 years and operations were run by the group’s management team, but Covid-19 meant he adopted a more active role in the company.

‘Fundamentally, the focus of Black and Lizars has not changed in the way that we still want to do our best for patients. It’s been going for 193 years and our philosophy has always been service-led. This is what we do and the quality won’t be changing,’ Hare explained.

John Hare, owner of Black & Lizars major changes to the group, he said it had reacted to shifts that had taken place around the optical practice group.

‘We have to acknowledge that the industry has moved and we recognise the company has to recover the time and energy spent on services. We have to start focusing on who wants to pay for it, who appreciates and values it to the the group provided services, rather than the ones who might be looking for an experience that costs less, Hare explained.

SUSTAINABLE PATIENTS Hare described this method as a fine-tuning process that started when the pandemic hit and he became more active in the running of the company. Hare’s background

“We have to acknowledge that the industry has moved and we recognise the company has to recover the time and energy spent on services.”

VALUED SERVICES Hare said optometrists at Black & Lizars performed one-hour eye examinations, which afforded time for a full range of services to be delivered. He said: ‘Opticians are one of the few health providers that spends time regularly with a patient. You spend more physical time at your opticians than you do with a doctor or dentist. We provide lifelong care and deal with all the family. That isn’t going to change. That is ultimately our philosophy.’ While Hare did not anticipate extent that they’re willing to stay with us through to the end of the dispensing process. It’s a change brought about by what others are doing.

‘We have to know who are the givers and who are the takers, which is easy to do. You’ve got to match the capacity we have with the number of loyal givers.’

The concept of ‘loyal givers’ was the patients who Black & Lizars had long-standing and established relationships with. These were the patients who were invested in how in accounting meant he immediately looked at the numbers.

‘We emerged from pandemic more aware of the reality of where things were going commercially. I started going into stats that we’ve never previously looked at,’ Hare commented.

‘In the past, like many businesses, we would look at turnover as an easy thing to track. If turnover goes up everyone assumes it’s a sign of success but the process we’ve started is more sustainable.’

facebook.com/opticianonline

Pandemic restrictions meant the number of people allowed in a practice at one time was reduced and when restrictions eased it was not immediately possible to hit the button on recalling patients. ‘We looked at the people who sustain us,’ Hare explained. ‘We came up with the concept of a sustainable patient, which meant the numbers of sight tests fell by around 50%. We’ve got no desire to get back to 100% because we knew if we did that, we would harm ourselves. It’s more of a partnership to give the best possible service. We have to become more sustainable and the patients gets the value because other service providers do not have the time to provide that level of care.’

The pandemic gave Black & Lizars the opportunity to look at how it operates differently and Hare noted patient attitudes had changed too, such as less desire to travel into city centres.

‘What we’ve seen is that the practices in the suburbs are more resilient than the ones in the city. More people are working from home and those who might have visited for a day out aren’t so keen to do that anymore. There’s a question over whether our city centre sites will be as strong as they were in the past,’ he said.

QUALITY NOT QUANTITY Hare explained that 80% of its business came from 20% of its patients, and of that figure, twothirds were over 60. He added that Black & Lizars’ response to the pandemic was not to cast a wide net to bring the masses back but to keep its focus on providing quality service to those who valued it.

‘There’s an opportunity in spending more time with patients and understanding what more we can do to help. That might take us outside of our normal brief into wider healthcare, but it’s not a million miles away,’ he said. •

6 OPTICIAN 20 January 2023

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