26 August 2024
Being able to navigate conflict is a key skill when working in an optometry practice.
No matter how exceptional the service provided is, there is always room for a difference of opinion when hundreds of consumers come through a practice each week – each with their own preferences and views.
Jennie Jones is the head of the Optical Consumer Complaints Service (OCCS), which is funded by the General Optical Council to offer mediation between consumers and optical practices.
Between April 2023 and March 2024, the OCCS received 1757 complaints on a broad range of topics – from prescription errors to misdiagnosis concerns and disagreements over refunds.
Viewed in the context of the more than 12 million General Ophthalmic Service sight tests that are performed annually, complaints fielded by the OCCS represent a small proportion of overall sight test activity.
“A tiny proportion of complaints will escalate outside the practice and come to us,” Jones highlighted.
OCCS trends
Reflecting on trends over the past 12-months, Jones shared that the number of complaints received by the service rose by around 3% on the past year.
She added that complaint activity has stabilised following an uplift during the height of the pandemic.
“It was a more stressful time for everybody so that led to an uplift,” Jones said.
Cost of living pressures have seen an increase in people seeking advice and guidance from the service, Jones observed.
She noted that pressure on household finances has seen consumers more likely to challenge a service or product that does not meet their expectations.
“There is an increased tendency to complain or seek your money back if you're not entirely happy with either the service or the product you receive,” Jones shared.
Jones shared that continuing professional development activity has contributed to this downward trend.
She shared that an increase in complaints relating to domiciliary activity – from 42 to 98 – is another trend that the OCCS is monitoring.
As a proportion of total workload, domiciliary complaints remain small – accounting for 2.6% of all complaints received by the OCCS.
“It’s important that we can not only support consumers, but also that we help the profession working within this area,” Jones highlighted.
“We understand that we can’t hold optical professionals working in this part of the sector to a higher standard,” she added.
Navigating conflict
Jones emphasised the key role that practice team members play in navigating customer concerns and queries.
She shared that some people might feel more comfortable to share their worries or uncertainties outside of the consulting room.
“If consumers feel able to ask questions then you can generally nip things in the bud,” she said.
She shared that practice team staff can act as the “ears of the practice.”
“They can be a really invaluable source of information, not only from a clinical perspective, but also in terms of running the business successfully,” Jones said.
She observed that when faced with a conflict in practice, optical staff should approach the issue “side by side” with the consumer.
“It's not the consumer that’s the problem, it's the situation that's caused an issue, and if we work together, we'll be able to resolve that,” Jones said.
In terms of the steps that should be taken when a consumer raises an issue, Jones recommends acknowledging the person’s dissatisfaction before reassuring them that a clear process would be followed to address the issue.
“It’s about being really clear on what's going to happen next and when,” she said.
She also recommended finding out how the consumer would like the issue to be resolved.
“It’s not to say you’re going to give that to them or be able to wave a magic wand, but it shows the consumer that you want to understand what they are looking for,” she said.
She recommended that practice team members look at each complaint with “a fresh pair of eyes.”
“Each complaint is an individual situation. The consumer wants to feel heard and if they are not, their sense of frustration can be escalated,” Jones said.
How well a team is functioning together can influence whether complaints escalate, Jones added.
“If you have a team that is quite separated – where there is a ‘them and us’ culture – the consumer will pick up on that. They will pick up on that uneasiness in the body language when they are passed between different members of the team and that is going to have an effect in terms of their trust in the practice,” Jones said.
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