Playbook, optician
Reading frame measurements out without choosing a frame for anybody
A frame carries its own measurements printed on the inside of the side, and those are facts that can be read out. What cannot be read out is whether this frame suits this face, or whether it will take this prescription, and both of those arrive inside the same sentence.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for sizing and fit holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- Frames are described by three numbers printed inside the side, the lens width, the bridge and the length of the side, so a customer quoting the numbers from a pair they already own is asking something genuinely answerable.
- The bridge is the measurement that decides whether a frame sits or slides, and a narrower bridge fit is a different frame rather than the same frame adjusted, which is not obvious to anybody who has never been told.
- A frame can fit a face perfectly and still be ruled out by the prescription: a varifocal needs a deep enough lens, a strong prescription is thick at the edge of a large one, and a rimless mount is drilled into the lens itself.
- The fitting is not finished when the frame is chosen, because the height of the eye in the frame is measured with the customer wearing it, and a varifocal glazed to the wrong height is unusable even when the prescription is right.
How it arrives
- what do the numbers inside my glasses mean
- do you have frames for a narrow bridge
- will varifocals work in a small frame
- my glasses keep sliding down what size do i need
- can i get rimless with a strong prescription
- what size are the frames on your website
What has to be indexed for this to work
| How frame measurements are written and what each one means | Lens width, bridge and side length, and where somebody finds them on a pair they already own. This is the one part of fit that is a published fact rather than a judgement about a person. |
|---|---|
| Which ranges cover unusual fits | Narrow, wide, low bridge, small adult, children's. Name the ranges rather than individual frames, because a range survives a display being changed and a single frame does not. |
| What a prescription rules out, described in general terms | That a varifocal needs a deep frame, that a strong prescription behaves differently in a large lens, and that rimless mounts are drilled. Explaining the constraint is safe. Applying it to one person is not. |
| What the dispensing appointment measures | The height of the eye in the chosen frame, the fit across the nose and behind the ear, and why those are taken with the frame on. It is what makes waiting for the appointment reasonable rather than a delay. |
The reply
There are three numbers printed inside the side of a pair of glasses: the lens width, the bridge and the length of the side, and if a pair you already own sits well those numbers are the useful starting point [1]. If frames slide down, the bridge is usually what is doing it, and we carry ranges cut for a narrower bridge [2]. Whether a particular frame will take your prescription is a separate question, because a varifocal needs a deep enough lens and a strong prescription behaves differently in a large one. That is for the dispensing optician with the frame on your face.
It hands over the one genuinely factual part of fit, the measurements, and shows the customer where to find them for themselves. It names the bridge as the cause of the specific complaint without telling anybody what to buy. And the prescription constraint is explained in general and then given to the person who can apply it.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor gives their prescription figures, describes their face, or asks the assistant to pick a frame or say whether one will suit them.
I can read measurements out, but matching a frame to a prescription and a face is what the dispensing appointment is for. Come in with your prescription, or leave me your name and an email and the team will go through it with you.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say a frame will suit a customer's face, their features or their prescription.
- Never say a varifocal will work in a frame the customer has named.
- Never say a frame can be adjusted to fix a fit that the bridge measurement decides.
- Never quote a measurement for a frame that is not in your own published material.
Questions
- Can it help somebody choosing from our website?
- It can read measurements out and explain what each one means, which is most of what a frame page is missing. It cannot choose, and a chosen frame that then cannot take the lenses is a job you pay to undo.
- Why can it not just compare with their old glasses?
- It can compare numbers the customer supplies, and that is genuinely useful. What it must not do is turn the comparison into a recommendation, because the prescription has not been in the conversation at all.
- Is the fitting height worth explaining?
- For anybody asking about varifocals, yes. It is the clearest reason the dispensing appointment exists, and it kills the assumption that a frame can be bought and lenses simply posted into it later.
Keep reading
- Everything for a opticianEye test prices, NHS entitlement, frame ranges and prescription rules are all answerable. Vision symptoms are not.
- Handling sizing and fit in generalThe highest volume pre-purchase question in clothing and the biggest driver of returns. Quote the chart, never guess a size for a person.
- Which broken glasses can be sorted while somebody waitsMost optician repairs are a two minute job at the counter. Some are not, and some frames are no longer made.
- Sending back a pair of glasses that was made for one personMade to order lenses sit outside the usual change of mind rules. What a practice offers instead, and the adaptation period.
- Answering where my glasses are with no view of the laboratoryA single vision lens and a complex varifocal come back on different timescales. What to say when nothing can be looked up.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.