Walk Your Talk Vol 6

10. September 2013

Our bright-eyed consultant Merike makes sure that every one of our clients gets a thorough answer to anything they need to know before their laser eye surgery. Hers is the friendly voice you’ll hear when you call us. Some clients might even be lucky enough to see her smiling face in reception when visiting!

Merike said that even though the clients she speaks to on the phone and meets at the clinic have generally similar questions and problems, the two ways of communicating require very different skills from her. “When I see a client face-to-face, I can read out a lot from their body language. On the phone I sometimes have to guess how they’re feeling and what they’re not telling me because I only have their voice to go from.”

What helps her to connect with our clients is her own laser procedure experience. “Because I’ve had laser eye surgery myself, I can tell our clients all about what goes on in the operating room, so they’d know what to expect. And I always tell them how the procedure completely changed my life! I think that really helps to calm them down.” What Merike remembers most from her pre-surgery life is catching the bus on a rainy day and having the feeling of “ending up in a fish bowl” because of misty glasses. And how her bad vision caused a lot of trouble when swimming – which she does a lot, because that’s been her favourite hobby since she was little.

“19th of January 2011 – I will always remember the date! It was before I started working at KSA. Even though I had looked forward to the procedure for so long, I was really nervous on the day. After the surgery I realised that I had worried too much. It all went so quickly – I felt like the surgeon wasn’t doing anything to my eyes, but to something behind a glass wall near my eyes. When Dr Haavel said that he was all done, I had to ask him to be reassured, because I couldn’t believe how fast and comfortable the whole procedure was!”

“I can honestly say, without exaggerating, that my life changed that day. My vision was poor already in primary school and I thought that I had to just accept it and live with it. So the procedure was a dream come true for me! I still sometimes can’t believe that I can see that well with my own eyes!”