The POWER of Optical

From an e-mail from Gil Catino in Wilmington:

Peter,

We crossed a daily sales threshold at the Porters Neck office yesterday that could not have been done without a stellar optical day. For the past 8 years since I graduated I have concentrated on the professional side of practice and have given very little thought into the optical side. After seeing first hand sales what a practice can do with a great optical, it has made me realize how important our job is to provide our patients with good quality eye wear along with their professional exam. I have made a commitment to myself, my patients, and the Bottom Line to improve and provide the best optical service I can in each office I practice. I am glad the organization is committed to providing training to each a every staff member to continue to improve our optical as a group. I am off to Washington on Tuesday ready to come back with some ideas to make our big optical days more of an occurrence. I really do see how a little of time spent in the lane giving recommendations gives huge paybacks to a practice's daily sales. I have really been missing the boat for all these years, believe me that will change.

Gil

Not Wearing Varifocal Glasses During Outdoor Activities May Lower Seniors' Fall Risk.

Not Wearing Varifocal Glasses During Outdoor Activities May Lower Seniors' Fall Risk.

BBC News (5/26) reports that, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal, "many falls could be prevented if older people do not wear varifocal glasses while out and about." In a study of "600 people aged either over 80 or over 65 with a history of falls," half of whom "were given single lens glasses for going out" and half of whom were not, Australian researchers found that those who went outdoors regularly while wearing single focal lenses experienced 40% fewer falls. Therefore, the study authors advised seniors to wear single focal glasses while performing outdoor activities in spite of the inconvenience of having to change glasses.

Great Customer Service.......

From Neil Gailmard, OD good advice:

I made the point just two weeks ago in tip # 431, but I'll repeat it here. Great customer service is very hard to deliver when the fee schedule is value oriented.

Raise your fees in general and you'll find it is much easier to let patients win these scenarios. If vision plans are very dominant in your practice, raise the fees anyway.

What are business cards for?

Speaking with Chris Padgett, OD at the Doctors meeting he shared with me what he uses his business cars for.  He gives one to each of his patients ("I go through a lot of business cards!") and asks them to refer their friends and family.  They might do that anyhow but asking may make this more successful.

I've been an advocate of giving each patient a business card at the conclusion of an examination saying something like this:

"I am personally responsible for everything that happens (or does not happen!) in this office.  And we try hard to make certain that we meet or exceed your expectations.  If for some reason we ever fail to do that I'd like you to contact me personally so that I can correct whatever it is that has occurred."

My business card has both my DVC E-mail address as well as my cell phone number.  I want any patient with an issue to be able to contact me directly.  If a patient is unhappy with anything in my office I am confident that I can correct the problem about 99% of the time.  I am not going to worry about the 1% that I can't help -- but I WILL try.

Who is the captain of your ship, the CEO of your office?