visionomics ®

Maximizing Opportunities

Visionomics,®, a series of COPE- and ABO-approved business-building courses, will be held at this year’s International Vision Expo East and International Vision Expo West shows. The courses focus on strategies for assessing and maximizing practice profitability. In this series of articles, Eyecare Business—the official trade media partner for Visionomics—will feature some of the program’s speakers.

This month, Carole Burns, OD, FCOVD, CEO of Professional Vision Care in Ohio, presents excerpts from her course, Maximizing Opportunities in Your Practice, which she will present this month at Vision Expo East.

What’s your mission? Do you and your staff live it every day? Do patients know it? When patients enter our office, they see our mission statement, “We change lives through innovative vision care,” on a wall—literally printed on the wall itself.

This mission acts as a promise to our patients, on which all staff agrees: We prescribe everything patients need to maximize their performance and improve the health of their eyes; however, we leave all financial decisions to the patients. Most important, we treat patients as we would a family member or a best friend.

NEW PATIENTS

In this economy, how do we fill our practice? Maximize opportunities for obtaining new patients with five steps in the patient experience:

■ Reception
■ Pre-test
■ Exam room
■ Dispensing
■ Recall

Here are just a few examples—at the reception area and in optical—of how to expand your opportunities.

RECEPTION. At the reception area, always ask patients for patients. If the patient has insurance, look up the due dates of each family member.

Say something like, “Mrs. Jones, welcome to our office today. Please verify this information to be sure nothing has changed, and I wanted to let you know that Johnny and Susie are both two months overdue for their vision care. Since they are in third and fourth grade, their eyes are changing as fast as their shoe size. I have two appointments after school next week, and normally those book quickly.”

DISPENSARY. In the optical, highlight benefits, not features, and reduce the tech talk.

Give them one feature that they will go home and tell others about, “Honey, you need to get your glasses treated so you will see better at night” or “We need to send mom in to….”

Be sure to expose patients to new and different products and categories. For example, offer spectacle-wearing patients an opportunity to try CLs while selecting their frames. This will allow many patients to better see what they would look like in new frames, and also to experience contact lenses in a non-committal manner.

The bottom line is this: Everyone can ask for patients. All you have to say is, “The greatest compliment you can give is to refer a family or friend for the same high-quality vision care you received from me today.”