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The five not-so-easy steps to optical success

by Bill Gardner Jr.      First, let me say that if you have an optical dispensary you have hopefully

gotten over "it being just a convenience for your patients." Having an optical dispensary is an integral part of the modern ophthalmology practice model but success isn't guaranteed.Having a dispensary puts you in a completely different business and in a large percentage of times forces you to make decisions based on limited knowledge or information about optical retail. Whether you are the owner/doctor or the administrator knowing or learning about the business you are in will only help you be as successful as possible in future. Here are what I consider to be the five most important steps to having a successful optical operation. 

1. Have a plan for your optical business

It is nearly impossible to be successful in any business if you haven't any idea about what you need to spend/generate from or on materials, payroll, marketing, general overhead, etc. The same holds true for your optical dispensary business. You must understand how much revenue you can expect from each order as well as totals for each day, week and month. What are you going charge for the products that you are providing your patients. Will that price deliver the desired return on the practice's investment in fixtures, equipment, inventory, and personnel? How many orders you are capable of producing in any given time frame? Compile that information into a sound business plan that also includes demographic data, a marketing plan and timelines to hit specific business goals that you have set. Develop goals for important benchmarks like capture rate, average selling price per order, optician productivity, inventory turnover, as well key financial performance goals. Having a plan allows you to plan for success rather than letting luck or happenstance dictate your optical business future.

2. Work your plan

Once you make decisions about goals and targets for your optical, you will need to develop systems and processes to track and monitor performance to those goals. Being able to have the information needed to make sound business decisions is key to your success. Failure to monitor progress toward your goals makes success much more allusive. From the information you gather you should be able to easily determine if you have the correct inventory mix in place, or if your optical staff needs to be retrained on a certain aspect of the dispensary operation. You can also use this information to help you understand your growth opportunity, and to manage your optical staff, help you set incentive/bonus programs, etc. Your monitoring process can and should be simple easy to compile and more importantly be easy to read for the executive in charge.

3. Hire, train, and reward great people

Your optical staff is crucial to your optical success. That simple statement is probably the most important sentence in this article. Your optical staff not only needs to be technically sound but also must be patient focused. I have preached for years about how important it is to patient and outcome focused.Practices that I have worked with over the last 15 years that understand this principle are also some of the most successful. You and your optical staff should make sure that you have a sound business plan, offer fair and competitive service and price, then focus on providing your patients with the best possible vision that you can possibly provide. Believe it or not but it is my experience that patients need, want, and will pay for the best vision possible. The ability to deliver those best vision outcomes is your competitive advantage. You can only accomplish this outcome with great people. Make sure once you hire great people that you continually train and retrain them. The pace of innovation in frame and lens technology is so fast that only well timed and regularly scheduled training classes will keep them up to date. The old saying "what gets rewarded gets done" holds true with your optical staff also. Great people need to be challenged and rewarded when they are successful. Probably the most expensive business cost is employee turnover. Reward you staff according and your turnover can be kept to minimum.

4. Include optical In your clinic process

There is and always will be a barrier or obstacle between the clinic and retail optical. Being able to break down this barrier is key to your optical success. Making optical a part of the exam process lessens the impact this issue will have on your practice. Getting the clinic to understand the value of your optical first to your patients and secondly to the practice is crucial. As stated above, optical's responsibility is to deliver the best vision, and it should be understood by all in the practice. After all, who is best capable of delivering that best outcome? Hopefully, you will answer that it is your practice and your optical that has that skill. Once a refracted patient leaves your office to go somewhere else to purchase their eyeglasses, you have risked losing them forever. Most large commercial optical retailers provide exams next door to their retail. When they purchase eyewear there they get captured

into their database for future marketing efforts. Think of ways to retain those patients in your practice.

5. Monitor and modify your plan

Use your plan to help you manage your optical. Set up processes and tracking systems to make sure it is working. When you are not achieving according to the plan, determine why and make corrections before they become critical. Monitor performance to your plan at least monthly. Quarterly you need to review your performance to the plan and make adjustments if necessary—start from the beginning once a year. Revising goals and targets is essential to maintaining strong growth. Once you reach critical growth targets it gets much more difficult to achieve progress and continue your growth so being more creative is key. Successful practices have successful optical dispensaries and more satisfied patients. I encourage you to find the ways that will produce best vision for more of your patients and more financial success for your practice. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bill Gardner Jr. is an ophthalmology business development manager for Essilor Laboratories of America (Dallas) supervising the growth in the Ophthalmology Optical Dispensing consulting program. He is an American Board of Opticianry-approved speaker with seminars on basic optical skills, professional selling, dispensary management topics, and dispensary benchmarking that he has presented at numerous state, regional, and national ophthalmology meetings including the ASCRS ASOA annual meeting. He can

be reached atbgardner@essilorusa.com or 502-797-7785.