CL wearers and Backup Glasses
Just wondering what percentage of contact lens patients are purchasing glasses also. Our office has been struggling with cl patients not buying the glasses they need even with a lot of doctor recommendation. She walks them out to me and we discuss what they need and they still aren't buying. What are you doing to improve the capture rate? Any suggestions would be very helpful. We are a single Dr. practice and seeing a disturbing trend. HELP!!!
I can't speak for everyone, but I'm sure you're not the only one. Contact patients are the 'knowitalls' of all of our customers. They know their 6 year old glasses are fine. They know they can wear their bi-weeklys for a month, and they definatly know that they only have to wear their glasses when they run out of contacts.
Its a tough thing, you can't force them to buy. Scare tactics sometimes work. If you have a patient you know is overwearing their lenses, find some slides of corneal ulcers, etc etc. "These are your eyes with a backup pair of glasses, these are your eyes without." It doesn't always work, but sometimes it takes a bit more than doctor recomendations. :hammer:
The thing though is if they wear their glasses only before bed, even if the RX is a little off, they may not see the need to buy new glasses. It is not like they are driving in them.
I think we have to educate them on the importance of maintaining and not overwearing their contacts. If they know, they will buy glasses.
Make it an agreement to wearing CLs. When ever a patient runs out of contacts don't be so quick to grab the trials tell the patient it's a good thign they have back up glasses, then wait for th epause and the answer.
If the answer is yes I do, then your OK.
If the answer is yes I do but I don't like wearing them, then offer a set of trials.
If the answer is No I don't, then tell them part of their agreement with the doctor is to make sure they always have a back up pair for emergency situations, then from their let your office policy dictate the rule. (provide a trial pair on the condition they purchase a pair of glasses, heres where you drive the nail in the coffin offer to fax the Rx to the patient and tell them untill they come in with a pair of back up glasses or place an order for them you cannot provide trial lenses, place the order for contact lenses and have the patient wait)
Harry, i love that idea, but don't want to "Offend" our patients. I guess that has to be done carefully, and with a little Dr. diplomacy.
Sometimes it's a matter of economics and/or justification of spending extra for their eyecare. You could start a discount program for CL wearers. Get inexpensive frames or use discoed frames for their selection. Give a % off your lenses also.
Between educating to them the need for back-up along with making it more affordable for them, you will see an increase.
It works, but you don't want to enforce it like the gustapo, you make the patient constantly aware that they are breaking agreements when they don't have a back up pair. If offending your patients means provideing exceptional care the problem isn't offending them it's taking the sting off of the policy. Try offering a discount on frame and lenses, make it large if they purchase a year supply of contacts as well. Offer options to satisfy your patient but if you make it to easy their is no need to listen to yoru advice to get a new pair, because you end up sending a message that their is an unlimited suply of trials to cover her when she's non-compliant.Originally Posted by melvilletim
Ever had someone actually upset at you because you were out of their power trial? We try not to breed that expectation and it's tough, but it's fair.
All great ideas for capture. Thank you. We offer a Lab supplied of frames with s.v. for next to nothing. My office manager is curious to know what percentage of your cl pts. actually purchase opthalmic frames.
I don't have numbers but it ain't impressive, however we do offer them designer frame with SV poly lenses for a package deal ($189.00) or a non branded frame with SV poly lenses for ($134.00) to offset the expense of haveing a back up pair of glasses. Then the doctor asks where their back up pair is at every visit and asks them to bring it in to take a look at them, then she hands it to us and we replace nose pads and ultrasonic clean them and tell her our opinion of if they will hold up or not, usually after all that they end up buying or looking. Our sales to CL patients has increased since we have pushed a bit more, but overall they seem to always want to avoid getting glasses. No different than anyone elses office.
We offer patients 40% off of a back-up pair of glasses if they purchase at least a 6 month supply of CLs. We average about 25% of our patients ordering a back up pair.
I also offer sv poly and a non-branded frame for $120.00. Our docs tell the cl patients in the exam room that they can get a pair of specs for about $100, ( for that I use reg cr-39,easy up-grade to the poly). The more fashion conscious will spend much more. It brings em over to optical, and lets you at least talk to them about specs.
I don't know that you can change the mentality of a CL wearer. They don't like glasses, by definition. They're a different breed; "non-glasses" people.
Our policy is to treat them no different than anyone else. We give them a copy of their glasses prescription at the end of the exam "in case you'd like new glasses (hint, hint)".
I've just accepted a low "capture" rate. If we do "capture", we try to sell them nice ones, not cheapies, contrary to everything everyone ever tells you. It seems generally more motivating for them to get "fun/cool" glasses than "practical/cheap" glasses. IMO.
my next article for L&T (Jan?) covers this very topic...
Barry
Doc, I was always under the impression that contacts were not a replacement for glasses and their would be times when the patient needed their glasses? That is what's not being enforced, a lower capture rate is fine and I understand it, but when they don't have a back up pair these low profit patients further erode your practices profits by begging for trials. Plus if they don't have a good back up pair then you are guarenteed that they are overwearing the lenses.
Hey doc you are in a great position to make a little more chedder. :D Start asking all you contact lens patients to bring in their back up pair on the phone when they make appointments and follow-ups and have your staff give them a good cleaning and maybe let you know if they are beyond usefull or not and then you can recommend they get another pair. If they do or not isn't going to matter, your recommendation alone is going to increase your bottom line.
Most of them have a back up pair, they just do not want to wear them in public.
I know a doctor who looks at this issue as a cost factor for the patient. He feels that many patients simply can not afford an exam, CL fit fee, year supply of contacts, and a pair of glasses in one visit.
So, he requires a 6 month check on all of his contact lens fits and will only sell a 6 month supply at the time of the exam. When the patient comes back in for the 6 month check he sells them the rest of the year supply and brings up the need for glasses.
He has been doing it for a couple of years now and swears by it. The growth he has been experiencing backs it up as well.
We're in a similar boat. CL wearers think that a red eye full of discharge is more attractive than a pair of glasses. We have a chronic abuser who refuses to leave the contacts out when she has an ulcer, which is frequently. We have continued to inform her that she is damaging her eyes to the point that she may not be able to wear the cl's in the future. We have insisted that she wear some back up glasses to no avail. When she came for her most recent follow up she said she tried her sisters contact and it felt great and can't we just order one like she wears. Sure, no problem.
While I'm on a roll: another CL wearer had her initial visit in July. She came back 2 months later and requested a CL fit. We continued from her original exam and fit her with some Acuvue Oasys. The patient was far too busy to ever make it back for her follow up visit, which was scheduled for a week from her fit. Now, she wants to order a box of Cl's. Unfortunately since she never came back for the follow up her Rx was not finalized. She wanted another pair of trials to wear to the follow up. We informed her that the pair would be 20.00(since we already gave her a pair 2 months ago). She got angry and said, something about her friend who works in optical so she knows that the trials are free to us. Yes, they are free fitting lenses, but they don't exactly back the truck up at our office. We refused to give them to her and she threatened to report us to the better business bureau. This patient has been a continuous pita. Good bye and good luck. Please go away.
We also offer a pkg on SV for 129.00 and FT for 149.00.
We offer a "Budget priced Pair" If they don't like the looks of the Budget line,we show them a more fashionalble pair. We sell quite alot of them.
Very good post.
When your patients make appointments it is very important to tell everyone to bring their eyeglasses even if they are old or broken. Remind them again when you do the reminder phone call. Always check all patient's eyeglasses, this is helpful in so many ways. With contact patients you will be able to see if they do need to update their glasses.
If their glasses are okay be sure to tell them. They will appreciate your honesty. If not, it is helpful for the doctor to tell them that they need a backup pair. If the frame is still good but they need new lenses we do offer to just update the lenses. Of course we want them to buy them with us, but they should get a pair even if they buy them at Costco.
We also offer complete pairs of glasses starting at just $79.00 with standard plastic lenses (a bit more for poly) in an inexpensive but decent looking frame.
I have faced the same thing. It sucks because contacts are not really a money maker, so basically its and exam and fitting fee, which covers your time at best. Give them 30% off a complete pair and if they bite, I tell them they can pick out any Plano sun frame for 50% off. Make it sound like you are doing them a favor, when really you are just selling to them. Or I tell them Pick out any frame up to 200 and its free, just have to pay for lenses. Granted you may want to limit the selection, but instead of just telling them "You NEED a back up pair" make it seem like you are going the extra mile for them.
For me being told "You need a backup pair" is like being told what to do by your parents. No one wants to listen to their parents, no matter how right they are. But if you approach it like "We are having a special just for our contact Patients, and its XY & Z" This may make it seem like you are really helping them instead of just telling them what to do.
there are numerous ways you can phrase an offer, such as "Buy a regular pair, get a plano sun free" Etc etc. Just find what is most appealing to your customers. i also find that asking patients right on the spot why they are choosing not to buy a pair. if you have an employee who is empathetic, and has a good personality and rapport, you will get the real reason why they aren't buying. then its up to you to use that information to your advantage.
Something else you may want to think about is saying "When you buy contacts and a back up pair today, we will give you 50% off your contacts" Now some Opticians may think "OMG 50% off contacts, we will be loosing money" This is incorrect. Let me show you why. Our avg contact order is for 3 months at $60 retail. BTW, we dont really make money on contacts ;-). so 50% off is $30. our Avg glasses sale is around $200. We Definitely make money here ;-). So you lost 30 bucks, to profit on the sale of glasses. PLUS how many of your patients walk and dont even buy the contacts from you! They go to 800-contacts etc. So now you've got the patient actually buying your contacts, albeit at a loss, but you profit, a lot, off of the sale of a pair of glasses. Since there is NO money in contacts, use it to get people in to Sell to them. Its a loss leader, something that is done in just about every industry.
Matt
Last edited by Crazy-bout-Optics; 10-26-2007 at 09:11 PM.
Thank you all for so many good ideas. However, i'm still trying to find out what % of cl patients are purchasing. Is it 20% 30%??? Here we are at about 10% The BOSS wants numbers to compare with. I know it varies market to market, but HOW MANY???
We are in Central Arizona and average 15%.
Most of those are actually lenses only. The ones I've noticed that are willing to change are the ones that have had problems because of overwear of contacts.
Also I have found that if Insurance won't pay for a pair of glasses, they don't want to put the money out and are willing to take the risk with the contacts.
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