Anyone do mobile work?

**EdgeOptical** · 02-23-2010, 04:54 PM

i started thinking about this after seeing KCounts' website, as a service offering mobile opticianry. not to replace or take away from our normal business, but something to offer to our patients that cant easily make it in during normal business hours.

Is this something any of you guys have done, find any pros/cons to it?

and kudos to KCount, your website, and everything associated just oozes with professionalism and top notch quality.

**kcount** · 02-23-2010, 06:16 PM

thanks, glad you like the site.

**Johns** · 02-23-2010, 06:31 PM

We have a free shuttle that picks up customers, and takes them back home after the exam and fitting. If they used the shuttle to get here, I deliver the glasses to them when they are complete, as it saves having to make a trip with the van. (We used to have our own 15 pass., w/logo emblazoned all over it, but now use a contractor due to the high cost of insurance)

Surprisingly, the shutte isn't as popular as it was 10 years ago. Only a handful of people use it today.

I do a lot of deliveries to the Amish schools, as well as screenings.

**rbaker** · 02-23-2010, 07:18 PM

I don't think that this is what you are referring to but I submit it for your reference.

I spent over six years working exclusively in the industrial eyewear business. We had four vision vans on the road five days a week providing on site Rx services to industrial, biotech and medical accounts. Dispensing prescription occupational eye-wear and PPE requires a somewhat different skill set and business model than that required in the traditional retail dress eyewear practice.

Since this subject is so broad I think it best to share my experience and knowledge with you via personal email as generalizations will be of little value to your decision making process. I have attached a few pictures of one of our mobile vision vans.

As far as picking up customers and driving them home this will grow somewhat tiresome. You spend an hour out of the office (if the customer meets you on time and you don't have to stop at the market with her so she can pick up a few things) not to mention the high cost of liability insurance and auto operating costs. Besides, if they are on town help they can just take a taxi and we taxpayers will pay for it.

It's best to stick to your knitting and leave the driving to someone else.

**EdgeOptical** · 02-23-2010, 07:36 PM

that is a little further then i was looking to go with it, I was shooting more towards gathering some basic info, then taking a good frame selection, tools, etc with me to their home, work, nursing home and placing the order, then go back for dispensing.

shuttling the patients will be more then we are looking to get involved with right now, where as moving to extrmemly personalized care and going to the patient is a possibility.

there are some thoughts about fee's and that sort of thing, but those discussions will come at a much later date once we figure out the details and viablity of the idea.

i would love to hear more of your thoughts/experiences/stories/ramblings though

feel free to email me anytime Lawrence . Erik @ Gmail . com

RBaker, KCount, Johns, Fezz... any of you guys please email me with any thoughts or anything. you are the guys i look up to

**rbaker** · 02-23-2010, 08:34 PM

As per your plan:

Get a decent frame bag or two. Now you have to decide whether to add to your stock of frames to fill the bags or pull the frames from your frame bars. You have to decide which evil is the lesser of the two; added frame inventory or partially empty frame bars when you are out in the field.

Figure out what your hourly value is when you are in the office. Double it whenever you are out of the office; portal to portal.

Determine your transportation costs; vehicle depreciation, wear and tear, insurance, maintanance and fuel costs per mile.

You now have the basis to run a break even analysis of home service. Can you make a nickle?

Perhaps so, but we have not taken into account the times when you will be out of the office for three hours and return without an order. This can get really frustrating particularly when your absence from the office cost a few lost sales and it will occur more often than you think.

A careful audit of these home services will show you that they are not going to generate any profit, and indeed can be a major loss center for your business.

All that being said, I would never refuse to go to the home of a good customer at anytime, usually after office hours, and even if only for an adjustment. If you buy from me you get my total commitment to service the product be it eye-wear or software.

Some things we do for love and not for money. Of course an occasional Marionberry pie or some nice double chocolate brownies . . .

**Johns** · 02-23-2010, 08:38 PM

Originally Posted by rbaker

A careful audit of these home services will show you that they are not going to generate any profit, and indeed can be a major loss center for your business.

All that being said, I would never refuse to go to the home of a good customer at anytime, usually after office hours, and even if only for an adjustment. If you buy from me you get my total commitment to service the product be it eye-wear or software.

Those two paragraphs sum up the whole proposition rather nicely. Do it, but don't count on it to be a major profit center. We do it more for PR than anything else.

(Oh, and I'd also highly suggest doing home visits for the real PIA customers. It keeps them out of your office!)

**kcount** · 02-23-2010, 09:23 PM

The PRIVATE service we offer is a very small part of the practice, to be honest we started it as a marketing piece and simply offer it as an option. I wouldn't recommend to anyone the idea that you were going to make a practice off of it. That being said I know there are a very small number of people who have made a go of it, but they are few and far between.

Add it into your service offering, do it on a day your closed or have coverage in the office, sample a small quantity of your product. Offer unique service over price.

**EyeGurl** · 02-23-2010, 10:48 PM

Check the state that you are in, I remember when I was first starting in MD there was a big lawsuit involving a mobile optician. Here in Az you could do it. A guy I worked for did not do well in 2 shops and then moved his dispensary into his van. He did not do that well in that either. I would go upscale and charge a fee for your time. That would be bogus to drive somewhere do a lot of work and then no sale......

Sarah Palin has an optician come to her home to fit her with frames.....

Wow, but I expect to get paid for my time to go to someones home and to go out of the way for them. People will take advantage of you. Unless you are running a really high class business I would not go out after hours with no incentive. You are not going to find that with nursing home patients or what not. People come to me when they need my services, just as I go to their business for my needs.

**Johns** · 02-23-2010, 11:17 PM

Fezz and I thought we had a really classy operation. To make it a little more original, instead of a conventional frame warmer, he'd start a small fire, using the sun's light, refracted through a recently emptied ale bottle. That didn't work as well as we thought it would, and while it did often leave a black hole in the customer's front yard, it did stir up a little business for the FezzJohns Landscaping crew.

Maybe we should have carried more frames, but we didn't want to invest too much in the vehicle. You know...we didn't want to get tooooo flashy.

FezzJohns Mobile McTicians

True, maybe not as impressive as our apprentice (he stole all of our good ideas) Rbaker, but we were one of the first. Plus, while we didn't stock as many frames, our mobile optical was much more comfortable...

Yeah, maybe we spent too much time on the interior, but you've got to be comfy!

.

**rbaker** · 02-23-2010, 11:47 PM

Here is another idea to possible be implemented by FezzJohn. I give it to them freely and with no strings attached. I don't want a cut of the action as I have too much money now - I just want the fame.

Pick up a 40 foot trailer and something decent to haul it around. Cut out the side like you were going into the fried dough business and install a counter and a golf tee frame board and set up an edging lab inside (edger and dye tank.) Find a local wholesaler to stock you up in good shape with CR-39 finished lenses and some good basic frames for sun glasses.

Now you either hire yourself a few finelooking young ladies and dress them up in Daisey Mae costumes. Make arrangements to rent space at all of the NASCAR tracks on the East Coast along with all of the Harley Davidson get togethers.

Sun Glasses in an Hour - You dont need an exam or Rx - we'll neutralize what you are wearing.

Plastic Frames - with SV sun lenses $##.## (really low price)
Metal Frames - with SV lenses $##.## (really, really low price)

Ready in an hour

Work just a few days a year - Make a pile. This sounds so good that I might consider being a sugar daddy and investing.

**Johns** · 02-23-2010, 11:53 PM

Originally Posted by rbaker

Now you either hire yourself a few finelooking young ladies and dress them up in Daisey Mae costumes. Make arrangements to rent space at all of the NASCAR tracks on the East Coast along with all of the Harley Davidson get togethers.

Obviously, you've never seen Fezz and I when we mystery shop at the local Harley Store. We've got more propositions than you can shake a tail pipe at!

Anyway, I think your idea stand a much, much better chance of making a $ than the traditional mobile optician.

**EyeGurl** · 02-24-2010, 12:35 AM

Now you either hire yourself a few finelooking young ladies and dress them up in Daisey Mae costumes.

That is one hell of an idea - how much are you paying?:p

**rbaker** · 02-24-2010, 01:23 AM

Would hopefully be able to pay $30.00 an hour to start but your background as a COT would disqualify you for consideration. Similarly, opticians need not apply.

**opticianbart** · 02-24-2010, 08:22 AM

Originally Posted by EyeGurl

Check the state that you are in, I remember when I was first starting in MD there was a big lawsuit involving a mobile optician. Here in Az you could do it. A guy I worked for did not do well in 2 shops and then moved his dispensary into his van. He did not do that well in that either. I would go upscale and charge a fee for your time. That would be bogus to drive somewhere do a lot of work and then no sale......

what lawsuit was that? I'd be curious to learn more.

**EdgeOptical** · 02-24-2010, 11:34 AM

the direction we are considering is more similar to KCounts then a true mobile van style. It would be more marketing and advertising then anything. Something to make us stand apart from our peers.

In our area, there are only a handfull of shops that arent wholely focused on price and volume. we are one of the few that go into everything with a more boutique / old fashioned service mindset. We arent aiming to under price anyone, out discount anyone, anything like that. so while we let everyone else fight for the lowest paying patient, we will continue to do everything for our patients and not let price become the selling point. I really think offering something like this will stand out especially in our area as the ultimate level of completely personal, personalized service.

that being said, if we start to lose our butts, and im out all day for nothing, something will change, the lights dont pay for themselves.

We have one day a week we are open, but dont see patients, then another day we only see patients in the mornings, so the time is there to explore something like this.

I really do appreciate all the feedback, and the great discussions being started here. I think its something that is always in the backs of most opticians minds "how do i get more directly with my patients/customers"