zeiss cutting rewards for 2013

[Dave E]

Hi all
Are ziess rep came in the other day and was telling us about how there new way of doing the rewards
is going to work . She was saying that for us to get the same rewards that we are getting now that we will need to sell more freeform lens ( we are at 17% for the year so far ) and sell more sv freeform witch we do very little of these .
Ok here is the thing I ran some # and for use to get the some rewards that we are getting now are lab bill will go up alot more so I do not see how its worth it yet but I am still running some numbers .

What are your thoughts on this .

Thanks

[Craig]

Reward programs are a matter of timing. We never change our sales because of a spiff! We do 100% free-form and 100% ar so we are already maxed out and if there is a spiff, it goes to me as the owner anyway.
Spiffs give marketing something to do, but they do not really drives sales.

[Robert_S]

My advice would be to start doing freeform single vision as they will make a significant improvement to your patients' vision. Stick with Zeiss, or go elsewhere. 17% freeform progressives seems low as well. I'm sure you can do better. Also, it's 'our', not 'are' and 'their', not 'there'; 'which' not 'witch' and 'a lot', not 'alot'.

What rewards do you mean anyway, discount?

[GokhanSF]

Reward programs are a matter of timing. We never change our sales because of a spiff! We do 100% free-form and 100% ar so we are already maxed out and if there is a spiff, it goes to me as the owner anyway.
Spiffs give marketing something to do, but they do not really drives sales.

Well said Craig.

[Golfnorth]

We do 100% free-form and 100% ar so we are already maxed out and if there is a spiff, it goes to me as the owner anyway.
Spiffs give marketing something to do, but they do not really drives sales.

Hi Craig;

To get to 100% AR do you offer the customer a choice between AR vs. just SRC coated lenses?
What are your techniques to achieve the 100% rate?

Regards,
Golfnorth

[optical24/7]

I can't answer for Craig, but we do it by bundling it in with the lens price. We tell clients the benefit of our lens designs and all the features that includes prior to giving the quote. We don't break down the pricing. Everyone wants the best design and optics they can afford, everyone wants their glasses thin and light weight and when told of the benefits and warranties of AR, want that too. We aren't a budget location, but we also don't use traditional mark-up. We don't have to. We take no insurance and have inherent savings by doing so.

[bigeyejim]

I have been enrolled in Zeiss Rewards for years, and they always seem to cut it a bit each year. "Back in the day," one could get 15 points, i.e. dollars for a GT2 lens. Then the push for bigger and better. The cut came from the traditional lenses, and the rewards came with the Individual with the best AR. All the other companies have been pushing bigger rewards the whole time.

[rdcoach5]

Our owner believes in splitting any spiffs with the whole office staff. When Toledo Optical added their own free-form progressive for around the cost of the GT2, we approached them about switching entirely to this awesome progressive and matching Zeiss's Rewards program. They jumped at the offer and we have a ton of happy patients with this lens. We would use this progressive anyway because as Craig said, spiffs don't influence what we recommend for an individual patient.

[racethe1320]

Reward programs are a matter of timing. We never change our sales because of a spiff! We do 100% free-form and 100% ar so we are already maxed out and if there is a spiff, it goes to me as the owner anyway.
Spiffs give marketing something to do, but they do not really drives sales.

My offices use 100% digital offerings too but I'll admit, I absolutely do consider rewards when instructing my staff what to dispense. I am the owner and to not do so is just plain bad business if the product is high quality. We've been dispensing the VSP Private label product because it adds anywhere from $15-$50+ dollars to my bottom line per dispense. Even more and upwards to double that on non VSP Jobs the costs are 1/3 to 2/3 less than a comparable Essilor product. Let's just say your mileage will vary on how much you gain profitability wise, but for our locations, it's tens of thousands of dollars and more.