Well, I will say this...most opticals have sales at least some of the time.
If you have a sale, you expect an increase in sales. In other words, you are expecting a volume increase to make up for the pricing decrease.
SO VERY NOT THE CASE in a one-off "pity discount" or an "intimidated discount".
I will bow out now, my opinion is my own and I stand behind my service to my customers.
This has been a pretty active thread and I guess it touches a nerve and gets to the heart of the matter.
As opticians we charge for a product and our service is integrated in the price.
Your customers have smart phones and are a click away from full price transparency on name brand products.
If you are going to carry easy to find name brand frames and you are going to charge 50% more than what is easily found online, that is not good for your business.
You can explain all you want until you are blue in the face, but that is too big a spread, imho.
Lower your margin on brand name frames, be very aware of whats online, and better still, move towards PRIVATE LABEL, or white label or whatever you want to call it. Stop being the high price reference for Luxottica goods or don't cry when the interweb machine comes to eat your lunch.
I disagree.
Show me a rich optician (except Johns) and I'll show you someone who can afford to cut margins.
If someone asks an optician whether they will match the online price of a frame, the optician should respond that no, they cannot match it, but maybe will give them a discount halfway between online price and the list price if they also purchase a lens. The purpose of offering a discount is in order to get the customer's business instead of customer walking out the door. The purpose of offering the discount is to make a sale that might not otherwise occur, and has nothing to with pity. Such a discount would especially make sense if the optical was making several hundred dollars gross profit on a high-end progressive, etc. But each shop has to make these decisions themselves based on their own circumstances.Originally Posted by drk
OTOH, if you were convinced that if you told the customer there is no discount whatsoever on the frame or lens, and you are convinced they would still purchase a frame and lens from you, then obviously that would be the best course of action to not give them any discount.
I don't understand why simple marketing decisions are being made into some kind of morality issue.
Some here are making discounting for hard luck cases personal charity. There's a place for that, but not in the office, IMO.
Secondly, if you want to run your optical like a car lot where haggling is allowed, that's your preference. I prefer to think uniform pricing is more fair. If someone gets a discount, all should get the discount.
A few thoughts..
1) I had the heating core go out on my car. My dad had always been my go to guy for these things. I had the part in my car, drove it to my dad, and he was just starting to have issues with his hands and the cold made it infinitely worse on him. I called one of the shops in his area, and thought I would have to pay them for parts and labor, and then make a separate trip to return the part I already had.
The service manager called me an hour after I dropped off the car and asked me if I wanted to use that part I already had. They even took the brought the old one back to me so I could get my core credit. They only charged me for labor and it wasn't any more than their posted shop rate. I was so impressed with their service that for the next 6 years I took all my business to them. Driving 65 miles away from my metropolitan area to a small town dealership (Chevy Dealership...) and was happy to pay a premium for their continued customer support.
I keep this in mind when I deal with patients bringing in their own frames. Yeah, it sucks I didn't get the frame sale this time. However I also understand because I am ONE Of THOSE people who do buy a lot of things online. Of course, I also understand some of the things you can't get.. and that is why I do support some local shops as well. My point is that my lenses are priced as such that I don't take a loss if that's all they get from me. I also have no issue with negotiating pricing if needed, since I would rather take a 30% hit on the frame for a private pay than to take a 60% or more hit from the VCP or lose the sale completely.
"Some believe in destiny, and some believe in fate. But I believe that happiness is something we create."-Something More by Sugarland
This confirms my remarks, that if the distributors are going to get in bed with onliners then their frames are not welcome in my office. Offerring a 50 % discount on an example $100.00 second pair only shows the client that he was right,as far as the price goes. If I can sell him a second pair for 50% less that the origional pair, and he knows I am still making a profit (who sells something for no profit). So now he has confirmed that your prices are high and he can get them for less by complaining.
What confirms your remarks? If you are responding to another post, please use the Reply With Quote button. Otherwise, we may have no idea what you are referring to.
In the democratization of eyewear via online, middlemen everywhere are in danger.
B
B&M chain opticals, and some independents, regularly have sales that offer 50% second pair of glasses. Has nothing to do with online retailers.
I love you, but I hate that quote.
It's not "democratization" as though it were a benefice to humanity. It's deregulation, which is another animal altogether. Some think that's good, others bad. (I say "bad".)
And I don't think you--the "Craftsman of the -8.00 D lens"--or me, or most of the posters here can even remotely be painted with the "middleman" label. That's insulting.
Oh, I don't think of myself as a valueless middleman. Quite the contrary, I think I supple quite a bit of value-added.
But I think the term middleman, used in today's colloquial way, refers to little or no value added.
That's the rub.
B
"googled the frame and found for much cheaper price"
THEY DO THAT IN MY SHOP..its what we are up against..hipsters and uptalking yunguns seem to do it.
and when i snatch the frame out of their hand, when they are photoing the inside of the temple..i tell them the distributor does not allow that....copy right infringement bla bla
they will take the dealership away from me bla bla....
the next day i coincidentally get a bad google review
it is very tough today
Last edited by COMEINPEACE; 11-02-2014 at 04:31 PM.
Did a distributor actually tell you that? If not, then you would be lying.
Geeze, if you can't be honest with a potential customer, how can you be honest with an actual customer?
Barry,
enjoying reading the posts, tell me, does the grey market exist in the USA/Canada, where designer brand distribution licence holders sell their overstock 'unofficially' back into the trade at reduced prices, this gives the optician a chance of competing with the internet prices.
regards,
Jeff Plaskow(London,UK)
actually our favorite frame company...LUXOTTICA...is NOW wheeling dealing, yes they are!!!
selling blocks of frames at up to 200% less than to you or i, for high volume buyers who cut the check on the spot.
how do i know this...some disgruntled reps are saying that lux is now claiming these buyers as 'house accts', thus by passing the reps commission
now they are truly wholesaling and retailing
i cant wait till lux sells lenses
Here in the UK, the only way I survive this issue, is by dealing with 'Grey market' bag men who import designer ranges from Europe
and somehow sell these onto the profession below the official wholesale price in quite small quantities.
I have not dealt direct with the big manufacturers of frames for about 5 years
I wondered whether you can get high end stock in this way in the USA
Be fair. The "customer" is thieving service as well.
Proof or supposition?
This thread seems to be morphing from aghast at patients bypassing B&M opticials to buy frames online at discounted prices (or having the nerve to ask local opticals for a discount), to now discussing opticals getting their frames by bypassing frame reps/distributors and buying grey market or directly from the frame manufacturers.
ditto
Paul:cheers:
I don't get too much of this, but just had one. A lady looked at frames a month ago, found what she liked but didn't buy. Came in today, and informed me she found it on the internet $20 bucks cheaper then my frame price, With Lenses! Carefully explained not why I couldn't match the price, but why I wouldn't match the price. My expert fitting, my measurements, and my service and warranty right here. Sale made.
Perfect example of how we need to remind both the client and ourselves that our services are a large part of this equation. The face to face experience combined with the execution of the skill.
I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it. Mark Twain
No, I'm sure they're photographing the specs on the frame for their art collection.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks