Hi Everybody,
As a consultant for OD owners I often see clients telling me that the Internet is their biggest challenge in the industry => Drop of conversion rate and exile of the clientele !
As an Owner, Employee or OD (not owner) What is the biggest challenge you are facing these days ???
Bon jour, Ivan.
We are suffering from consolidation and lack of choice. It's getting to the point where vision care is being virtually practiced by corporate entities instead of individual professionals.
I could give you an Old West scenario but drk has made it a cliche. Think delivery pizza and we are Chez Bon Appetit. The patron can't understand why their 19.00 delivery pizza tastes like Fifi's droppings and the product doesn't look as advertised but Chez's should somehow assume moral responsibility for their home delivery sh*t. Oh and do we except food stamps.
I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it. Mark Twain
Here is the cycle as I see it...
Crappy VCP believes that their power of marketing patients into your door is worth a 40% discount on the revenue. Owner begrudgingly accepts thinking at least I will have bodies coming into my door, and butts in my chair. In order to compensate for the huge discount, the owner is forced to raise prices to get a sustainable amount of revenue.
Patients are thinking "I got to have this Crappy VCP plan in order to afford those glasses!"
Crappy VCP believes it is not good that docs raised prices, increasing the fees paid. All lenses now must be ordered through the Crappy VCP network, so that higher amount of reimbursement the practice was receiving is now being recouped by the Crappy VCP via the chargeback process.
Owner now has to raise prices again, because it takes more oversight to get Crappy VCP labs to get orders back in a timely and correct manner, but margins have dwindled even further.
Patients object to the prices.. and bargain shop. Leading to the web, or discounters.
Owners cry foul to the Crappy VCP. Crappy VCP say "screw you" we'll just have patients order their materials from us direct, and give you the owner a pittance for the time and showroom you provided.
Crappy VCP, Big Mega Lens, and the We Wanna Be Hip frame company gets together and makes a plan to benefit all of those parties. Now Crappy VCP is forcing you to use Big Mega Lens to gain a few more dollars revenue, along with the We Wanna Be Hip frame lines to WOW owner with how much more revenue they can receive with the $5-10 here and there. All the while increasing the marketing gains by the assorted corporations by it coming direct from the trusted provider, and allowing them to cut out all the fluff. Soon leaving a lot of "franchise" stores all offering the same.. with a few outliers for those who can differentiate themselves and not rely on the 3rd party market.
Hard to not rely on Crappy VCP for patients when more folks than ever have them, and its mandated for certain ages to be a part of their comprehensive health benefit package.
Health! Lets do the medical model...
Crappy VCP says, we provide comprehensive eye medical coverage as well! Crappy VCP will gladly take a huge payout to "manage" the comprehensive eye health policies! Now all of those doctors who were billing that health care plan for a reasonable rate will have to accept 25-30% less than the health plan would pay.. because we are marketing these services for them..
and the cycle begins again...
"Some believe in destiny, and some believe in fate. But I believe that happiness is something we create."-Something More by Sugarland
That was beautiful. (Sniff.)
Maybe it's just me but I'm feeling a bit crappy this morning.
I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it. Mark Twain
The biggest challenge in this industry is retiring from it! You're lucky if you aren't found keeled over on an edger in the end.....
The internet is only relevant if you are trying to offer cheap/low value products or your selection sucks; why would anyone go to the internet if you are in the ballpark.
We have sold many sunglasses on the internet at full retail because they just wanted the product done correctly.
According to my crystal ball…..
The biggest challenge for the industry and for the Western world is a demographic one, the aging of the population. It will increase the demand for healthcare and eyecare services. Internet alone will not solve that, there will be more than enough customers/patients for all of us in the future. The elderly with their presbyopia and the young with their smartphone/gaming induced myopia will usher in a new golden age of opticianry and eyecare! Everyone will share in this wealth, the economy will bloom, borders will disappear, global warming will reverse and cats and dogs will live together in peace.
Or….. someones inventes a cheap gen therapy to solve vision problems and we are doomed. Doomed to roam the wastelands of a post-apocalyptic world, hunting small rodents for food, fleeing from genetically engineered zombies with 20/20 vision. Civilization will crumble, the sky will fall upon us and bell bottoms will go back in fashion.
It could go either way, I guess..... I think my ball is broken.
Last edited by Dirk; 07-11-2015 at 05:49 AM.
We are only doomed if your primary focus for eyewear is need. Time to refocus on want.
b
My biggest challenge? Finding ODs, and opticians.
Who would have thought that I could offer $1,000 per day to ODs, and only have one taker? The one OD who accepted, showed up the first day, realized he forgot to take his medication for depression, and walked out with 23 patients on the books.
I hired an optician last year, and on the 4th day of work, she called in sick. Our caller ID told us she was calling in from the county jail - DUI, third offense.
Give me a competent staff, and I can take care of the rest.
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
You think you got problems today . . . Just a few days ago we legalized recreational pot here in the Peoples Republic of Oregon and it will soon be legal in your fair State as well. Now, we all realize that pot is a gateway drug and that it has a tendency to make the stupid, stupider and the lazy, lazier. Sure doesn't sound like a win win situation to me.Originally Posted by Johns
Dollars to donuts you will soon see a mandate to implement a mandatory random quarterly drug testing program to all employees and medical staff or face loss of accreditation (that is Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements) and your workers compensation and liability insurance carrier will also place similar mandates on your business.
A friend who manages a mill here in the area relates that 40% of his employees failed a recent drug screening which came as quite a surprise to him as he estimated that the failure rate would have been less than 10%. He has little choice but to either fire these employees or spend a few thousand dollars sending them to rehab and a treatment program.
We do indeed live in interesting times and as far as I can see, it ain't going to get any better for the small businessman.
Yikes. All these stories of bad help.
I have to consider myself lucky, and I am here in NYC...home of the best... and the worst.
As a side issue, here in the Big Apple, I am now convinced that anybody who isn't working in a halfway decent job, just doesn't want to be in one. There is so much construction going on, be it roads, bridges, skyscrapers, homes, or other infrastructure, that I think the construction industries alone could employ EVERYBODY. It seems new small businesses are popping up everywhere and growing. Sure, we see the weak corner deli or optical shop here or there, but it seems there is high demand for workers.
C'est la vie.
+1, I couldn't agree more with this statement.
I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it. Mark Twain
I don't agree at all with the legalization of pot, but I don't see why they would mandate testing, if they don't do the same for alcohol. I'm assuming they see them as equal?
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
Cannabis is not the same as alcohol and while many of us consider it as innocuous as booze cannabis is classified by the DEA as a Schedule I drug. Schedule I drugs are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence.
Now all of this may change in the near future, but even if it does, just remember that you as a business owner are legally responsible for the actions of an impaired employee.
I think Barry's on to something.
I read this a long time ago and it's always stuck with me: "You only sell two things: good feelings, or solutions to problems."
Example: good feelings (predominantly)
Gay wedding cake
Sportscar
Gucci purse
Latte
Spa treatment
"We kicked your butt in football" T-shirt
Example: solutions to problems (predominantly)
Teeth cleaning
A solenoid for your garage door opener
Muskrat poison
Bandaid
Preparation-H
Now, we are, as health care practitioners, defaulted into "problem solving":
bifocals
spectacles
half-eyes
glare reduction
eye examinations
But what Barry's saying is that we need to bring the good feelings!
youthful-looking lenses
lifestyle sunglasses
sex appeal
sex appeal
sex appeal (Sorry. Got caught up.)
"Freedom from...(fill in blank)"
comfort
security
People pay more for good feelings than they do for removal of negative feelings. We're chumps that way.
So, sell it, people! Have fun at it!
+1 Barry and DRK! Heck ya! You gotta make it a fun experience. Make it exciting for the client when they first walk in till they leave. It starts with a great staff!
If I had to rely on the "needs" to make my living, I would have been out of business long ago.
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
it ain't going to get any better for the small businessman.
Above statement has hit the today's situation right on the head of the nail.
I have a couple of questions:
1. Are you an employee or owner of the company in which you consult?
2. Are you an OD and have you ever owned your own practice?
Thanks.
If you focus on selling a relationship to your patients, they will come to you for both wants and needs.
I'm Andrew Hamm and I approve this message.
Can you put some meat on those bones, Andrew? I'm interested in hearing what you've got on that.
There are so many things we can supply as hands-on providers that onlines and box stores can't touch. From a medical standpoint, there is continuity of care seeing the same doctor or doctors year after year. On the dispensary side, a private practice can cherry-pick lens options that corporate entities don't have the same access to, and I can custom-tailor my frame boards to the demographics of my clientele. Best still is when doctors begin the process of recommending frame and lens options from the exam chair, providing a micro-level of continuity in every visit.
Educate, educate, educate! Tell, show, and model to your patients what makes you better (medically and aesthetically) than a cheapo eye exam and Warby Parker / 2 for 79 glasses. Learn about them and remember them from year to year. Customize their glasses for their lifestyle and budget, and customize their experience in your practice. Establish a give-and-take relationship with them by providing what you uniquely have to offer, and make sure they know what they're getting. My goal is to make my patients associate all of their eye health and eyewear needs with my office.
I'm Andrew Hamm and I approve this message.
I'm drk and I approve of that message.
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