Supposedly not.
I have a question: has anyone tried "value packages" in order to serve the "budget" patient?
Our optical is really geared for the middle...not too high, not too low.
But we're seeing quite a few more "cost sensitive" types, recently, and I hate to see our patients not get what they think they want.
Our lab has a "frame -n- lens" kind of setup.
Has anyone made that work?
Most of the chain guys use lens packages as a way to create propriety where there is none, or to streamline the purchase of eyewear without properly educating their patients on what they're receiving. As a "great" example, I used to work for For Eyes/Grandvision in 2015, whose "Good-Better-Best" packaging program included A/R and your choice of CR39 (Good), Poly (Better), or 1.67 (Best). You could add either HEV or polarization for an additional fee, with no price difference between clear AR and backside-only AR for polar sunwear. You also weren't allowed to disassemble the package, unless the patient would have a severe fit over AR, in which case ... they were charged no differently because we weren't allowed to break the package up.
Just some food for thought, as far as how poorly a system like this "could" go when handled by absolute *******s.
The short answer is - categorically, NO.
Remember there are a million budget hack jobs on every street corner - and on any web browser. And there is a big, nay a YUUUGE difference between offering cheap crap, for nothing else but being cheap, or catering to a clientele who takes the two seconds required to actually learn what separates the proverbial men from the boys when it comes to schlepping lenses and frames.
If patients across the board aren't liking your prices, the first thing I always suggest is to look at where the critical educational component of the eye health care experience has broken down in one's exam chair and office first.
Originally Posted by drk
We are very much in the same boat. Our frames range from $100-700. Our lenses have the same sort of range.
There is nothing wrong with being a quality shop that has a special deal set aside (but not advertised) for those people who do want quality but simply cannot afford it. We call ours a MaineCare Special, even though we do not receive any compensation from the state because that is when we offer it- when people are looking for an option that caters to those on government assistance.
For your everyday Joe who does not have insurance, or who has insurance we are not affiliated with, we encourage our BOGO but also offer a 20% off single pair.
The fact of the matter is- this industry is set up for people to have insurance- and therefore so is the pricing. This gives me room to make breaks for those who are not insured. And I tell people this. We look out for the little guy, but also are prepared to 'WOW' the big man.
Have I told you today how much I hate poly?
This is a really valid point. We don't accept standard one-size answers for the product itself, so why should we expect every patient's finances to fall in line in the same way? Every dispensing OD would need to consider case-by-case exactly how important it is that their patients can see, versus what bottom line has to be covered in those instances. Turning into a "package" is basically just another way of lumping discounts into inferior products, while patting ourselves on the back.
It has to do with answering the question of what kind of business are you? There is a reason that Walmart is not Ford.
If you are noticing an uptick in cost sensitivity, has your staff changed?
We have had reasonable success with “package pricing” for our budget conscious patients. Downside is the quality of frames. Our lens quality is great, however. Our entry level PAL package is a Zeiss OEM full backside FF.
You will need to look at your costs to determine if value packages would work for you. There are many things to consider when it comes to value vs quality.
Can you be all things to all people? ...........No............ Any "success" you may have in your value package will undoubtedly also cost you in that your opticians will sell this to people who can afford better and then will get disgusted with your office after the quality does not live up to their expectations. You really can't have it all.
So true, but with a caveat. Lazy opticians will rely on packages because they are easy sells. Good opticians will listen to the needs of the patients. Such a conundrum.
this industry is set up for people to have insurance..........................
........................that reminds me of my monthly cost of medication, being a heart patient and spending winters in Florida.
Two years ago we decided to spend an extra month in the south, but had not taken the medication for that time from Canada.
So I had to see a doctor who took my blood pressure, copied the medication from my drugstore list, on his pad and charged me $ 200.00.
Then I made the rounds of the major drug stores in Naples after the first one quoted me $ 1,550 for one month of my pills. The least expensive was Costco at $ 1,150.00.
In Canada I get the same for between $95.00 and $105.00.
My Nitro Spray varies between $ 8.50 and $ 12.00 at home, and here they charge $ 350.00 (three hundred and fifty) for the same. All of the same products and manufacturers.
I have a frame and lens package with a free form version of the Instinctive PAL but I never include an AR with it, they have to pay for that and I refuse to use cheap AR because it doesn't stop people from coming back and complaining . I recently increased the quality of our budget frames a bit so they feel more substantial.
I usually only have about 25 mens and 25 womens displayed there as opposed to the thousand regular priced frames.
I make sure that staff and patient know if they buy one of those frame packages they get treated and fitted with the same level of care as someone who spends $1200
If you are taking Eye Med don't you have to offer a $150 complete frame and lens package?
We use Clariti frames with great success (metals much better than plastics) sv or ft28, cr-39 only add on's extra.
To flip this on it's head - why does "all things to all people" *ALWAYS* mean you have to cheapen yourselves? Why is the question never asked going the other direction? Why not cater to the ultra rich? Why does wally world choose not sell Bugatis and Lear jets? Are people with much more disposable income not people too? Does it not make every bit as much sense to cater to that clientele?
If we laugh or scoff at the prospect of trying to offer products and particular service levels to one financial group (ultra high), why is another group (ultra low) - seen as an otherwise easy target to achieve? Are we just lazy? Or is it something more in depth than that? It certainly isn't for a lack of cheap options that exist today. Why do so many (usually ODs) feel the need to keep one foot in the proverbial kiddie pool?
The percentage of low income patients greatly outways the higher income patients. (In my region.)
People willing to spend more on their eyewear are also more likely to travel or research to get what they want. Also they are shopping by product, not price point. The only time I have had people inquire about price before looking at product options is when they have a budget they need to adhere to- or if you are lucky- have an allowance to spend! Gotta love last minute HSA shoppers!
But there is a reason I only keep a handful of $600-$1,000 frames. That's a lot in MY cost. I can have budget frames for days, but the hand-painted-gold-plated-swar-crystal-gem-embossed pieces need to be worth the space they take up- because they WILL sit longer.
Have I told you today how much I hate poly?
We see mostly insurance patients, but do have a few private pay. We offer them 20% off their total. We do offer value packages for kids and adults, but we don't normally discuss this with the patient unless we feel we're losing the sale due to pricing. We don't have cheap frames for the package, we just use our older discontinued frames or frames we've bought on close-out from our regular vendors. This allows us to still offer a nice quality product at a reduced cost.
Frankly, it still sounds lazy to me. Catering to the "cheap" end of the spectrum requires little work, or thought, or upkeep. If percentages are really the focus, remember that you are required to dispense many multiples of pairs to bring in the same income to a practice as a single "high end" pair. As a business, I will also expend far more resources in maintaining all those cheap pairs as well across frame and lens failures, poor optics, and simply having far more people all needing service - as opposed to the one, higher end sale. Is it *really* smarter to continue to cling to the "cheap is the only direction to expand into" mindset as a business?
Not trying to poke anyone here without merit - but perhaps open some minds to a larger picture.
We carry a variety of frames with prices $100 and up. Our lenses are all a la cart. I go over the types of lenses and materials and extras. I make recommendations and leave the final decision to the patient. Most patients get the better progressives with the extras, but it allows someone who needs a lower cost to get a lower priced frame with CR39 SV or FT. They choose what is best for them given their circumstances. We also give discounts for Seniors and AARP and stuff like that. We require half down and payment in full at pick up. Most people pay in full at time of order due to a short turn around time. You can also look into Care Credit as another option. I'm not sure what the costs are, but my owner said no to using it for glasses. We only take it for surgeries.
Does anyone do payment plans on glasses? I've never thought this was a great idea.
I'm not doing it for the money. The owner is- but when I offer a bigger discount than the norm to keep someone in the door, it's to keep them from getting poor quality across the street at the discount place.
I know everyone is concerned about their business, but I'm not a business person- I'm an optician, a lab tech, a frame buyer, and a consultant. I don't have to lose sleep over what we did in business that day. Thankfully, that's not my job. What does concern me is when people feel like they can't afford to have good quality and service. I think it's wrong to shoo people out because they can't afford to shop in my store.
To me it is a lot of work to uphold these options. I take my clientele into account with each buy-in or new frame line added.
Have I told you today how much I hate poly?
You can't be all things to all people, but you can be some things to most people. We have a "Value Package" because getting 99 bucks is better than getting 0 bucks.
Caroline, L.O.
If you suffer from severe nonlinear waterfowl issues, you don't have your ducks in a row.
I can clearly see that there will be big changes..............................
There will always be a wealthy class of people, either by inheritance or self made. They will buy expensive clothing, furniture and cars and probably glasses.
However theses days when ninety percent of the population walks around looking at their cell phone screens, surfing the web, or talking to one of their hundreds of contacts stored in the phone, we should know that times are changing faster than ever.
I have never known any good optician that was poor. The optical retail markup has always been extremely high since the middle ages, because of the possibility breakage of the material they were working with.
Any optician or optometrist that re-sells glasses made in a outside lab should not be using the forever established multiplier for his/her selling prices. They are just selling and ordering finished product.
Sales for no hands on products will be the big future of the internet in a much shorter time period than ever predicted.
I was born into the profession and have lived in it all my life, and I can clearly see that there will be big changes in the optical retail trade, and wholesale as well
If what we do is provide a medical service and medical devices, then there is a community service element to our work. Service, to me, clearly means not kicking out 40 patients with $200 budgets to make board space for a frame for the $2000 patient.
We have a selection of value frames and lens options for our lower-budget (I don't care about their income, just where our services fit in their budget) patients. They take up space in the lab I would rather use for other things, and they involve some lens options I only use for these patients. It is substantially more work, not less, than my high-dollar orders through VisionWeb. There is nothing "lazy" about carrying en entire line of product specifically for one financial demographic.
Honestly, it's only about 30% lower-income patients who buy this product. It's also a lot of people who are looking for second pairs for reading, driving, driving over contacts, etc. A lot of them are fairly-well-off middle-aged patients who got where they are by not spending more than they felt they needed. Often, it's an offer we can make to patients who confide that they take their RX to Costco. We get discounted frames from Modern Optical, use Somo AR lenses from ABB or non-brand-name PALs, and we turn a nice little profit on each order. Second-pair sales and high capture rate are this business's bread and butter. We shouldn't sniff at anything that increases those numbers.
I'm Andrew Hamm and I approve this message.
Not according to Bill Noblitz. But Mr Haney is another story.
Yes. I believe it is possible to position a value offer that is of good enough quality. I have a big selection of very good quality frames I put out with a sv "bundle" and people love it. You want high end? We have that too. Not in the mood to drop 500+ on a frame today? No problem. You need to cast a wide net today and it isn't that hard to-do
It shows the budget conscious consumer who doesn't want the cutting edge tech but still wants the service and craftmanship in lens creation. I looked at the cheapy bundles near me and my budget bundles in my mind equate to same price for frame lens plus the service and support the customer gets with the purchase.
They do very well.
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