LAB question

[Mermaid]

What are the benefits of an ELOA lab vs. an Independent one?
Recently, following an enormous amount of inconsistency in billing and very expensive pricing, I've been searching the area and am finding significantly more reasonable prices from Independent ones.
Comments??

[mrba]

Its a no brainer. In the end the independants win.

mrba

[jofelk]

Being independent means never having Essilor looking over your shoulder.

Here in the heart of ex- Bethlehem Steel we learned that the small independent steel producers were better suited to change. They changed with technology, without the huge overhead of bureaucracy. They could offer the products that the manufacturers wanted.

Big Steel died because of its inability to change and offer a variety of products at a competitive price.

I hope we have learned from their mistake and we survive.

[Mermaid]

GREAT Insight - no pun intended!
THANKS...
Just a little afraid of the big transition, after MANY years with the other one. But their PRICES...and the inconsistencies??
WAY too often - I don't have time for that kinda stuff!!

[Chris Ryser]

Mermaid said:
What are the benefits of an ELOA lab vs. an Independent one?
.
Comments??

Dependent

1) You do what you are told to do, by head office management who might be told what to by the parent company.

2)You are inflexible in everything you do. Lots of red tape.

3)If business policy mistakes are made, they are not your mistakes and will not affect your income.



Indpendent

1) You do what you want to do. You are responsible only to yourself.

2) You can be as flexible as you want and have no red tape to overcome.

3) If business policy mistakes are made you are fully responsible and your income might become negatively afeccted by your own mistekes.

It is all a personal choice of everyone to which category one wants to belong and be successfull in it.

[karen]

Mermaid-great question! I have worked for a large corporate owned lab (not ELOA- the other one) and left them a little over a year ago to work for an independent and in all honesty, there are advantages to both from the opticians standpoint (not from mine but that's a whole other story)

Big labs have big pocketbooks so they tend to have the very best state of the art equipment and are sometimes able to bring you new technology sooner i.e. having their own AR (read Crizal) facility on site so that they can get it to you more quickly-in fact they will tell you that they can get it faster than that small independent who has to send it out can and they would be correct.

Those big labs have marketing dollars and incentive programs that some smaller labs cannot offer.

Their volume is much higher-their profit is larger and so they tend to be a little more crazy on their redo policies (some do 365 day unlimited!!) and sometimes have lower prices.

Now that being said, here are the advantages to an independent (whether a large one or small one)

They are generally competitive in the equipment area-some have AR on site as well (read something other than Crizal)-we are in the process of installing ours ( I can't wait!!!!) and usually are comprable software-wise so that job tracking etc is handled much like it was at the other lab which means less confusion during the transition

You can get a human being on the phone when you call

You are more than just a number to them, your business is important to their bottom line regardless of the size of your account and you will be treated accordingly.

Your sales rep has a managable territory so you should see them on a fairly regular basis to learn about what's new etc.

The buck stops there- no one has to climb the corporate ladder to resolve a problem, make an exception, get a credit, holler at the final inspector for letting a job pass that shouldn't have...you get the picture.

The focus of the business-providing quality work for a fair price in a short amount of time-gets to stay the focus. You don't have to worry about some bigwig from a foreign country coming in and arguing with you over how much money is being spent on the new air conditioning vents in the new facility you are building or some guy at a desk in another state looking at your numbers and deciding without ever having met you that your lab is not doing well...

Yes, I am a little biased but I feel I have the experience to indulge it. Good luck in deciding!!