Shift in optical shop philosophy boosts practice bottom line

Bob Tilley

Fundamental changes in philosophy at Ocala Eye helped us to improve our optical shop and achieve a 250% increase in optical revenue in the past 6 years.

Ocala Eye is a relatively large comprehensive ophthalmology practice with several locations in North Central Florida. The practice includes nine board-certified ophthalmologists, a full-time and a part-time optometrist and an ophthalmic ambulatory surgery center.

One element missing from the practice before 2001 was a successful optical shop. That is no longer the case, thanks to an effort by our physician-owners and by the optical shop staff.

Many ophthalmology practices include an optical shop, but the ophthalmologist-owners concentrate so much on surgery and medical services that often they do not think much about it. That was the case at Ocala Eye. Before 2001, the optical shop was not recognized as a vital portion of the practice. More than that, our physicians operated on the theory that, to be completely ethical, they had to detach themselves from the operation of the optical shop. They believed that they could not in good conscience refer a patient to their own optical shop. In fact, they went so far as to give the optical shops a different name, Medical Park Opticians, so that they were not branded with Ocala Eye.

Optical shop revenue was low, and expenses were high. The shop barely turned a profit, and the physicians felt they were providing a service rather than building optical as part of their business.

About a year after I joined Ocala Eye as practice administrator in July 2000, we began critically examining the performance of the optical shop. It was an ancillary service that was performing poorly, and I quickly realized the shop needed help.

A philosophical shift

At that time, our board hired a consultant to perform a review of our system and meet with us to explore ways to improve the optical shop. It was the consultant’s opinion that the first thing we should do was address the physicians’ philosophy with regard to referrals.

When the consultant addressed our board meeting, he asked the physicians, “Who is going to take the best care of an Ocala Eye patient when it comes to their eyeglasses: Ocala Eye or the optical shop down the street?”

The physicians readily agreed that our own shop would take the best care of our own patients. There followed a long discussion about the ethics of the situation, and the consultant was able to convince the physicians that they would not be breaching their ethics if they said to patients, “I want you to go over to our optical shop and see Mary, our optician. She will take good care of you.”

The consultant recommended that we even go a step further — that physicians should actually escort patients to the optical shop. But after discussion we agreed that we were not comfortable doing that in our practice.

Change in protocol

After this discussion of philosophy and our approach to optical, the physicians changed the way they ended each patient encounter. They continue as before to give each patient his or her prescription in the lane, but now they recommend that the patient see someone in our optical shop on the way out. They assure them that our optical shop personnel will take good care of them.

Within a few months of this change in protocol, the physicians began to feel more comfortable with making these recommendations. What convinced them ultimately that this was the right thing to do was that, when they saw these patients returning a year later, the patients thanked them for sending them to our optical shop.

Now the physicians truly agree with the consultant: “Who better than us to take care of our own patients?”

This is not to say that our patients are not free to go wherever they want for their optical needs. If they want to go to a discount store or chain, they have their prescription in hand and are welcome to do so.

But our business bottom line began to increase significantly simply as a result of the doctors saying, “I would like you to stop by our optical shop. They will take good care of you.” Now the optician in our optical shop has a personal endorsement from the physician.

Professional sales training

The catalyst that turned around our optical shop was that philosophical shift among the owners. But what drove the success further was a subsequent attitude adjustment among the opticians.

Once the fundamental shift in philosophy was in motion, we introduced professional sales training for the opticians at the shop. The fact is, an optical shop is a retail sales arena, not a medical one. We wanted to make sure everyone in the shop understood the philosophy of selling in the same way.

Our consultant quickly realized that there was an assumption among the opticians that Medicare patients either cannot or do not want to spend much money on their eye wear. He pointed out that that is a false assumption. After going through sales training, the opticians began to realize that many older people want to look good just as younger ones do. Even when you are 80 years old, you may want a fashionable pair of eyeglasses.

We subsequently modified our product line and brought in some higher-end eyeglasses.

Some of our opticians did not like the change in philosophy. They somehow felt we were doing a disservice to the patient by offering them an extended range of choices, and so they moved on.

No added pressure

The most important thing our opticians have learned about the philosophy of selling is that, because these are our patients, we do not permit sales pressure on them. The opticians realize that, in order to meet the needs of the patient, they must educate the patient about what their options are. Rather than sell, our opticians really teach our patients about options. Then the patients are free to choose whatever they want.

We carefully watch our returns. Returned merchandise can be an indicator that pressure was placed upon patients and then there was buyer’s remorse when they got home. We review what each optician is selling to see whether anyone is exceeding the norm. We do not want them selling inappropriate products for personal gain.

Our average sale in the optical shop is about $150 more than the other practices in our area that I am aware of, and our patient satisfaction level is higher than it was before we changed our philosophy and educated our staff about selling.

Additional improvements

Instead of making all of these changes at once, we took an engineering approach. We made one change, assessed the effect it was having, and then moved on to the next change. Once the change in philosophy and the staff education was in place, we made additional changes to the name and aesthetics of the shop.

We changed the name of the optical shop to Ocala Eye Optical so patients realize they are buying their glasses from the same people to which they trust their eyes. Then we began brightening up the shops with new displays, carpeting and ceilings. We got rid of antiquated fixtures. In the span of 2 years we took our entire optical operation from the 1970s into the 21st century.

These changes took a lot of dedication over a period of years, but we are pleased with the results.

Name recognition

Ocala Eye was originally known as Ocala Eye Surgeons, but we realized the name implied that we only perform surgery here. We have dropped “Surgeons” from the name of the practice, so now people can recognize that we do more than surgery. Surgery is actually only about 10% of our business.

Seventy-five percent of new patients in our practice come from referrals. We infer from this good word-of-mouth that our patients are happy and that we must be doing a good job.

Everything we do in our practice must be done well, or we should not do it. If a patient is unhappy with the way he or she was treated in optical, we may lose that patient not only from the optical shop but from subsequent medical or surgical needs as well. Everything is linked together.

Now that the optical shop is branded with our name, patient satisfaction with their optical experience is just as important to us as a successful surgical outcome.

For more information:

• Bob Tilley, the practice administrator at Ocala Eye, can be reached at Ocala Eye, 1500 Southeast Magnolia Extension, Suite 206, Ocala, FL 34471; 352-622-5183; fax: 352-622-1348; e-mail: bob@ocalaeye.com; Web site: www.ocalaeye.com.