Integrating staff in every step key to growing an optometric business
ATLANTA — Successfully advancing an optometric business requires an organized team effort, ensuring everyone from the physician to the receptionist knows the products and what questions to expect from patients, according to a presentation at SECO during MedPRO360.
“As an eye care practice, you have two businesses. You don’t just have a medical business, you also have a retail business,” Rebecca L. Johnson, CPOT, director of education at Eyefinity, said during her presentation. “If you’re not minding both of them, you’re losing out on opportunities that you can definitely have.”
Healio/Primary Care Optometry News is the official media partner of the MedPRO360 practice management track.
Johnson first discussed understanding the “complete eye wear capture rate,” which includes analyzing the percentage of sales made relative to the number of refractions, along with the percentage of patients who are newly refracted entering the optical dispensary and those who make a purchase.
“It’s important to know your capture rate,” she said. “Not measuring your capture rate is like playing football and not keeping score.”
Next, she recommended that the staff gather a list of all the questions a patient might ask or have been known to ask to develop a script of how best to answer inquiries.
“You want your staff to be able to repeat back what you decided ... and make sure that everyone continues to practice it,” Johnson explained. “You don’t want a patient calling and saying they were told one thing by a staff member and something else by another.”
To further develop a sense of community within a dispensary, Johnson emphasized the importance of first impression from the receptionist with follow-through from one staff member to another, such as a personal handoff of the prescription and introduction from the physician or technician to the optician.
Johnson concluded her presentation discussing compliant resolution steps for staff: respond compassionately and quickly to complaints, do not interrupt and thank the patient for the feedback. – by Talitha Bennett
Reference: Johnson RL. MedPRO360: Don’t let Rx’s walk out the door. Presented at SECO; March 4-10, 2020; Atlanta, Ga.
Disclosure: Johnson reports she is the director of education at Eyefinity.