There is a lot of income to be had at your practice that is potentially walking out the door!
Where is that income? Contact lens sales! How do you make sure your practice is capturing these sales instead of letting them walk out the door?
Key components to capturing contact lens sales
Cost
Convenience
Courtesy
Try to create or find helpful tools for your staff to use to breakdown the cost per box of contacts. (Psst... contact lens reps or distributors may already have this tool ready to use) This 1 pg sheet helps you to breakdown the cost for the patient to ease on the sticker shock. Say you fit a patient into daily wear contact lenses which cost $90 per box at a 90 day supply each. Well, if you tell the patient that the total cost for them will amount to $720, they will likely recoil and tell you that is the cost of their rent or two car payments.
We are here to help you meet that resistance with logic. You can break down that cost by offering a discount for patients who buy a full year supply versus one box at a time. Perhaps give 5%, which adds up to a $36 savings. Then apply their insurance benefits if they have them. You may even offer patients a greater discount if they do not have material benefits. That is entirely your call! So if a patient’s VSP plan covers $150 a year toward contact lens materials, apply that savings on the next line of our worksheet. Subtract the savings and provide the patient with an in office total, in this case $534. The patient has already saved almost $200!
Do not forget about rebates! Nowadays, most rebates are not even mail in, and can easily be completed online at the manufacturer’s website. Most manufacturers offer an additional $100-$200 rebate. Add that to the rebate line on the worksheet, and then subtract to get the new total. Let’s go with a $150 rebate for educational purposes. The final total is $384. It helps to break down that cost even further, divide by the number of boxes, which brings you down to $48 a box! Wow, that is almost a 50% savings! Explain to the patient that this is the cost equivalent of $1.07 a day, to wear fresh contacts and achieve the best possible vision every day!
So, we’ve covered cost. How do you make purchasing annual supplies of contact lenses convenient at your practice? Streamline the process! Make sure the Dr. informs the patient that the front desk can easily set the patient up with an annual supply at the time of check out. If a patient needs to return to the clinic for a contact lens check, you can still take this step. Order the contacts to be delivered to your practice, and let the patient know if they work out at the time of the recheck appointment they can take the supply home with them that day. If the patient does not need to return, most contact lens labs will ship annual supplies to a patient’s home address for free! Remind the patient that if they order the full year supply, they do not even have to return to the practice until their next annual appointment. Most patients really do not want to shop around, so making things easy for them will help them to accept the cost and the help you to capture the sale.
As far as courtesy goes, you need to train the staff on contact lens sales initiatives, Some of these initiatives include replacing damaged or defective contact lenses at no additional cost to the patient, and supplying them with trial lenses if something should happen. Refittings can be cheaper than annual fittings for children whose prescriptions are rapidly changing. If an RX changes before the year is up, remember you can exchange boxes that are unmarked, unopened, and unexpired. These promises should always be kept, and your staff should always do everything in their power to take care of a patient who purchased an annual supply and any problems that may arise. Implement additional initiatives, such as discounts on prescription glasses for back up, or offer a free pair of stylish sunglasses (cost effective) with the purchase of an annual supply of contact lenses. Some doctors give patients a $50 credit to apply to designer sunglass purchases or back up glasses with the purchase of an annual supply of contact lenses.
Make sure you train your staff to continue to positively reinforce contact lens purchases with patients. If a patient simply cannot afford to purchase a full annual supply of contacts after reminding them how much more money they can save in the long run, do not push them too hard. Accept the sale even if it is only a month supply for now. Remember, these patients are the ones who will likely price shop and try to get the cheapest price per unit if they leave your practice without purchasing at all. Remind your staff to offer the incentives, answer any questions with patience, and stay polite.
People love to support small businesses. Don’t be shy about reminding your patients that their purchase helps keep their eye care provider and employees afloat!
Remember the SOS team is here to support you! Contact us if you need help getting started or implementing some new sales initiatives. Make plans to train your staff to approach their contact lens sales like this with the tools provided. We know they will feel twice as confident with sales training and sales tools. Good Luck OPTIMEYEZERS!!
Comments