New This Week
The Value of Peer-to-Peer Business Groups
D. Penn Moody, OD, of Moody Eyes in Indianapolis, Ind., recommends that colleagues join non-OD, peer-to-peer business groups to gain perspective on how to run their practices. Through online meetings and coaching sessions, Dr. Moody interacts with owners of unrelated small businesses, and participants share strategies for facing common challenges of finances, staff management and marketing. He cites practical suggestions from peers that he has introduced in his practice. He also notes the value of making suggestions to other group participants. “I’ve learned that business is business is business,” he says. “In making suggestions to peers, it’s almost as if I’m talking to myself.”
>>READ MORE >>
Finances
Patient Financing: Your Second-Pair Sales Tool
By Gina M. Wesley, OD, MS, FAAO
Presenting patient financing options can be a powerful driver of second-pair sales—without resorting to discounting.
>>READ MORE>>
Contact Lens Solutions
Lead the Discussion to Improve Contact Lens Compliance
By Mile Brujic, OD
Utilize technology to demonstrate the potentially harmful effects of poor contact lens care compliance. In the process, you can greatly improve patient comfort and success with contact lenses. >>READ MORE>>
Frames
Make Systematic Frame Purchasing as Easy as 1,2,3
By Charles Turner, OD
Implement an organized, consistent system to manage frame inventory. Here are three simple steps for you or your optical manager to follow.
>>READ MORE>>
Optometric Business Innovators
2012 Optometric Business Innovators:
Optical Dispensing
Review of Optometric Business and Vision Monday present the 2012 Optometric Business Innovators. Each month for the rest of the year, ROB will present profiles of the honorees. This month we honor those doctors recognized for achievement in optical dispensing innovation. >>READ MORE>>
ROB Fast Fact
How Do Patients Prefer to Be Contacted to Schedule Their Next Appointment?
Most people (44.7%) prefer to be contacted over the phone when scheduling for their next appointment, according to Jobson Optical Research’s Waiting Game Insight Survey. Scheduling an appointment before leaving the office came next with 19.7 percent choosing that mode of communication for recall. More of the younger respondents, ages of 18 to 34, preferred e-mail (17.9 percent) to the older 55+ age group (13.1 percent) and vice versa for regular mail, preferred by only 12.9 percent of the younger age group, and almost a quarter (24.9 percent) of the oldest age group.
Click HERE to read more from Review of Optometric Business professional editors Carole Burns, OD, FCOVD, and Mark Wright, OD, FCOVD, on implementing more effective patient recall processes.
In Brief
VisionWeb’s Ordering Service Now Compatible with the Safari Browser
VisionWeb’s online ordering service is now compatible with Apple’s Safari browser on Apple desktops and laptops giving Mac users the ability to order all of their ophthalmic products on VisionWeb.
>>READ MORE>>
AOA and OAA Offer Free CE for Your Staff
The American Optometric Association (AOA) and the Opticians Association of America (OAA), with support from Luxottica and The Vision Council, have formed a SUN alliance offering free continuing education for optometric staff. This alliance is designed to empower practices and businesses with the training and information needed to educate and prescribe sun protection for every patient. >>READ MORE>>
ROB Poll Results
Readers Cite Genuine Love of Serving Patients as Greatest Motivator Behind Superior Employees
Asked what seems to most motivate superior employees, 72 percent of ROB readers cited a genuine love of serving patients. Twenty-two percent said a desire to support co-workers and to work as a team was a chief motivator and six percent said financial incentives and annual merit-based pay increases was a primary motivator.
