By Justin Bazan, OD 
SYNOPSIS
Annual supply contact lens sales benefit patients and practices alike, but don’t miss out on capturing CL sales to patients who prefer to purchase otherwise.
ACTION POINTS
SET GOAL to sell CL annual supplies–good for patient and practice
REMIND non-annual supply purchasers they should still purchase from you.
MAKE IT EASYto purchase from you via e-mail, web site and Facebook page.
It’s best for patient compliance and long-range practice profitabilityto sell annual supplies of contact lenses. But, as we all know, patients sometimes opt not to buy an annual supply. Loss of the patient’s remaining contact lens needs is more likely if an annual supply sale is not made, so my practice has strategies to capture those sales.
SET GOAL
Set Goal to Sell CL Annual Supplies
Make no mistake, our first goal should always be to sell patients annual supplies. When patients get down to their last boxes of lenses they are likely to try to make those remaining lenses last as long as possible by wearing them longer than the recommended wearing time, and/or they are likely to go online in search of the cheapest deal. In addition to lost sales on the patient’s remaining lens needs, you hand that patient over to continuous marketing from the online retailer they purchase from. As soon as you shop with an online contact lens retailer, you get e-mails every week after from that same retailer offering discounts on lenses that an independent OD can’t compete with. That’s why it’s so important not to give up just because the patient failed to purchase an annual supply from you. I would estimate that 90 percent of our patients opt for annual supplies while about 10 percent buy in smaller batches.
REMIND
Verbal Reminder that Didn’t Purchase Full Supply
At the time of purchase, our staff reminds the patient that they did not purchase an annual supply: “I know you didn’t get a whole year’s supply, so when you’re ready to re-order, please let us know. We can easily take care of that for you and get you more.”
Send Follow-Up E-Mail
When all our best efforts to sell an annual supply has failed and the patient insists that they only want what their insurance covers, we send the patient an e-mail with their contact lens supply (however much they ended up purchasing) invoice, receipt and any potential rebates. We use a Google Chrome extension called Boomerang to automatically e-mail a reorder reminder e-mail, a couple of weeks before they are expected to run out.
MAKE IT EASY
Patient Can Click a Link from E-Mail to Purchase
Taking a cue from our online retailer competitors, we enable the patient to click on a link in the e-mail they are sent to place a contact lens order. We did this by setting up a Google Document form the patient is connected with from the e-mail. The patient fills out that form and then our staff places the order for them with the appropriate vendor. We use an online invoicing system run through our credit card processor, Professional Merchant, to link to a payment portal. The patient gets a receipt once the order has been processed. When ordering from us, patients have several options: shipped free to our office for them to come by and pick up, second-day delivery to their home for $7.99 or overnight to their home for $15.99.
Recognize Annual Supplies Means Something Different to Different Patients
Not all of your contact lens patients wear their lenses everyday. Some may only wear them on the weekends, and some even less often than that. It is always the doctor’s responsibility to get to know the patient well enough to understand their contact lens needs, and then let staff know how many boxes to authorize them for. Understanding individual lens needs is important to guiding your efforts to sell annual supplies. For example, you don’t want to dispense eight boxes of daily replacement lenses to a patient who only wears them a couple times a week. That supply would allow them to have enough contacts for a couple of years. With so many contacts, they are probably more likely to skip their annual exam. The majority of our patients wear their contact lenses everyday, but we have a handful who opt to just wear contacts a couple times a week.
Send Thank You E-Mails After CL Purchase
We e-mail patients to let them know their contact lenses have arrived. We also let them know we appreciate their business, and that when they’re ready to re-order, we want to help them.
Put Reminder on Non-Annual Supplies Purchased
If patients are coming to our office to pick up non-annual supplies, we place a sticker on the box alerting them that they can order from us when it’s time for a new supply. So, when they get down to their last box, they see the sticker and are reminded to order from us.
Continue to Make Effort Even When Patient Does Purchase from an Online Retailer
When we get an online verification notice from the patient’s online retailer, we respond to the patient with an e-mail that lets them know the comparison in price between where they just purchased and our practice. The e-mail might say: “We’re a small business, and we need your business. This is what you’re paying online versus what you would have spent at our office.”
We are conscious of prescribing brands that enable us to compete effectively on pricing. We usually prescribe brands that, with rebates, we can beat online retailers on pricing. For example, a three-month supply of Proclear One-Days may cost $250 online, but would only cost $200 from us with a rebate. In other words, we tend to prescribe brands that are more insulated or guarded in pricing compared to the more well-known brands offered by online retailers such as Acuvue Oasis, which is being over-sold online.
Add Reminder About CL Purchasing to All Correspondence and Web Pages
At the bottom of every e-mail our office sends, regardless of the purpose or subject of the e-mail, there is an icon featured that says “order contacts” which you can click to be taken to our contact lens ordering form. That same icon is also on our practice web site (our Facebook page). It is one of the main apps on our Facebook page, ensuring contact lens ordering is top of mind to all site visitors.
Related ROB Articles
Enhance Annual CL Supply Sales with a System
Increase Annual Contact Lens Sales: Show Patients their Savings
Boost Annual CL Supply Sales with Convenience and Value
Justin Bazan, OD, owner of Park Slope Eye in Brooklyn, NY, started his own practice cold. He speaks regularly on strategies for marketing your practice via social networks. To contact him: dr.bazan@parkslopeeye.com
