Dr. Greene (left as you look at photo) with the contact lens manager in his practice, Paige Vecera. Dr. Greene says that having an employee dedicated to the contact lens area of your practice can help improve service to patients and contact lens profitability.
Contact lens management strategies for optometry success
By Matthew Greene, OD
Nov. 20, 2024
We are all busy people. When prioritizing how we spend our time in the management of our business, many of us put the most time into trying to improve our optical dispensary, as it is the leading money maker in most independent practices.
Contact lens management often becomes secondary and almost passive.
In our practice, we recently broke $1 million dollars in contact lens revenue and increased our product profit margins from 36 percent to 40 percent—a milestone many small companies strive to achieve in their overall business, let alone one part of it. The secret to our success? We proactively, intentionally worked at it.
Here is how we did it.
Put One Staff Member in Charge
Put one staff member in charge of the “contact lens department.” This can be an existing staff member seeking to grow by adding to their current responsibilities.
With proper training and management, this person can track the metrics, analyze the expenses, train other staff in contact lens sales strategy and keep you updated throughout the year.
It takes work getting this person set up with the training and necessary tools, but then you can let them run with it, and report in monthly with their progress.
The increased cost of the training is generally offset by the increases in efficiency.
Track the Numbers
We try to keep it simple and track revenue from product and services separately. This includes:
Percentage of contact lens evaluations compared to the total number of refractions
Percentage of daily disposable contact lenses sold
Year-supply percentages
Contact lens capture rate (% of people purchasing in-house compared to elsewhere)
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Develop a Goal & Plan With Specifics on How to Get There
Examples of specific actions we took that made a positive impact:
1. Patient education on contact lens options. With expanded power options from lenses like CooperVision’s Biofiinty XR, and a host of multifocal lens options available now, many people may be candidates without even knowing it.
2. Increase daily disposable sales by giving daily disposable contact lens samples to extended duration wearers for part-time wear to let them experience the value of disposing of lenses daily.
3. Use tools like LensQuote or others to visually show the patient the savings of buying in-house and taking full advantage of the rebates offered.
4. Use technology that allows you to automate communication with patients, capturing sales that might have slipped through the cracks. Systems that send reminders about reordering lenses directly to patients boosted our sales outside of office hours. In some cases, these tools even streamline the ordering process, creating a seamless experience for both the patient and the practice. Using tools like Marlo or Dr. Contact Lens to automate communication with patients can help you capture the sale even after patients leave your office.
Develop a Cost-Savings Strategy
Minimizing the number of companies you use gives you more buying power. Leveraging buying alliances, and taking full advantage of incentive programs offered by contact lens manufacturers is helpful. These programs can make a significant impact on your bottom line when managed correctly.
Review & Adjust
Set up a quick department review with the contact lens manager once a month, with adjustments to the goals and plans done at a longer quarterly meeting.
The contact lens portion of your practice has the potential to be a million-dollar business on its own.
By treating it like one, tracking the right metrics, and leveraging new technology and manufacturer programs, you can boost profitability and streamline operations.
A dedicated manager who understands this part of the business can help you unlock its full potential.
If you haven’t already, it’s time to give your contact lens department the attention it deserves—and watch your practice grow.
Matthew Greene, OD, is a partner with Urban Optics in College Station, Texas. To contact him: mgreeneod@gmail.com
