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Empowering your opticians
By Andrew Bruce, LDO, ABOM, NCLEM, FCLSA
July 16, 2025
If you’re a practice owner, you might wonder what opticians like us really need to deliver our best—for patients and for your bottom line.
After decades as both a dispensing optician and consultant, I want to share the three biggest things owners can do to support us, improve patient care and fuel strong practice growth.
Give Opticians the Freedom to Recommend the Best Eyewear Solutions
The number one thing opticians need from practice owners is the freedom to recommend the eyewear solutions that truly benefit our patients’ visual lives. Doctors are the experts on eyes, but we’re the experts on eyewear. When you trust us with this responsibility, both patients and your practice win.
Why? Our job isn’t just to fill a prescription. It’s to listen to every detail about a patient’s routine—how they read, use devices, drive or work outside—and then recommend all the options that will improve their vision: primary glasses, Rx sunglasses, task-specific lenses, backup pairs and even contact lenses to supplement their glasses.
In my own practice, doctors provided the clinical guidelines, but opticians, like me, had the responsibility of pairing those guidelines with real-world solutions for every lifestyle.
Over time, I’ve seen patients become more confident in our recommendations. It’s common in offices where opticians have this kind of autonomy, to see both patient satisfaction and per-patient revenue, rise.
When an optician makes a complete recommendation, patients often leave with two or three pairs, not just one. This is not only best for their vision, but it also adds real dollars to the practice.
Involve Your Opticians in Frame Buying
Next, let your opticians have a voice in buying frames. We’re the ones on the sales floor, hearing every “Do you have this brand?” and “I’m looking for that style.” Without our input, practices risk investing in frames that sit unsold, or missing the lines patients are specifically requesting.
Here’s how to make it work: Assign frame buying to a senior optician who can then make purchasing decisions based on feedback from the team. Expect buying meetings to take no more than an hour with each frame rep, once every few months.
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Let’s run the numbers: If your practice stocks from six main frame suppliers, and a senior optician is paid $35/hour, you’re looking at about 24 hours a year or $840 invested annually—less than the profit from selling a handful of high-quality frames.
The payoff? When I was responsible for frame buying and incorporated all my opticians’ feedback, our reputation changed fast. We constantly heard, “You have the best selection in town.”
In 15 years, we grew our frame inventory from 300 to more than 1,500 high-end frames, matching actual patient demand. It absolutely drove profitability and set us apart.
Pay a Respectable Salary and Offer Benefits
Third, I can’t say enough about the value of competitive compensation. When opticians are paid well and get meaningful benefits, we’re loyal, invested and motivated to help patients and the practice thrive. Respect from the owner shows up in every interaction we have with patients—and patients notice.
What’s fair pay? It varies by state and credentials. Licensed states demand higher salaries, but even in unlicensed states, ABO and NCLE certified opticians are worth more than average.
My advice: offer more than the going rate. Early in my career, one employer started me above what I asked for. When I thanked him, he simply said he wanted me to know he valued my contribution. I never forgot this, and it made me work all the harder for him.
Offices that pay and respect their opticians are the happiest, most profitable and best places to receive care. In consulting, I’ve seen that well-compensated, respected opticians build trusting relationships with patients, who then become loyal advocates for the practice. These practices consistently outperform peers, with higher morale, increased patient retention and better financial returns.
Final Thoughts: Empower Your Opticians to Do What They Do Best
Supporting your opticians isn’t about adding layers of cost or management headaches. It’s about a mindset shift—empowering us to do what we do best, listening to the insights we gain from patients, every day, and compensating us with respect.
In every case I’ve seen, practices that give their opticians these three essentials, see the results reflected in patient satisfaction and practice profitability. It’s truly a win-win.
Andrew Bruce, LDO, ABOM, NCLEM, FCLSA, is a 2023, 2024, and 2025 Contact Lens Institute Visionary. He is a licensed master optician and contact lens fitting specialist in Vancouver, Wash., and founder of ASB Opticianry Education Services. To contact him: asbopticianry@gmail.com
