How To Save Thousands of Dollars In Your Optical

When you were filling out your application to Optometry school, did you ever think you would have to worry about the headache that is your optical?
 
Eyeballs you can master.
Your personal motivation is no problem.
But your frame boards and staffing are a mess.
 
And because of that, the one place that many practices allow money to just disappear is their optical. It should be the other way around. The one place that practices should make a ton of money is in their optical.
 
As I have visited offices, I’ve come to realize that many OD’s entrust their optical to other employees, and what happens is that an accepted ignorance sets into their thinking. It is almost like the doc thinks that he/she doesn’t have enough time to oversee the optical. Hopefully, you have an outstanding optician/frame seller, but no matter the talent or level of managerial skill, the optical has got to be looked after vigorously.
 
The problem that I see most docs face is knowing where to start. There isn’t one magic spot, so let’s just walk through areas in which your management can have a quick and profitable impact. Let’s do that by asking a series of questions.
 
Frame Boards – How many frames should we carry?
 
This truly is a difficult question, but if you don’t answer it, either your frame buyer or a frame seller will answer it for you. I know a few practices that carried massive amounts of debt because their frame buyer just got out of control. Remember: you are the final frame buyer. I don’t care how great your seller/optician is, give them a financial limit. Tell them they have the freedom to buy frames to a certain dollar amount or to a certain number, but any potential purchase that exceeds those amounts has to be approved by you.
 
I used to tell my optical folks this next truth all the time, but they always struggled to believe it. The frame seller is not your friend. What I mean is that they are not your personal friend. Oh, they might take you out to eat, and I’ve even known a few to show up at birthday parties and the like, but the end goal of that frame seller is to make the sale.
 
I’ve seen offices that gave frame sellers nearly 100% freedom to bring in frames, which is insane. If you give a salesperson unrestrained freedom, what you are going to get is an unrestrained frame bill. And don’t let the seller fool you with the old “I’m just going to swap out some frames” routine. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me explain.
 
Your optical person tells the frame seller that you won’t be buying any new frames from them this visit. They respond with, “Hey, no problem. Everyone is tightening up right now. I’ll help you and take some of these old frames that aren’t selling and just put some new one out to help boost your sales. We’ll just swap out the old ones for new ones.” Then guess what happens? You get a bill for $500.
 
I’m not impugning every seller. Some of them have amazing integrity, but their job is to make the sale. They make more money the more frames that they sell. Whenever a seller wants to “swap out” here are is the simple rule. Tell them that if they want to take away frames that aren’t selling and replace them with newer frames, that is great. But in the end, the effect on your account must either be that I have a credit for returned frames or the swap out costs me nothing. Period. Any seller that violates this rule or this trust will be placed on probation or banned. It may sound harsh, but no seller has your interests first. Only you do.
 
Tips like this will help you regain control of your optical, save you thousands, and help you make a profit.  You can find a wealth of these types of tips in the ProSight Success System.  It is only $169 and will help you make much more money than that in no time at all.
 
Gordon Duncan is the CEO/Consultant of ProSight Success, serving the eye care industry.