MBA Intelligence

June 15, 2011

Bi-weekly information and advice to manage optometric practices
from the Management & Business Academy™ (MBA)

mba-ce.com mycibavision.com essilorusa.com Contact Us
Ziegler

Ask Neil

Dr. Neil Gailmard

A doctor asks...

“I always seem to be running 10-15 minutes behind with patients? What techniques do you recommend to keep me on schedule?"

Congratulations for recognizing that there is a problem. So many doctors today feel it is perfectly normal to run late, but having a track record of usually running on time is actually a strong competitive advantage that will result in greater patient satisfaction and loyalty. There are three steps to correcting a practice that always runs late: 1) Analyze the bottlenecks in your current flow; 2) be aware of when your next patient is ready; 3) be flexible with your exam routine. Let’s look at each point.

READ MORE»

Dr. Neil Gailmard, who is widely known for his practice management advice, is a member of the MBA faculty.

Super Service Pearls

Advice from service experts to enhance the patient experience

"L.L. Bean’s Definition of a Customer"

L.L. Bean, the famed catalog and online retailer, has a well deserved reputation for outstanding customer service. The company constantly reminds its customer service agents and sales staff about the following definition of a customer:
• A customer is the most important person
• A customer is not dependent on us, we are dependent on him
• A customer is not an interruption of our work; he is the purpose of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him, he is doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so
• A customer is not someone to argue or match wits with. Nobody ever won an argument with a customer.
• A customer is a person who brings us his wants. It is our job to handle them profitably to him and ourselves.
Share this with your staff.
READ MORE»

side divide

MBA Practice Building Pearl

“Repeat the Patient’s Chief Complaint”

Gary Gerber, OD

Repeating the patient’s chief complaint—in the very same language the patient uses-- demonstrates that you understand why they have come to you. Then the patient is more inclined to believe that you have a solution to their visual and eye health needs.

How Does Your Practice Compare?

Dominant Households

Typical Patients of Half of Optometric Practices Are Affluents

Some 48 percent of established OD practice owners estimate that their typical patient has household income of $60,000 or more. Just 15 percent estimate that their typical patient household income is less than $40,000. The composition of typical household incomes of patients of new practices is similar in distribution.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the median household income before taxes in 2009 was $46,012.

Market Facts

InternetActivities

Use of Social Networking Sites Frequent in Younger Households

More than 60 percent of homes with Internet access sent or read emails yesterday during 2010. Among households headed by a person 18-29 years of age, more than 60 percent used a social networking site yesterday. Use of social networking sites is much less prevalent in older households, but is growing.

Spotlight on...

Best Practices of Spectacle Lens best practices

Management

Increasing the ratio of contact lens patients
who purchase eyeglasses also has a large
impact on practice revenue and profit.
A practice with annual gross revenue of
$750,000 typically performs 63 contact
lens exams monthly, or 750 annually. If
20 percent of contact lens patients buy
eyeglasses, the annual revenue generated
is just $22,500. If a pair of single vision
eyeglasses is sold to 40 percent of patients
receiving contact lens exams, $45,000 in
revenue is generated from eyeglasses sales
to contact lens patients.

ImpactBSL

MBA Updates

Upcoming MBA Seminars:
COPE approved Lectures

Vision Expo

Canadian Association of Optometrists 2011 Congress:
Winnipeg, Manitoba, July 24.
Info: www.opto.ca

Southern California College of Optometry:
Fullerton, Ca., August 26.
Info: www.scco.edu

Vision Expo West:
Las Vegas, September 24-25.
Info: www.visionexpowest.com

MORE MBA DATES»

Join the MBA community
Register as a reader:
MBA-ce.com

Neil

Sticky Situations

Dr. Dave Ziegler

A patient asks...

"Why are your glasses and eye exams so expensive?"

When patients question your prices, it can raise a few different things--like your blood pressure and your level of stress. But it's a fair question for patients to ask. We often ask ourselves that same question before we buy something in order to justify our purchase. And in the mind of your patient, your product has to be better or cheaper than the competition in order to feel good about buying it. While this is the question coming out the patient's mouth, what they really are asking is something quite different. They really want to know: "How are your eye exam and glasses different than what I could find at your competition?"
However, if you clearly differentiate yourself from your competition, patients don't even ask the question in the first place.

READ MORE»

Dr. Dave Ziegler, who lectures and publishes regularly, is a member of the MBA Faculty.

side

New...

On MBA-ce.com

New 2011 Editions of Best Practices

Two central resources from the Management & Business Academy ™ (MBA) have been reissued in 2011 editions. Now posted on MBA-ce.com and containing updated market information, as well as implementation strategies:

Best Practices of Contact Lens Management

Best Practices of Spectacle Lens Management

 READ MORE»

About the MBA

The Management & Business Academy™ (MBA) is a professional education program, sponsored by CIBA VISION and Essilor, dedicated to assisting independent optometrists to improve business management processes. MBA conducts live seminars, conducts on-going research to establish national optometric practice performance metrics, publishes MBA Insights (a quarterly practice management journal) and maintains www.mba-ce.com (a repository of practice management information).

MBA logo

Copyright © 2011 Management & Business Academy™ (MBA). All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.