The Official VisionWeb Blog

Every eyecare practice is bound to have an unhappy patient or customer online every now and again, no matter how efficient the workflow or supportive your staff. So how do you address them when it happens?

These days, it's not just Yelp where you have to manage your online reputation. Your patients can offer up reviews on your practice on Google and Facebook, too. For any business, negative attention online is difficult to reverse and upsetting. But with these eyecare practice resources, you can develop a strategy to help you manage your online reviews, both good and bad.

With the increasing temperatures, your patients are eager to get outside and be active. We've got you covered on educating them about polarized lenses and harmful UV rays. But, how do you tweak your sales messaging and products to accommodate for summer activities? 

First, we urge you to chat with your patients about their work and leisure lifestyles. If you find that they are active outdoors, then you might be able to recommend a few products to them. Get creative when you stock your dispensary with summer products. You'll want to make sure you have your patients' needs in order to be safe and protect their eyes this summer.

It's not a surprise that your optical shop is facing competition from online retailers. If you find your patients are buying their frames online, you attempt to change your sales messaging and product positioning. 

E-commerce businesses often have large, digital marketing campaigns and lower prices, which can make them hard to compete with. However, your team's expert knowledge coupled with quality products in your optical shop should have what it takes to compete with online giants. How do you relay that message to your patients and keep them shopping in your dispensary?

We're curious to see how far we've come in terms of the software eyecare practices use. It wasn't too long ago that every optometrist was using paper filing, faxing, and other manual data entry methods to manage their health records, orders, prescriptions, and patient communication.

As you can imagine, conducting business by hand could lead to errors and frustrations. We're going to examine how automation and digitization have transformed the everyday workflow for optometrists. Maybe you'll notice a process you could optimize with the help of new technology?

Whether you’re a veteran practice owner with multiple establishments or you’re just starting out, there are a number of challenges every optometric practice owner faces.

Unfortunately, there isn’t always an easy or straightforward solution to these challenges. Owners have to use a mixture of effective management, updated technology, and clever sales strategy to create positive change within their practice.

Knowing your options and gaining advice from your peers can help you test different strategies that can overcome these common challenges in your practice.