The Official VisionWeb Blog

Just about every business is going to receive at least a few negative online reviews. Usually the customer truly had an unfavorable experience, but what about those Yelp reviews that are unfair and portray an inaccurate or exaggerated explanation of the situation? If your business doesn't have a lot of reviews in the first place, one negative review blown out of proportion can hurt your overall rating and may cause hesitation from new patients.

If you notice an offensive or incorrect review, there are steps you can take to try and get help from Yelp to remove reviews that violate their content guidelines. In case your request for removal is denied by Yelp, we have some advice for taking your own stance against these types of reviews.

One of the biggest jobs of being an optician in an eyecare practice is to sell, sell, sell. While it may seem like a straightforward sale since most patients coming into the practice will need to purchase products for their vision, the online competition your practice faces makes closing highly valued frame sales difficult.

While opticians might not necessarily consider themselves as "sales people," there is definitely a big sales component for that role in the practice. Some opticians even earn commission or incorporate sales into their performance goals.

We looked around for some of the most helpful sales tips on the web that we could find to help you think harder about your role as a salesperson, the strategies you use, and how you can increase sales in the optical dispensary.

Providing good customer service in your dispensary is a critical step towards making a sale. But what makes good customer service? Some customers prefer to be left alone to make a decision after receiving the facts they need while others require you to guide them every step of the way.

In an article written by Hubspot, they highlight a few different studies that show what the average person considers to be good customer service. Optical dispensing sales aren't always the easiest, so understanding your customers' shopping habits and knowing what keeps them happy in your dispensary will help lead to a more profitable season. Let's take a look at some of the facts we learned from Hubspot, and how you can make the most of them in your practice.

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.