For an Optometrist, it can be a struggle to balance your time and focus on running your practice efficiently all while giving your patients your full attention. Because your patients are unique, you have to give each patient your full attention so you don’t miss any troubling optical health issues or incorrectly record patient information. The day to day hustle leaves little time to think about some of the big picture ideas for your optical practice.

Earlier this month, we wrapped up a four part blog series that highlighted three game changing moves your optical practice can implement to increase profits and boost efficiency. In this post, we'll recap all of the information we share throughout the series.

4 Tips to Help Your Practice Increase Profits and Boost Efficiency

Manage Your Online Presence

There’s a good chance that your current patients discovered your optical practice through online research. They probably checked to see if you take their vision insurance, read some online reviews, looked at your office hours, and determined if your practice aligned with their vision needs. Your prospective patients will likely do the same. This is why it is important to manage your online presence.

In Part 1 of the series, we gave you tips on how you can manage your online presence by reviewing your website for accuracy, enhancing your web reputation by addressing reviews, and offering a web-based scheduling option to help prospective patients find appointment availability that works with their schedule. As a bonus, a web-based scheduling feature will help streamline your office workflow and allow your front office to focus more on your in-office patients.

Read all of the tips on how to manage your online presence here: 3 Game Changing Moves for Your Optical Practice Part 1: Online Presence

Plan for the Future

When you started your practice, your long-term ideas may have been limited due to capital constraints. Now that you have a few years of experience, you know your patients and the community, and you have more assets at your disposal so you're able to invest in your practice again.

To plan for the future of your practice, evaluate your practice location to see if relocating or a renovation can help boost patient growth. Other tips that can help your practice in the long-term include investing money into a marketing strategy, new technology that can streamline workflows, and patient education materials.

Discover other tips on how to use long-term ideas to impact your practice here: 3 Game Changing Moves for Your Optical Practice Part 2: Long Term Ideas

Utilize Resources

What resources support your optical practice? If you’re stocking your frame boards with cheap frames or not using software to its fullest potential, then you could be driving patients away and restricting your practice’s ability to run efficiently. Part 3 of the blog series discussed ways your optical practice could utilize your practice resources by:

• Creating a larger inventory of quality products
• Using technology to its fullest potential
• Monitoring regular metrics

Check out the full details on how your practice can optimize your resources here: 3 Game Changing Moves for Your Optical Practice Part 3: Utilizing Your Resources

Optimize Staff

Your staff is one of the most important parts of your practice. Having a team that is excited to come to work every day and interact with patients will help your practice attract new patients and can remove some barriers in creating an efficient optical practice workflow.

When building your optical practice team, manage your staff to weed out underperforming team members, choose a partner that brings new skillsets to your practice, and hire an office manager that can handle the business aspects of your practice.

Read the full post on optimizing your staff here: 3 Game Changing Moves for Your Optical Practice Part 4: Staff Management

Juggling your time and focus between patients and your practice is difficult when your primary focus is on your patient satisfaction. However, not focusing on optimizing your practice’s ability to attract new patients and streamline workflows can put your practice at risk. By effectively managing your online presence, thinking of your practice future, utilizing resources, and optimizing your staff you can increase your profits and boost practice efficiency.

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