How do you get patients to buy eyewear on the spot? If you own an optometry practice, you may be looking for ways to boost eyewear sales at your location. The truth is that the odds of getting a patient to purchase directly from you instead of going elsewhere are low once they leave the office with a prescription in hand. Here’s a look at six ways to make it easier for optometry patients to pick glasses.
1. Keep Your Retail Area Open During Office Hours
Patients value the convenience of being able to walk over to browse eyewear immediately following appointments. Don’t bet on the fact that they will come back to select frames during your limited retail hours if the lights are off while they’re visiting the office. Retail hours should mirror your appointment hours.
2. Place the Retail Area by the Exit
Set up your eyewear retail area in a section of the practice that patients need to walk through in order to exit. There’s a reason why museums and venues always have patrons “exit through the gift shop.” This creates the perfect opportunity for patients to see your robust selection of frames.
3. Create Attractive Retail Displays
If your eyewear retail area isn’t inviting, your patients may not even be aware that they can shop. They will assume that they can only get outdated styles from your office if your displays are outdated or lackluster. Invest in clean, bright eyewear displays that make it easy for your patients to browse styles. Professionally designed displays can create a boutique experience that makes your patients prefer to shop with you instead of going elsewhere.
4. Provide a Coupon With Every Prescription
Many people who wouldn’t consider purchasing full-priced frames would change their minds if they could get 15% off. Consider attaching a coupon for all in-house frame purchases when you hand patients new and updated prescriptions. This incentivizes them to purchase new frames with you instead of hunting online for better deals.
5. Offer a Budget Line
If your practice is losing eyewear sales to budget retailers online, try to fight fire with fire by bringing in your own budget eyewear line. Budget-friendly eyewear is especially important in practices that handle children’s optometry because parents are reluctant to spend a lot on frames that kids will either quickly outgrow or break. When introducing these new frames, stress the fact that they are comparable in cost to frames from popular budget eyewear retailers without the shipping costs.
6. Educate Your Patients on the Value of Proper Frame Measurements
When people order eyewear online, they frequently rely on their own measurements to customize frames. Errors in measurements can cause frames to sit incorrectly. This can actually affect the way that glasses work. What’s more, patients who order glasses online have no way of checking that the prescription is correct. As part of your commitment to patient education, let your patients know that the best way to get effective, properly fitting eyewear is to have a prescription fulfilled right in your office.
