10 Strategic Ideas

Consumers study businesses to determine who merits their loyalty—and grading’s gotten tougher.

Here, we check in with two O.D.s with visibility into the larger landscape of independent optometry, Lance Anderson, O.D., VP, strategic initiatives, Professional Eye Care Associates of America (PECAA), and Justin Manning, O.D., MPH, FAAO, EVP, professional strategies, Healthy Eyes Advantage (HEA), to look at 10 critical ways to differentiate your practice in the ongoing realities of 2021 and beyond.

EB: With the nation almost fully reopened and consumers eager to move past Covid, what should optometric practices focus on now?

➤ IDEA #1

Justin Manning, O.D., MPH, FAAO: The pandemic caused people to rethink loyalties, so business is up for grabs. There’s an opportunity to capture new patients and wow them, patients who may not have considered leaving the practice they had been established with previously.

➤ IDEA #2

Lance Anderson, O.D.: Doctors need to understand they are both a clinician and a businessperson—take both of those seriously. Take the time to be a leader. Have a plan and be a motivator of staff so they can execute your plan. Track key performance indicators in your practice and measure those results so you can continue to improve.

➤ IDEA #3

Dr. Manning: I’m a firm believer that patient experience/clinical care and running a profitable business go hand in hand. You can’t run a profitable business without focusing on the patient, and you can’t fully focus on the patient without running a profitable business. Invest in your team. Level up their skills, and train and develop them so they can deliver an amazing patient experience.

➤ IDEA #4

Dr. Anderson: It’s simple Business 101 stuff…those who take the CEO role seriously will be so much further ahead.

EB: Advice for optometrists looking to establish a specialty today?

➤ IDEA #5

Dr. Anderson: Doctors need to continue to reinvent themselves. Have a specialty like dry eye or myopia control, skin care, and aesthetics eye care—beauty products. We have members doing very well with an aesthetics specialty in their practice.

It’s imperative you make the investment in time, equipment, and systems that are needed so you don’t just dabble in it and say, “Yeah, I do all of this.” You take it seriously. Build a business within the business.

➤ IDEA #6

Dr. Manning: Evaluate what is around you—both outside and within your practice. When we built a specialty contact lens practice, lots of offices in the area said they fit specialty lenses, but when we dug deeper, we found they did only one or two specialty lenses a month. So, recognize that what other practices promote is not necessarily what they do.

➤ IDEA #7

Dr. Manning: Examine patient demographics. It doesn’t make sense to start a binocular vision pediatric specialty if your average patient age is 45 and up. Understand deeper motivators. Outside the fact that keratoconus patients need specialty lenses to see, what are their deeper motivators from a personal standpoint, a philosophical and hierarchy of needs standpoint? Understand the deeper problems and solve them.

EB: Looking ahead to 2022, what else is key?

➤ IDEA #8

Dr. Anderson: I don’t care what industry you’re in, if retail’s involved, you’re seeing more direct-to-consumer platforms every day. In our industry, that’s becoming a bigger issue. We need to think about a solution for independent optometry to band together and have a substantial DTC presence.

➤ IDEA #9

Dr. Anderson: Listen, 70% of eye exams are still done in independent offices. But 70% of product isn’t purchased from independents. That’s where we’ve got to get better. We have to be willing to fight a little bit.

➤ IDEA #10

Dr. Manning: Focus on that patient experience. This is the biggest differentiator. It’s not just the doctor-patient encounter. It’s every step along the patient journey: How they find you, how they first interact with the team, how they engage with your practice long after the comprehensive exam.

Work with a coach who knows business and will hold you accountable, and more importantly, help you achieve your dreams.

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