vision wear

Educate New CL Patients

Use these tools to increase contact lens wear in your practice.

JASON R. MILLER, O.D., M.B.A., F.A.A.O.

While new contact lens fits generate revenue, they can also present challenges.

In addition to efficiency issues (a combination of doctor and staff time necessary to fit these patients properly may create a back-up in the schedule), we must ensure these unique patients have positive experiences in our offices.

Use the following tips to help improve efficiency, encourage growth and increase patient satisfaction among your new contact lens patients.

Harness experiential marketing.

Experiential marketing is more than just promoting products or services — it enhances the experience with a certain product, brand or service.

For example, to enhance the optical experience and introduce patients to contact lenses, a practice might fit an “eyeglass” patient with a one-day contact lens so the patient can see how he/she looks in a new set of frames.

This approach enhances loyalty with your office and is a way to meet and exceed customers’ expectations.

With an experiential marketing approach, new contact lens wearers remember the day they received contact lenses for the first time.

Personalize the fitting.

It is important to discuss new products, materials and fitting modalities to help satisfy these patients. Use these discussions to personalize the fitting process in order to set your services apart.

The contact lens industry has developed new and innovative products in every category.

As their doctor, consider using the words, “For patients with your prescriptions, I recommend contact lenses.” Describe it as a process ahead of time. Finally, use visual aids or props to help describe the design of contact lenses to break down any roadblocks.

Fight fear with technology.

One of the biggest barriers to contact lens wear is the fear of removing and inserting. This is overwhelming to many patients, so it must be a focus early on.

It is important to find the most effective way of setting patient expectations. Utilizing videos, which demonstrate the process, eases the minds of new wearers. These can be shown in many different ways such as a tablet or on a personal computer. Many educational videos can also be loaded and handed to the patient for viewing during the eye examination. It is not difficult to fit these into the flow before, during or after the exam.

Additionally, they can be loaded on your website or by sending the link directly to your patients, which allows them to access videos in the privacy of their home.

If utilized correctly, information and educational tools can be seamlessly introduced to patients.

Increase patient satisfaction

If your goal is to increase contact lens wearers, consider utilizing these tools. They not only educate your patients prior to, during and after the contact lens evaluation, but they also make our jobs and the jobs of our staff easier. OM

DR. MILLER IS A PARTNER IN A PRIVATE PRACTICE IN POWELL, OHIO, AND IS AN ADJUNCT FACULTY MEMBER FOR THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF OPTOMETRY. SEND COMMENTS TO OPTOMETRICMANAGEMENT@GMAIL.COM.