YOU CAN EITHER RIDE THE WAVE OF OPTOMETRIC CHANGE OR BE SUBMERGED BY IT

CALL IT EVOLUTION, disruptive innovation or just a fact of business. Our profession and the eye care industry are changing, and the rate of change is accelerating. There is no stopping this freight train.

To adapt, we need to stay focused (pardon the pun) on what is coming and what our role will be. If we don’t, by the time we recognize what is going on, the fight may already be over, and we will have never showed up!

FOCUS ON THE CONSUMER

Where do we focus? First, we focus on the consumer experience. Notice I didn’t say patient. People consume our services and vision care products; they are patients only in the exam room. If we don’t treat healthcare consumers as just that, they will continue to be consumers, just in another practice.

As business owners, we must analyze our businesses, our practices and ourselves as providers of these services and products. If we can’t be better than our competition, our consumers will go elsewhere.

FOCUS ON BUSINESS

Second, whether we own a business or not, we all share these business concerns:

• Do we base our schedule on us, or the consumer? We need to think about how “our” schedule affects consumers and adjust it to provide access to care at hours convenient to them, not us.
• Are we transparent with our knowledge, services, products and prices? In a world where everything is visible online, our lack of transparency from wholesale to retail to consumer may potentially be one of our most serious downfalls (which our competitors see as an opportunity).

Speaking of competitors, private equity has targeted our profession as a tremendous financial opportunity. The results are yet to be seen, but for many providers, this incursion into our profession may leave a trail of devitalized practices or, on the upside, the disruptive innovation we have been lacking. Regardless of how you view private equity, it is my hope that this competitor class will help to unify our profession and not create a divisive culture.

FOCUS ON OUTSIDE CHANGES

Third, we need to keep abreast of changes happening outside of our industry that have the potential to dramatically disrupt what we do. Social media changes how we market our businesses and how people see us, our profession and the industry of eye care. Likewise, technological advances in automation, remote and self-driven biometric diagnostics, artificial intelligence and big data and database management (think blockchain) all stand to impact our industry through the next decade. Those businesses that adopt, adapt and build will do just fine. Others, that accept the status quo, may find the world more challenging during the next decade.

My advice: Watch carefully what is happening inside and outside the industry. Continue to manage and monitor your business closely and be flexible in your thinking and your behavior. It may just be what lets us ride the wave of change instead of being submerged by it. OM.