IcareLabs Blog

2020 has been a long year. Covid has kept most of us bottled up at home and cabin fever has become very real to many of us. The good news is that we have made it through the summer. Going outside is now bearable as temperatures start to drop across the USA. So why not get out of the house? Our mental health could use a change of scenery and there is no better time than fall to go out and enjoy the fresh air.

Here are 4 simple activities that could help you break out of the monotony of being cooped up indoors.

With designs like the Autograph III and Autograph Intelligence Shamir has become well known in the premium digital progressive world. What many people do not know is they also offer several premium single vision design options too? These are a great option for more discerning single vision patients that are looking for a more natural visual experience.

The Shamir Autograph 3 single vision, Shamir Attitude 3 single vision, Shamir Relax, and Shamir Autograph 2 single vision digital lens designs can help increase your premium branded capture rate while subconsciously preparing your patients for the move into Shamir PALs once they become a presbyope. Let's take a deep dive into each design to see what each brings to the table and the type of patient that is the best fit for each.

Selling is simply about having a conversation with a person and helping them improve their lives. What other industry offers a better life improvement than ours? A recent study showed that people prioritized their vision over any other part of their bodies. We would rather lose limbs than vision.

We get to help create better vision for our fellow human beings every day. There are not many better callings than what we get to do. It should be rewarding, easy, and stress-free but we all know it often isn’t. So what can we do to try and keep it simple and not lose the sale?

A few years back Essilor shook things up a bit when they released the Comfort 2. There was a bit of panic that they might have made changes to the #1 selling PAL in history that might have not worked. Years later we all know that the changes made to the Comfort not only worked but worked well.

Back then Essilor looked into the "visual needs" changes that had occurred over the previous 10-15 years. Through this research, Essilor was able to update to venerable Comfort design to meet the needs of our modern patients.

Well, they have done it again with the launch of the Varilux Comfort Max. As our lifestyles continue to change so do the needs of our presbyopic patients.

Here at IcareLabs we strive to provide ECPs across the country not just with the best selection of high quality lenses for the best prices, but also with tools to help elevate your optical business. We understand that when one optical does well, everyone in our industry benefits from it!

That's a big part on why we write these blogs and provide our Resource Center to all ECPs at no cost, regardless of having an account with us or not. Most opticals across the country are spending a good chunk of their budgets on various marketing techniques, but what are some non-traditional marketing options you could be using to augment your other marketing efforts?

Transitions now offers an amazing and easy-to-use tool to show your patients the numerous color options they have for next pair of Transitions lenses. Being user-friendly and only requiring a computer (or smartphone) with a webcam, your patients can now try before they buy!

Running a business and managing staff has changed a bit over the last 20 years or so. There was a time when just paying your employees a fair wage, insurance, and a safe environment to do their job was enough to keep everyone happy.

Times have changed and so have employee expectations. We’ve all seen how companies like Google offer all kinds of perks to not only draw in good people but more importantly keep up morale.

Here are a few key ideas to make working for you more fun and rewarding. By following some of these you will improve your morale and teamwork. Most of these will cost you very little out of pocket when compared to how much they can boost your team’s morale.

Customer experience has become a hot term in the retail world. There are many folks out there making a very good living helping businesses improve their overall customer experience for their customers.

With all of this, there are many who still confuse customer experience with customer service. In reality, customer service is just one part of the actual customer experience. There are 6 elements to creating a great customer experience.

In January of this year, I posted a blog hoping to draw your attention to 3 important drivers of your business to focus on in 2020. These were capture rate, retention, and increase your average sales price (ASP) per sale.

Who could have foreseen the events that have transpired in our world over the last 5 months? The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken all of us to the core. Most non-essentialbusinesses were closed down for some period of time; many for months.

The optical industry was hit as hard as any. Most offices closed to all but emergency services. Opticals were shuttered or left to just do repairs and adjustments. Overall the industry saw up to an 85% reduction in sales. We are coming back strong but still learning to live in the new normal. While we could debate whether all of this caution was warranted or not, the facts remain, we all lost sales. Increasing your optical capture rate has never been more important than now.

Kodak Lens now has several fantastic custom printed options that your optical dispensary can take advantage of. These tailored options allow you to remind patients about your practice and the multiple options provided by Kodak Lens. Let's take a look at a few of these choices to get a better idea of how they can help your optical business.