IcareLabs Blog

You've made sure that you and your staff are educated about the many important features and benefits of high-end designer eyewear, protective lens coatings and the latest digital technologies available for your patients' ever-changing eyeglass needs. 

I remember my experience with my first pair of progressive prescription eyeglasses. I was not in the eyewear business at the time. The sign read "2 Pair for $49" and I needed new glasses. When the optician told me my shiny, new glasses would be $400, I was a bit taken aback, to say the least.

Fortunately for me, the eyecare professional was able to explain my options and the reasons for the price in a way that educated me and helped me appreciate the quality product I was getting.

So, how do you do that? How do you communicate to your patients in a way that changes their perceptions and makes them happy they came to see you?

Just in case you missed it, there's a great infographic in the March 13, 2017 issue of Vision Monday. It gives great information you can share with your patients about factors that can effect eye health. "Studies have shown that eyes are definite windows to our overall health."

Remind your patients that annual eye exams are an important key to healthy living, and that many health issues may be identified and/or predicted during their eye doctor visit.

The Email Conundrum

It's easy and very economical. Just fire up your favorite email program and in minutes, you've got a shiny, new marketing email ready to send to your entire database of eye care patients.

But, before you click "SEND," you pause. You're wondering what your patients really feel about your marketing emails. Afterall, you have your own opinions of marketing emails that pour into your inbox each and every day. What makes us think marketing emails from us make anybody feel differently?

There's a new study published by Fluent called "The Inbox Report 2016: Consumer Perceptions of Email" that might give us some useful perspective on the issue.

The study was based on a survey of nearly 2,000 consumers from 18 years old and up who live in the United States. The report provides new data and analysis on questions like how often Americans check email, what impact emails have on consumers’ purchase decisions, the motivations behind subscribing and unsubscribing from email lists, and more.

The Baby Boomer Eyecare Market

In these days of growing competition, both online and in your local market, it’s important to constantly be thinking about and looking for new ways to stand out in the crowd. You may have worked very hard to establish your practice with the basics – great customer service, competitive pricing and quality products. Wonderful! Do you find that doesn’t seem to be enough? Do you still see your numbers shrinking?

As we’ve suggested in this blog before, it might be time to look for other markets you can go after. Are you learning about Millennials and how to attract their business? Have you taken a look at putting some focus on sports eyewear or children and youth?

In this article, I’d like to make you aware of a great series of feature articles that Vision Monday is presenting that focuses on another important segment of the market, senior citizens. Millennials have taken the lead as the largest group of consumers. However, Baby Boomers are not far behind. And as this segment ages, the number of Americans at risk for age-related eye diseases is increasing.

Online Shopping on the Wild Wild Web

In the past few newsletters, we’ve included articles on how to better understand and appeal to Millennials. The hope is to provide some ideas that will help you capture some of this unique, new generation of consumers. One aspect that is important to understand is the online shopping habits of Millennials.

There’s a great article in the newest Eyecare Business Magazine that gives the latest statistics about online eyewear sales, and how Millennials have helped propel online Rx eyewear. In addition, the article gives some great advice on how to make your brick and mortar business better compete with the online eywear providers.

As you well know, being in retail business these days comes with some interesting challenges that entrepreneurs like yourself never had to consider. Today, Internet savvy consumers are doing their research before you ever get a chance to talk to them. Consumers with a desire to shop local small businesses, or those who are looking to be loyal patrons to a shop down the street are becoming harder to find as a more "global" approach sets in.

Over the past few years, several states have passed legislation relating to managed vision care. Many of these new laws prohibit managed vision care plans from mandating that the ECP must use a designated lab to make the lenses covered under the plan. This means many of our customers can now use IcareLabs for these managed vision care plans, depending on what state your practice is in!

In some states, the managed vision care plan is still entitled to set differing reimbursement rates for out-of-network supplies and services. Check with the managed vision care plan for more information.

According to The Vision Council, there have been 40 such legislative efforts, some of which were not signed into law, or died in process. Below is a summary of bills that have become law, or are currently somewhere in the legislative process. The summaries were provided by The Vision Council.

Today's Informed Consumers

The way business is being done now is very different from the way business was done even ten years ago. Today, 90% of Americans spend at least two hours a day on digital devices. When a consumer is interested in a product or service, they look it up and do research on the Internet. Don’t you? They are a more informed consumer than the customer of the past.

In doing business today, it is not just marketing campaigns with a message of, “We offer this great product, buy it”. It is about building relationships, getting the patient to be interactive with you as their eye doctor, with your staff and with the products you offer. It is necessary to inform the patient as to “Why” what you and your company offers is for them.