As an eye care professional, profitability (healthy profit margins) is a key metric to measure the success of your business. The marketplace is highly competitive as it is, and sometimes it feels like third parties and corporate competitors are exacerbating the squeeze. Now people are talking recession? 

Even in the best times it’s important to have a strategy in place to increase profitability. But right now it’s essential. Here are some steps to help you boost the bottom line of your eye care practice. 

1. Optimize vision plan billing: Time and money lost in vision plan processes adds up. Make sure you have a clear understanding of your vision plans’ policies and procedures, and that your billing staff is trained to correctly handle claims. Being careful about diagnosis codes and avoiding human error will help you mitigate the risk of denied claims and ensure you receive the full reimbursement. 

2. Diversify your services: Offering a range of services beyond traditional eye exams and eyeglasses can help you increase profitability. For example, consider expanding contact lens offerings, adding LASIK consultations, and adding new brands or niche frames. Expanding your frame boards to different demographics can help you capture new patients or second-pair sales. For example, a pediatric brand with styles for infants lets you cater to new parents.  

3. Train with selling scripts: Selling isn’t always easy! It takes practice. That’s why you and your team should come up with selling scripts and role play them to ensure everyone’s prepared to counter objections and make the sale. Think up various scenarios, patient types, and frames for which you can script up selling strategies.  

4. Set pre-appointments: When patients come in for exams, set their next appointments. You can also call up patients who don’t already have appointments and schedule their next visits as well. Patients who are inside your optical dispensary are more likely to buy frames than patients who are not there. Pre-appointments lead to better show rates, and more opportunities to sell frames. 

5. Offer competitively priced frames: Discounts and promotions can be hard. Especially when you’re relying on vision plan reimbursements for profits. But another way to offer patients better value is to feature competitively priced frames on your boards. Eyewear specifically priced to help you succeed with vision plans will offer patients a more affordable option and help you ensure better margins! 

Increasing profitability for eyecare practices requires a strategic approach and careful planning. By taking these steps to lower cost of goods and streamline processes in your office, you can free up time and bolster your profit margins. This will help you make sure that neither competition nor a tough economy will impact the success and longevity of your eyecare business.