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1. Business Review Pays Off
Eye Care Practice finds nearly $8,000 by making pricing adjustments
2. Make the Internet Work for You
O.D. reports 40 percent of contact lens sales are through yourlens.com
3. Compete While you Sleep
Internet presence helps Eye Care Practice stay competitive
4. Save with Annual Supplies
Eye Care Practice successfully incorporates full-year order
5. Virtual Inventory Saves Precious Practice Space
Using ABB CONCISE for a majority of contact lens orders saves Eye Care Practice thousands of dollars
6. Improve Contact Lens Capture Rate
O.D. generates momentum and high contact lens-capture rate with ABB CONCISE services
7. Business Review Simplifies Organizational Oversight
The ABB CONCISE Business review provides overview for organization of multiple eye care practices
8. 27-location Eye Care Practice
Eye Care CEO turns to ABB CONCISE for help
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Business Review Pays Off
Practice finds nearly $8,000 by making pricing adjustments
Mark Gendal, O.D., F.A.A.O., and Jeffrey Reisch, O.D., Coral Springs, FL, rely on ABB CONCISE to lead them to the best contact lens technology. ABB CONCISE rep Evan Scott has been working with the practice for the past 15 years, coordinating with manufacturer reps to confirm that the doctors have the latest contact lens technology for their patients.
But that’s not all. Earlier this year, Scott brought to the doctors a business review that opened their eyes to a $7,600 opportunity. Scott’s business review compared the practice’s price list to that published in the ABB CONCISE quarterly publication, Soft Lens Retail Price Monitor. Dr. Gendal found that his prices were low, in some cases, very low. “Pricing contact lenses is a complicated business,” he says. “The practice purchases between $10,000 and $12,000 in contact lenses each month. Once prices were set, they tended to stay there.” Dr. Gendal found he often based his pricing on the low per-box prices he achieved through banks and other ABB CONCISE promotions. When he saw the average retail prices being charged, he realized he was too low in many cases.
Scott helped Dr. Gendal revise the prices, in most cases, raising them. “We went back and forth over each lens” until a decision was made, he says. Dr. Gendal wants his patients to gain value and excellent customer service when they purchase their contact lenses from him. But he says he won’t give them away or compete purely on price. He believes in setting all his prices and fees fairly. Scott showed him, however, that the many lenses that were priced too low were severely undercutting his profitability.
Sitting at the computer together, Dr. Gendal and Scott revised his price list, beginning with the lenses the doctors dispense most often. Although the Soft Lens Retail Price Monitor is easy to navigate through, Scott knew just where to look for the information. As a result, they moved quickly down the list, updating the prices.
Without making any other changes to his business plan, the adjustments in pricing should lead to nearly $8,000 per year in extra profitability. Equally important, Dr. Gendal says now that he has seen the wealth of information included in the pricing monitor, he definitely will not let his pricing scale go stagnant again. Some practices use the monitor and other information to adjust prices quarterly or when there are significant changes in wholesale pricing.
Dr. Gendal says the business review is just one aspect of Scott’s plan to increase his profitability. In September, Scott helped to link ABB CONCISE’s yourlens.com onto his drvisionworld.com web site, allowing patients to order their contact lenses online. Providing the practice with this turnkey 24/7 web presence allows Vision World to compete with Internet-based marketers. Now his patients can have the ease of reordering at their convenience without having to visit or call the practice.
“Evan’s part of our practice,” Dr. Gendal says of the consulting services and practical support he provides. “He has the whole picture, and it’s really helpful.”
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Make the Internet Work for You
O.D. reports 40 percent of contact lens sales are through yourlens.com
If you’ve ever wondered how to make the Internet work for your practice, just ask Richard E. Hults, O.D., in northeast Ohio. ABB CONCISE’s yourlens.com, the online patient ordering site that is linked to his practice’s web page, has become a profitable extension of his practice. His patients, who order their lenses through yourlens.com, feel as though they are doing business directly with Dr. Hults because their lenses, which are shipped from ABB CONCISE right to their homes, have the appearance of coming from Dr. Hults’s office. Patients have indicated that they like such personalized and convenient service. In addition, Dr. Hults receives a monthly check from ABB CONCISE for those sales. It’s all profit.
“Internet sales are incremental to our business. Nearly 40 percent of our sales are now done over the Internet,” he says.
Dr. Hults recommends that patients buy an annual supply of lenses, for which ABB CONCISE serves as his virtual inventory. “Every practice hears the question: ‘Can I have a copy of my Rx?’ If staff hands it over without any further questions, they have lost an opportunity,” he says. The request for a copy of the contact lens prescription is often a clue that the patient plans to shop for contact lenses from an alternate vendor. Another less obvious opportunity is when a contact lens Rx verification fax is received. Dr. Hults reduces such loss by offering an additional discount, beyond vendor rebates, for patients who buy their annual supply the day of the exam.
Dr. Hults says his practice’s Internet option is explained and offered every time patients ask for their contact lens prescription and anytime a patient buys only one or two boxes of lenses. “If they buy a small amount, regardless of our efforts to educate them on an annual supply, we register them at the office on yourlens.com. They receive an email at home with additional information on how to order. Our strategy is to be price-competitive with any other Internet seller.”
The practice offers competitive advantages that other Internet sellers cannot match. “We guarantee them the accuracy of the product and the prescription,” he says, noting that the practice can specify which contact lenses the patient can order. “We also guarantee them that they’ll be 100 percent satisfied.”
Dr. Hults knows that some patients are particular about their contact lens sources. “Some patients are skeptical that a physician should be selling contact lenses. If I’m talking to a skeptic who may feel my recommendation is based on profitability, I can introduce the yourlens.com site as a preferred Internet provider – one that I trust. But if I sense that my patients want me involved in their contact lens purchases, I can say the service is an extension of my practice.” He feels assured that once patients visit the site, they’ll note that his prices are comparable to those of other providers.
The practice can create an Internet strategy that works best for them, because the practitioner retains control over pricing on yourlens.com. Dr. Hults suggests that, “If you choose to be higher than Internet competitors, you can do that. If you want to take an aggressive pricing stand, you can do that, too. I know of no other Internet providers that allow this much flexibility.”
While his pricing strategy has been fairly aggressive, Dr. Hults emphasizes that it is also profitable. “Predictably, my Internet sales have a lower margin than my in-office sales, but it still ranges in the 35 percent range. That’s much higher than most people would guess. You can retain great margins, particularly on specialty lenses,” he says.
The most obvious point to him is that the lens purchases through yourlens.com would most likely otherwise be lost. Dr. Hults knows that people are shopping online. He advises other practitioners that, “If they’re taking the Rx out of your office, chances are you’re losing the sales. So each of these yourlens.com purchases is truly an incremental sale to my practice. Otherwise, they’d be gone.”
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Compete While you Sleep
Internet presence helps Eye Care Practice stay competitive
Justine Chen, O.D., Ryan Hargreaves, O.D., and their Hollywood, FL, practice staff have been encouraging patients to purchase annual supplies of contact lenses. The majority of them do, but for those who do not, Dr. Chen wanted to offer convenient access to her practice. She found the opportunity to do so when ABB CONCISE rep, Evan Scott, helped her set up a yourlens.com site.
The free web store allows patients to reorder contact lenses, per her approval or preauthorization, and ABB CONCISE handles the entire transaction. To the patient, it looks like the delivery comes from Dr. Chen’s office, which does receive a report of all lenses shipped through yourlens.com orders.
“It’s very convenient for patients,” Dr. Chen says. “There’s a certain demographic of patients who don’t want to order from a live person or don’t want to call the office during business hours. They like the ease of being able to order when they want and having the lenses delivered to their doorsteps,” she says.
The patients gain convenience, and her staff gains back a block of time for each order processed through yourlens.com. “When ABB CONCISE does it for us, it frees the staff to take care of other needs.” Plus, it’s a no-hassle offer for the practice. The two-O.D. practice is busy, too busy to have staff dedicated to checking on contact lens orders placed on line. “Yourlens.com allows us to compete without have to take on new overhead costs. It’s an extra punch for us.”
Before deciding to pursue the online store with gusto, the practice ran a trial. Scott provided a tutorial and support material, such as the cards that explain the process to patients. The staff selected certain people and asked if they’d be willing to try it out. The staff entered the patient information at check out, so patients could order the lenses when they got home. “We asked for their feedback, and they told us it was a user-friendly site.”
Now that the staff understands the process, the practice is doing more. The optician handles the quick task of uploading the pre-registration information. “ABB CONCISE made it so easy to join. In a small busy practice, we would have been hard pressed to come up with the time or inclination to find people to create this kind of site for us.” The practice sets its own pricing for the products purchased on line.
Dr. Chen says she appreciates that ABB CONCISE took the time and effort to develop a system that works well. Now that she has a web site for contact lens orders, she believes she can be more competitive with other Internet-based providers. “Patients will have a certain comfort level in ordering from us because they trust us. I think the longer patients are enrolled and the more patients that we do enroll, the bigger the impact will be.”
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Save with Annual Supplies
Eye Care Practice successfully incorporates full-year order
Most patients at Roberts Eyecare Associates, with locations in Vestal and Sidney, NY, will hear the practice’s new catch phrase for contact lens patients when leaving the exam room. Owner George Roberts, O.D., or one of the other five O.D.s will say to the front desk staff, “I have approved John Smith for an annual supply.”
But the effort for promoting annual supplies does not end with Dr. Roberts’ message, says Kathi Roberts, practice administrator and Dr. Roberts’ wife. Thanks to the patient-retention net-price guide from ABB CONCISE, Kathi Roberts, the front desk staff and the practice’s patient care coordinators can easily access information to aid in promoting annual supplies.
The Roberts Eyecare Associates’ logo is displayed on its four-page Patient Direct Program, which shows pricing and rebate information for the practice’s most commonly ordered contact lenses. Staff members can reference these documents when offering an annual supply package to patients. They do not have to worry about keeping up with ever-changing promotions or pricing because ABB CONCISE rep Jonathan Mietus provides updates when necessary.
Staff members can tell patients exactly what they will be saving by purchasing an annual supply. “For instance, an eight-box annual supply may cost $210, but minus the $30 rebate, it comes out to $180, or $22.50 a box,” says Kathi Roberts. “If the patient only wants four boxes, we tell them that there is no longer a rebate and the price in this example becomes $26.25 a box.” In most cases, the patient opts for the annual supply.
Patients pay in full prior to shipping and ordering, eliminating multiple interactions with the same patients that detract from staff members’ valuable time. “Instead of checking in the order, dispensing and calling the patient, the annual supplies all ship directly to the patients,” says Kathi Roberts. She no longer has to remember to provide a rebate – it’s included right in the box from ABB CONCISE.
Patient care coordinators keep track of which patients select annual supplies by stamping their records with “Annual Supply.” This way, staff members know who will most likely request an annual supply on his or her next visit, or which patients should be encouraged to take this offer.
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Virtual Inventory Saves Precious Practice Space
Using ABB CONCISE for a majority of contact lens orders saves Eye Care Practice thousands of dollars
Sharon Yurko, O.D., says stocking a lot of inventory isn’t practical in the small space available at EyeOptics Optometry Center, Elk Grove, Calif. But now Dr. Yurko and her practice partner Christy Curtis, O.D., don’t need to. She orders nearly all of her soft contact lenses through ABB CONCISE, and the distributor holds a virtual inventory for her. Dr. Yurko says, “I always get the contacts the next day. It’s very convenient,” for her practice staff and patients alike.
Dr. Yurko had been using ABB CONCISE for many years in her practice, but continued ordering some soft lenses directly from manufacturers. As a result, she wasn’t reaping the full administrative benefits of one-stop shopping. In fact, she wasn’t saving as much money, either. Once she began consolidating her orders, her savings skyrocketed. In 2008, the practice saved more than $10,000 through bulk and bank purchases made with ABB CONCISE. She maintains 12 contact lens banks with the distributor, and seven of them are on auto-replenishment. Her ABB CONCISE rep Jason Ng monitors the supply of these banks. “When they get down to a certain point, he reorders automatically,” says Dr. Yurko. “Then he lets me know in an email that the bank was low and how much the reorder cost.” Dr. Yurko has also begun using ABB CONCISE to order her gas permeable lenses and some of her ophthalmic lenses.
Although the virtual inventory works well, she recently decided to take Ng’s advice and now stocks 100 lenses in each of her two most popular brands. “It does help to have the lenses we use routinely in stock,” she says.
Another way to maximize profit and the contact lens-capture rate is by encouraging annual supplies through ABB CONCISE’s quick and convenient direct-to-patient shipments. “I tell patients, ‘I’m approving you for a year’s supply. With the rebate, you get the best value on the price per box.’ I explain that they won’t have to keep coming back into the office or call multiple times,” she says. She stamps the patient’s prescription with an Approved for Annual Supply stamp from ABB CONCISE to indicate he or she has been advised to take this offer, and she says about half of her patients opt for the deal.
For those who don’t buy the annual supply at the time of the visit, Dr. Yurko has created a yourlens.com link on her web site, which allows patients to reorder their contact lenses online. The lenses are shipped from ABB CONCISE, but to the patient, it looks and feels like the transaction is being done directly through her office. To help staff and patients become accustomed to the system, staff will help patients enroll in the web store right on a computer in the office. Patients can order their lenses at that moment, or they can return to refill their prescription later.
Dr. Yurko says it is helpful to have ABB CONCISE’s consultative services and turnkey solutions to help her stay competitive.
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Improve Contact Lens Capture Rate
O.D. generates momentum and high contact lens-capture rate with ABB CONCISE services
When Wayne Golden, O.D., decided to open a new private practice in 2001 near the corporate location where he’d been working for four years, one of the first phone calls he made was to ABB CONCISE rep Mark Maxwell. “I’d known Mark since 1994, when I graduated from Nova Southeastern. Someone had suggested I contact some of the reps where I wanted to work to see if they knew of job leads – and Mark did.”
Knowing that Maxwell would serve as a consultant to help him determine numbers of trials and inventory lenses made it easier for Dr. Golden to focus on the other aspects of opening Golden Family Eye Care, his Sarasota, Fla., practice. Since those early days, however, Dr. Golden has come to rely on his monthly business review meetings with Maxwell. “He brings me updates on products and promotions and shows me where I can save. It’s also interesting to see his analysis of my contact lens usage.”
From the start, Dr. Golden understood that ABB CONCISE would provide him contact lenses at a lower cost than he could get himself as a start-up practice. He also knew he’d benefit from reduced administrative overhead by having one invoice, a single contact for orders and one daily delivery.
He’s also been very pleased with the additional services ABB CONCISE has brought to his practice. For example, Dr. Golden has become an avid advocate of online patient contact lens orders. He likes it for two reasons: it’s convenient for the patient, and it saves the practice time and money.
Dr. Golden uses yourlens.com for nearly all contact lens orders. However – and this is where Dr. Golden’s approach may differ – his staff members remain the primary users. “To make it easier for the patient, and to increase our capture rate, we tell patients we’re happy to order their lenses for them at the time of the exam. We explain the annual supply savings, and when they decide on the purchase, we use their credit card and place the order for them.” The patient can choose to have the contact lenses delivered right to their home or office – and that service is free with annual supplies, and some manufacturers now offer free direct-to-patient shipping for smaller supplies, too. Many of his older patients appreciate the convenience of having the staff place the order for them.
“By having my staff place the order, it keeps the patient off the Internet to shop, and it’s less work for the patient,” he says. The slight amount of increased staff time is a fair tradeoff for the increased capture rate. Similarly, when patients want to reorder contact lenses, they can call the office, provide their credit card number and a staff member uses yourlens.com to order the lenses for the patient.
With an ample supply of diagnostic lenses in the office, Dr. Golden can send nearly every patient home with contact lenses to wear. Keeping a virtual inventory at ABB CONCISE is more convenient – and ties up less of his cash than keeping an inventory in the office.
Although staff do place the initial order for patients and place refill orders for those who don’t purchase an annual supply. As a result, all other steps in the typical ordering process are eliminated, saving his practice administrative costs. Since lenses are shipped directly to the patients, the staff doesn’t need to unpack orders, pull charts and call patients. In addition, since the patients pay for the lenses directly, Dr. Golden’s monthly invoices from ABB CONCISE are much smaller. Very few contact lenses are shipped to his office.
Dr. Golden also orders his contact lenses online at abbconcise.com. “It’s so convenient. We place items in the virtual shopping cart throughout the day, and we submit the order. Most of it is delivered the next day.” Dr. Golden recently began ordering ophthalmic lenses through ABB CONCISE. The SOMO lenses have been a success in his office, allowing him to offer patients a premium lens at a competitive price. “The return policy is also very nice, which takes some of the risk out of the equation,” he says.
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Business Review Simplifies Organizational Oversight
The ABB CONCISE Business review provides overview for organization of multiple eye care practices
When Wayne Golden, O.D., decided to open a new private practice in 2001 near the corporate location where he’d been working for four years, one of the first phone calls he made was to ABB CONCISE rep Mark Maxwell. “I’d known Mark since 1994, when I graduated from Nova Southeastern. Someone had suggested I contact some of the reps where I wanted to work to see if they knew of job leads – and Mark did.”
Knowing that Maxwell would serve as a consultant to help him determine numbers of trials and inventory lenses made it easier for Dr. Golden to focus on the other aspects of opening Golden Family Eye Care, his Sarasota, Fla., practice. Since those early days, however, Dr. Golden has come to rely on his monthly business review meetings with Maxwell. “He brings me updates on products and promotions and shows me where I can save. It’s also interesting to see his analysis of my contact lens usage.”
From the start, Dr. Golden understood that ABB CONCISE would provide him contact lenses at a lower cost than he could get himself as a start-up practice. He also knew he’d benefit from reduced administrative overhead by having one invoice, a single contact for orders and one daily delivery.
He’s also been very pleased with the additional services ABB CONCISE has brought to his practice. For example, Dr. Golden has become an avid advocate of online patient contact lens orders. He likes it for two reasons: it’s convenient for the patient, and it saves the practice time and money.
Dr. Golden uses yourlens.com for nearly all contact lens orders. However – and this is where Dr. Golden’s approach may differ – his staff members remain the primary users. “To make it easier for the patient, and to increase our capture rate, we tell patients we’re happy to order their lenses for them at the time of the exam. We explain the annual supply savings, and when they decide on the purchase, we use their credit card and place the order for them.” The patient can choose to have the contact lenses delivered right to their home or office – and that service is free with annual supplies, and some manufacturers now offer free direct-to-patient shipping for smaller supplies, too. Many of his older patients appreciate the convenience of having the staff place the order for them.
“By having my staff place the order, it keeps the patient off the Internet to shop, and it’s less work for the patient,” he says. The slight amount of increased staff time is a fair tradeoff for the increased capture rate. Similarly, when patients want to reorder contact lenses, they can call the office, provide their credit card number and a staff member uses yourlens.com to order the lenses for the patient.
With an ample supply of diagnostic lenses in the office, Dr. Golden can send nearly every patient home with contact lenses to wear. Keeping a virtual inventory at ABB CONCISE is more convenient – and ties up less of his cash than keeping an inventory in the office.
Although staff do place the initial order for patients and place refill orders for those who don’t purchase an annual supply. As a result, all other steps in the typical ordering process are eliminated, saving his practice administrative costs. Since lenses are shipped directly to the patients, the staff doesn’t need to unpack orders, pull charts and call patients. In addition, since the patients pay for the lenses directly, Dr. Golden’s monthly invoices from ABB CONCISE are much smaller. Very few contact lenses are shipped to his office.
Dr. Golden also orders his contact lenses online at abbconcise.com. “It’s so convenient. We place items in the virtual shopping cart throughout the day, and we submit the order. Most of it is delivered the next day.” Dr. Golden recently began ordering ophthalmic lenses through ABB CONCISE. The SOMO lenses have been a success in his office, allowing him to offer patients a premium lens at a competitive price. “The return policy is also very nice, which takes some of the risk out of the equation,” he says.
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27-location Eye Care Practice
Eye Care CEO turns to ABB CONCISE for help
A year ago, Darren Horndasch, president and CEO of 27-location Wisconsin Vision, was pessimistic about contact lens profitability. Its single distribution warehoused hundreds of thousands of dollars of inventory but could fulfill only about 50 percent of the daily orders. As a result, deliveries to patients were delayed and pricing wasn’t competitive. Worse, patients took their contact lens orders elsewhere. “About half of our patients were receiving their lenses in two or three days. But we were ordering nearly half of our lenses through the manufacturers, and those lenses were then being shipped to our distribution center and then were squeezed out to the locations. Our patients weren’t getting the instant gratification they could get at Walmart or Costco,” he says.
Horndasch decided it was time to shift the company’s perspective. “We had been looking at our revenue base from contact lenses as a bottom line number as opposed to what the opportunity with contact lens patients represents,” Horndasch says. “Contact lens patients return more often than eyeglass patients. On average, we have twice as many encounters with contact lens patients, meaning there are more opportunities to recommend back-up eyeglasses, prescription and non-prescription sunwear and other lifestyle offerings. So we started approaching the business differently.”
The first step was to examine what wasn’t working. The inventory sitting at the distribution center tied up money that could otherwise be committed to capital upgrades at the company’s stores. Horndasch began developing a business plan with ABB CONCISE manager, Abel Brown, and together, the two companies developed a three-phase plan.
Phase one, which was implemented in February, directed vision centers to order directly from ABB CONCISE rather than through manufacturers. Trading in the massive physical inventory for a virtual inventory held by ABB CONCISE means that Wisconsin Vision can order lenses based on utilization, not a hunch. The distribution center continues to operate, but in a more efficient manner. “Rather than pay shipping costs times 27 for daily deliveries to each store, we decided the savings of having it shipped to our distribution center was worth a one-day tradeoff in delivery time to patients,” he says. ABB CONCISE makes it easier because, while the shipment comes in one delivery, each store’s orders are packaged individually. It’s much less work for our distribution center.” Now, Wisconsin Vision, which has locations in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, has a two-day to three-day turnaround on 98 percent of its contact lenses.
Wisconsin Vision has since incorporated the second phase, online ordering from each of their vision centers. Online orders placed directly with ABB CONCISE simplify the process for the distribution center. No longer responsible for consolidating daily orders and then separating the orders when they come in, the employees at the distribution center are now able to spend more time on other tasks. “We’re not maintaining and managing the inventory. That also means, there’s less shrinkage.”
The final phase of the plan, which is being implemented now, is to allow patients to reorder their contact lenses online with ABB CONCISE’s contact lens reorder website called yourlens.com. “If a mom thinks about reordering contact lenses at 7 p.m. on a Sunday evening, if we’re closed, she’s going to use 1-800 CONTACTS. With this step, we are open, essentially, 24/7. This move will allow us to become the store of choice, not just the optical provider of choice. We don’t want to lose our business to online competitors,” Horndasch says.
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