+61401395441 leigh@optomly.com.au

How to improve your Capture Rate and increase Optical Sales

If you’re looking to improve your Capture Rate and your Optical Sales, this interview is for you!

Dr Darryl Glover and Dr Jennifer Lyerly, from Defocus Media, share a ton of useful ideas that you can apply straight away!

Watch the Interview, or Read the full transcript below:

– Hey guys, thank you very much for tuning into the recording today. I’m excited to have Dr. Jennifer Lyerly and Dr. Darryl Glover from Defocus Media. Hey, you guys. And today we’re talking about how to improve your capture rate and your optical sales as well. So, if you don’t know who Dr. Jennifer Lyerly is, she’s an optometrist practising with custom contact lenses in Kerry, North Carolina. And in 2011, she founded the Eyedolatry Blog and it’s a website with over 100,000 monthly visitors dedicated to ocular health and patient communications. And in 2017, she was recognised as young alumni of the year from Southern College of Optometry. And she’s passionate about using social media to help connect optometrists with patients and grow the scope and reach of the profession. So welcome Dr. Lyerly!

– Thank you, I’m so happy to be here.

– And Dr. Darryl Glover is a global optometrist, speaker, entrepreneur, and social media expert. And he’s served the optometric industry for over 20 years in nearly every position, including eyewear consultant, optometric technician, office manager and optometrist and he’s written several articles for prestigious optical outlets and interviewed countless individuals in the optical industry and he’s the co-host of the number one podcast, the Defocus Media Podcast, and sits on the Essilor Future In Sight Advisory Committee. And Dr. Glover strongly believes that education resources and legislation can help with the ultimate doctor-patient experience. So, thanks so much, Dr. Glover.

– Thank you for having me, I’m extremely excited and pumped up, man, we’re going to have a good time today.

– You bet, you bet, that’s great. And so, in the past, optical dispensing was almost like a given and patients would finish their appointment and nearly everyone would buy frames and lenses from you. And now it’s not so much a given and could you run through what’s changed in optometry?

– I think especially in the US marketplace, but we’ve seen these trends kind of globally. As the demands on the healthcare sector got higher and patients were used to the idea that insurance would cover pretty much everything. They would go out to optical, they’d get a pair of glasses covered by their insurance. We all know that’s not how vision plans work. In fact, we’ve kind of as an industry gone about trying to change the idea that this is even vision insurance. And instead say, oh this is a discount plan to try to help to change the patient’s mindset of what’s going to happen. But as patients come up to optical and they’re finding, oh I’m not having covered lenses and in fact the discount that I’m being given for my glasses, my glasses might still cost me $400 or $500. Suddenly there’s that value cost that they have to decide upon. Are these glasses worth my several hundred dollars, or I’m being actively advertised online, on TV, when I go onto social media about glasses for $30, $75, $99 and it kind of goes out the wayside. Because they may not even want to use their insurance at this point to help in the purchase of glasses. So that’s really kind of eroded and undermined at the idea that they’ll purchase all of the time from your optical.

– For sure and Dr. Glover, what do you think has changed of late in the optical industry?

– Yeah, I think one of the key things is definitely insurance, I think just the amount of money that Optometrists and Eyecare professionals get reimbursed, being that it’s so small now they have to see more patients. Or at least they feel they have to see more patients, which causes us not to have enough time in the exam room to sit down and really truly educate the patient on what’s going to be the ideal frame of choice, what’s going to be the ideal lens of choice? And then also online, you know, you have these disruptors out there, that sell eyewear as Jen had mentioned. So, I think it’s a combination of insurance and just the disruptors that are out there in the industry.

– I think, Darryl, you nailed it. In the past we didn’t have to explain why the glasses cost what they cost, it was just a given. The glasses cost this much. But now as people undermine that through online disruptor technology and things like that, the fact that we weren’t educating and discussing it has kind of come back to haunt us a bit. And we’re trying to play catch up on everything.

– Absolutely, you know one key thing that people always miss out on the importance of is that refraction, Jen. I mean if we really sit down and educate how we’re finding that prescription and educating them on why they need several pairs of glasses, whether they’re computer, general purpose, prescription suns, special hobby glasses, whatever it may be, it’ll make a world of difference with the patient interaction and also just that capture rate in general, as well.

– Absolutely.

– Yeah, you bet. It’s that education’s really important. So, thinking about some of the newer technologies, and Dr. Lyerly, before we were chatting in this video, you were talking about how you like to use your Phoropter in a clever way to educate your patients.

– So, when we’re talking about new technology coming in, I think refraction is one of the things that people are really eating on as far as an attack from disruptors in the online sector. Oh, that phoropter is so outdated. I do have patients that have said to me when I come in and start pulling the phoropter over, oh you’re using that? I don’t think this is going to be accurate for me. You know, like. Online shoppers have done a great job undermining our traditional tools in optometry. So, what I’m doing now is the same tools you guys already have, which is you autorefractor, patients have the autorefractor done during the normal workup. They come into the room, I’m pulling the phoropter over, but before I do so, I make sure I say, so in the other room, you did the computer scan that gives us the estimate of what your prescription will be today. But I want to show it to you and get your opinion on feedback and see if we need to even fine detail tune that even more, and then I pull the phoropter over. Suddenly I’ve tried my same old standard piece of equipment, I don’t have an automated phoropter, by the way I just have a run of the mill, looks like it came from 1970 kind of phoropter and that pushback is completely gone because I’ve turned into something that still incorporates that technology. Just a little trick that you guys can use in your own offices.

– Love that tip, that’s great.

– Yeah. Yeah, you know something else just to kind of circle back on something you touched on before, we mentioned you know, insurance disruptor technology but the ultimate thing that’s really causing the change when it comes to capturing is marketing. You know, like Jen had mentioned, they see all these things online or they’ll go to a certain practise and they have an automated phoropter, and it’s just the way that that company has been able to market that equipment and that makes a world of difference. So, us as optometrists, we have to become better marketers and that definitely needs to take place whenever we’re doing a refraction. So, when you do a refraction, you have to break down everything from the uncorrected visual acuities to correct visual acuities, to their lifestyle, to their height, if they have longer arms, shorter arms, what type of glasses do they need, what are they using them for? You know you have to break down all those pieces of how you’re finding that prescription and educate the patient that it’s just not a matter of one or two, I’m actually factoring several things that’s going to give you the ultimate prescription so you can see the sharpest and also just improve your quality of life.

– You bet. And Dr. Glover, with the lifestyle questions, what are some of your favourite questions to ask that really help people to open up and share more about themselves?

– Well you know, I have this thing I call the two-minute rule. Whenever a patient walks into my exam room, I don’t even talk anything at all about eyecare. All I ask them is what’s going on for that day or for the weekend, or what they have going on for the week and I let them just basically talk about their entire lifestyle and what they have goin’ on. And that basically feeds into what type of glasses I need to prescribe. For example, I could spend 30 seconds and someone could tell me, oh I’m going to my son’s baseball game and we go every weekend and it’s outside and it’s across town. So automatically, I know several things just from that. Number one, the mom needs some type of sunglasses to help protect the eyes whenever they’re outside, number two, the son needs daily contact lenses simply because they’re going to be more comfortable for the kid and healthier whenever they’re outside in that dirt just, they’re able to dispose of them afterwards. And then also maybe even talk to them about some computer glasses, being that’s the kid. Cause we all know kids are using digital devices. And the same thing with the mom. So ultimately from there, I’ve been able to just break down two, three, four different pairs of glasses by just talking to them about what they have going on for the week. And I’m not even questioning anything, I’m solving a problem indirectly by just listening to one of my patients. And it makes a world of difference.

– Absolutely, that listing, it’s so invaluable for optometrists nowadays.

– Absolutely.

– I think you’re building that report, so for the patient, you’re taking that time to learn about them, but of course we’re learning about them for a greater purpose, because that’s how we’re going to figure out how we can help you. I ask my patients, what do you do for fun, what do you do for work, you know. And it’s like yes, I want to know what your career is and your loves and your passions and all that stuff too, but I want to dial in to understand like your indoor and outdoor lighting setups, how many screens are you looking at work, how long are you on the computer during the day? Without asking specifically those questions like are you on the computer during the day, how many hours in front of a computer do you spend? That feels kind of canned and impersonal after a while. You need to get that information, but in a conversational way.

– Absolutely.

– Everyone likes to talk about themselves, you know, everyone wants to talk about themselves. Everybody wants to be the rockstar, the superstar, the Hollywood actor or actress. Everyone wants to be on that pedestal so just let someone talk about themselves, that’s all you have to do.

– Oh, another thing, another big tip. They’re giving you that information, do not ask them like you’ve never met them before next year, so document in the chart what they’ve told you about their hobbies and what they do for work. So next year it’s like you remembered. You know, those two minutes that you spent.

– Yeah, even with that Jen, I always document the kids’ names or how many kids they have, where they work, where they like to take vacations, what their hobbies are, stuff like that because it’s good conversation prior to walking into the exam room, that way you have something to engage with them and get that intimate relationship with them as well. So, I’ll always, always document. And even my staff, they know to look in a certain area to see the notes that I’ve written about the patient. It could be good notes, it could be bad notes, so you know how to be prepared for the patient. If there was something we jacked up last year, we know that we need to have gentle hands with them and just make the examination beyond their expectations to make up for last year if we jacked something up, you know so it’s really important to document the conversation that you had so you don’t go in looking like a complete idiot, saying the same thing over and over, as Jen had mentioned.

– Yeah, you bet. It’s really important, too, to talk about it and to ask them, but really if you’re looking to improve your capture rate, it’s also relying on that rapport that you’ve built up over many years, that you’ve developed that relationship, you know the person, so if you’re looking to improve your capture rate, just refer back to your previous notes.

– Yeah, absolutely. You know I’ll let you in on a little secret, I think one reason why, and I have an extremely high capture rate and I have a good relationship with my patients and I’m very passionate about the doctor-patient interaction and a lot of people say I’m crazy for doing this, but when I’m in the exam room with the patient I don’t look at the time, I don’t look at their insurance, I educate them on what I think is going to be the best option for them and how it’s going to satisfy their lifestyle and I just go from there. And if they go Dr. Glover, that’s a lot of glasses it’s going to cost me a lot of money. I don’t care, it’s up to you, it’s your money how you’re going to spend it, but I’m trying to give you the ultimate pair of glasses, the ultimate healthcare and this is how we’re going to be able to get it. This is how I’m going to treat my mother, my sister, my wife, my best friend, whoever it may be. You’re no different from them when you’re sitting in this chair, so I never look at any of that stuff and then I take them up front and I educate the staff or my team that I’m working with and they kind of just recap everything from there. And I’ve been extremely successful with having a high capture rate just by doing that.

– It sounds like an awesome experience, coming to see you for an appointment. Just having that personal one on one, human to human connection.

– Yeah, I’m wowed.

– Hey Darryl, what is your capture rate?

– You know my capture rate last time I was in the States and I was looking at it, it was about 84% for eyewear.

– I think everyone can agree that’s high, yeah.

– Yep, yep. And I’m great with multiples, too. Because again, once you start digging into the lifestyle, it makes a world of difference.

– For sure, and another thing that was useful is if we model our own frames, as well. If everyone in the office wears frames

– Absolutely, you have to have to always wear glasses in the office. Everyone in the office needs to wear glasses. I don’t care if you wear contacts. Wear computer glasses over your contacts. Let your patients see what you’re preaching about all day. You as an optometrist, your team members, you have to practise what you preach. And everyone in the office should wear glasses. And everyone in the office should experience the different types of anti-reflective coating. Everyone in the office should experience the different types of Transitions that are available. From the Xtraactive, to the Vantage, to the Signature 7, and some new colours that are coming out as well. Everyone needs to know exactly what’s going on. You see us as eyecare professionals, what we tend to do and why the capturing tends to go low is because we only prescribe 50%. 50% meaning we do everything for medical, if it’s dry eye, we know that we need to do dry eye treatment. If it’s glaucoma, we know we need to do glaucoma treatment. If it comes to a refraction, myopia, hyperopia, we’re like oh, here, go. No, tell them exactly what they need, what type of frame, what type of lens. Make sure you prescribe it 100%, not just half with the medical aspect, but you also have to look at the retail aspect and put the entire picture together for the patient.

– Absolutely, yeah.

– The trap we fall into and why it’s so important to wear glasses, I think as the doctor in the office, we, many of us are guilty of this. And I know our patients are guilty of this, we think oh my prescription didn’t change. I don’t need glasses, right? Now think about the average person that’s passed their growing age years, how much does their prescription change? They’re not changing that enough to legally need glasses every year unless there’s some sort of medical condition going on. We’re talking a quarter here, a quarter there. Some people can’t even perceive those differences. So, what I have to do in order to make sure my patients are getting that real experience of being with me and the exam and in the optical, is explaining to them, what technology can I offer them that they don’t have in their current eyewear. What solutions are there to problems that that one pair of eyewear doesn’t provide for, okay? Okay, that they’re multipurpose. And then create a want for a new style, new look, new trend. So that’s why I’m wearing kind of interesting, fun frames and I wear a frame with a story, like a frame line that you can passionately believe in and talk about. That’s so important because the patient, more than likely, if you’re only depending upon people with big prescription changes, where they’ve legally needed to get new glasses to pass a driver’s test. You’ll be lucky if that’s 10% of the people coming through the door.

– Yeah you bet, that’s definitely a tough market.

– And the other thing that you want to look at too Jen, is you want to be the hero. I don’t want someone to go to another doctor and they had a quarter change and they educated them about some blue light protection or something like that and I was like, oh, there was really no change in your prescription, you lose out. So be the hero in every scenario. So always, always give different options. Give patients options and let them decide which route they want to go.

– Absolutely and Darryl, if you can understand your patient better, if you can really relay it back to them and tell them who you’re seeing them to be, then that level of understanding just goes so far in improving your capture rate and suggestions for the patient.

– Absolutely, absolutely, I mean, something that I think really changes the game when it comes to capture rate. And I know we talked about this offline earlier is the trial frame.

– Mm-hmm.

– A trial frame is invaluable in the exam room. Oh, and a loose lens, you know even if it’s a quarter step, I always tell folks, put your glasses on. This is the change, hold a quarter over. Do you like that, yes it makes a big difference. That’s the change that you have today. So that’s when you get them glasses. Makes a world of difference, you never know what someone’s going to take truly, so let them be the one that’s going to determine whether or not. On top of that, something else that you want to look at, I know we were talking about this before, even if there’s not a change in prescription, you always want to look at the lenses. Every year someone’s going to have scratches on the lenses, so there’s no reason for someone to have scratched lenses. It’s going to cause more issues when they’re driving at night with glare, cosmetic wise is not going to look the best so there’s always a reason for someone to update their eyewear.

– Absolutely.

– Going back to the trial frame, I know we were talking earlier. I think that’s a real key of how your capture rate is so high because you do trial frame the prescription. I will especially do it for my second pairs, okay, so computer glasses, glasses designed for a craft, or sewing and things like that. I have them sit down in front of the computer in my office, okay, oh get about the place you usually sit. Sometimes I’ll even pull up a website that they look at during the day that they have trouble with. You know, the patients take this real seriously, they measure themselves out like oh this feels about right. Sometimes they’ll adjust my school. You know, they mimic it as much as possible it’s as if I went home with them, right? And then I’ve put the trial frame in what I’m thinking and I’ll loose lens hold a quarter here, a quarter there. Sometimes if I see a little exophoria or esophoria when I do cover tests, I’ll even show them a little bit of prism, see how they respond to it. And patients are wowed by that. It’s a few extra minutes, but they just sold themselves that second pair of glasses because they experienced it they took them off and they were like, wow. I obviously need this.

– It’s that moment when they smile and they say just wow, I can see everything.

– Absolutely.

– Yeah, and we’ve got a question from the audience. What frames are you wearing at the moment? Can you share?

– Oh yeah, right now I’m wearing RVS Eyewear. This is made by Vidal, RVS Eyewear. He actually just opened up a shop I think last year, two years ago in New York and he’s an independent eyewear designer, very cool guy, he started off collecting rare vintage sunglasses. And then he just came up with the concept, hey, let me design eyewear. All his frames are handmade, down to the point of the screws. He actually has the factory hand paint these screws red to just give it more that individual wow character, more flair to the frames and all his frames are also matte as well, so they feel great, they look great, they give you that wow factor. Especially when you’re in the exam room. But also, when you’re out in the public, I mean it makes a world of difference. If someone sees you with cool glasses, they’re always going to come up to you and say hey, where’d you get your glasses? Oh, come see me, I’m Dr. Glover, this is my office. You went, right? But RVS Eyewear to answer your question there.

– That’s awesome, and Dr. Lyerly, how ’bout yourself? What are you wearing at the moment?

– I’m wearing, these are Etnea Barcelona. It’s a really awesome colourful frame line that many of you might have heard of it. It’s also an independent eyewear brand out of Spain. This is one where I really like to talk to patients because sometimes they’re afraid of colour. So, I like to wear a little bit of colour to get them willing to experiment and have fun in optical. I could wear a black or a tortoise frame every single day, it goes with all my wardrobe, right? But like, I think it helps plant the seed for like oh, I have a basic pair of glasses, but then that’s fun to have like a fun pair of glasses. So that kind of scheme works, towards having loud, colourful, discussion topic kind of glasses to show people like, you’re not going to look crazy wearing them, and you’ll have this in your wardrobe. Eyewear wardrobe, that’s a big thing that I’ve learned from optician, Sheena Taft. She always used that phrase when she talks about glasses. And I started using it with my own patients. And it’s like oh we’re going out there and shopping for shoes. Like make this fun.

– Yeah, you bet.

– Absolutely. Yeah, what are you wearing?

– I’m wearing some Oakley, Oakley frames. Yes, I’m well due to update and get some new ones. So, I’ll have to go and browse the optical again.

– Well at least I can see you’re wearing your blue blocker glare coating, which is a great conversation starter.

– You’re right.

– Do you love to talk about blue blocking, Dr. Lyerly?

– I do, so most of my patients I have an extremely young patient base where I practise in North Carolina. Our average patient age is actually around 30. So, the complaint that they have, I mean I hear it in my sleep sometimes. But it’s always like my eyes feel tired, I have a pain behind my eye. Ocular migraines, I always have headaches. I can’t see when I drive home at night. Most of these people are basically playing maybe with a minus quarter to a 0.5 p.d esophoria maybe minus a quarter myopia or something like that. What their real problem is, is looking at a computer screen all day the accommodative lag issues that that creates, the light sensitivity that that’s creating. And if I don’t prescribe blue light protection in my glasses solutions, they’re going to pick up their minus quarter glasses and be like. They’re not going to do anything. So, I have to put the extra mile into almost every pair of glasses that I write, because I know they’re not going to be wowed by the prescription itself.

– You bet, yeah that’s great. Like you said before, like maybe 10% of people might need a prescription change in the demographic that you’re talking about so if you can think of different ways to suggest that this is going to really help you for this, or like this feature, it’s going to really help your capture rate.

– Yeah, we have to create that conversation around what we’re doing that’s different. Because especially in this patient bracket, too. They’re minus a quarter glasses, some insurance plans don’t even cover that. You know if I write a minus quarter anti-fatigue lens with blue-blocker coating. That might not be a covered pair of glasses at all and so when they get to optical and are faced with the entire, the insurance doesn’t provide any discount, and they’re not prepared for the value of why I want them to have those glasses. That’s not going to go very well so all the onus is on me as the doctor in that prescription.

– And you know it’s not just millennials that love technology. Everyone loves technology, so why not talk about all the amazing technology that we have out there. I mean there’s so many cool lens options and choices out there that we really need to take ownership and really educate our patients about. ‘Cause if not, we’re not doing them justice and we’re actually not doing our job as optometrists or eyecare professionals.

– Yeah, you bet. The onus falls to us. There’s so much more that we can explore with our patients now. So, it’s a great opportunity to have that discussion.

– Yeah, I mean a lot of folks are scared with all this disruptive technology out there, but I feel like we’re in a good time because there are a lot of lens options, there are a lot of cool disruptive technology that we can actually utilise if we actually look at how we can implement it into our practise. But I’m really excited about what’s going on in today’s society and I can’t wait to see four or five years down the road how the optometric industry’s going to change. Because it’s bound to change and the question is, “Are you going to change with it or are you going to stay back in the day and lose all your money and lose your practise and lose your house and have an upset wife or a husband, you know, so you need to get with times that are changing, man. And embrace this technology and use it to your advantage.

– You bet, absolutely. And just talking about technology, before patients actually come in to see you, how do we start educating them about some of the new technologies that we’re offering?

– Yeah, social media. Social media’s it, that’s the first connection, that’s the key. You have to have some type of social media presence. If you do not have social media in today’s society. You might as well go jump off a bridge and don’t go jump off a bridge, that might have been wrong to say. No seriously, you need to have some type of social media. Simply because social media, there’s so many things you can do, number one, you can educate your patients about what’s new in the office number two, you can play around with some type of new product that you may be thinking about bringing to your office. For example, you can go to somewhere like the vision expo, pull out maybe the RVS Eyewear collection and show your patients on maybe Facebook Live or take a picture of it on your Instagram and say hey, what do you think of this designer? Shall we bring this to our office and see what kind of feedback you get without having to invest in that entire collection and bring it to your office and it might not even sell at all. But at least you can kind of see what your patient and demographic is wanting. But social media is definitely the first point to connect with your patients and truly develop a good solid foundation for that doctor-patient interaction.

– You bet.

– Totally agree, and I will counter a little bit. Social media is one aspect of it, but let’s say this is like a foreign world for you. You can still really reach patients in a lot of different variety of ways. Your website, blogging, writing articles, you know even those little magazines that are free at the grocery store in your local community, you know, writing stuff for that. Basically, the key is getting what you do and why it’s important out there in whatever avenue you feel is best because study after study has shown patients are coming into our exams telling us what they want. And so half the battle is educating the patients before they ever come in and sit in your chair about what they should be asking for. 69% of millennials which is kind of our age bracket and most of the patients’ ages that we’re seeing come in requesting a certain treatment or solution. Whether it’s a blue blocker lens or computer glasses or some such. And you would think, oh that’s a slam dunk. They’re asking me for the technology, right. But then I have to deliver on the back end and make sure that I’m explaining. Maybe that technology’s not the right solution for them. Maybe they need this other sort of thing, so just because they’re coming in primed knowing they want a solution, the education stuff falls to us to make sure it’s the right solution for them and that if it is the right solution, we educate the value of why they need to have it. So, we’re lucky in that so many people are meeting eye care needs, right? 70% of millennials have digital eye strain and tired eyes at the end of the day. You know, that’s the most common sort of feeling. And I think many of us can understand why almost all people are saying that. But myopia rates are up 66% from the 70s, so the rate of people needing eyecare and even just vision correction is through the roof compared to generations before us, but are we taking advantage of the fact that our patients desperately need that?

– You bet, yeah. And the device use is only going to get more and more over time as well, so that’s where we’ve got to gear roll there.

– And it also, think about this, too. Just think about all the kids, you know, like from 1 to about 12-15 years old, these kids, they were born with basically a tablet or something, as soon as they came out they gave them a tablet along with it, you know. So, with the kids, I mean to say one of those things that you really have to not only look at the millennial and the older age bracket, but also just those kids. I mean that’s a great opportunity to set them up with a pair of transitions. You know, you set them up at an early age then you don’t have to worry about as they’re getting older, trying to force them and tell them that it’s a cool thing. It’s one of those things that they’re going to be used to just like anti-reflective coating. In my personal opinion, and Jen, tell me if you feel the same way, I feel like every time you write out a prescription, of course they should have anti-reflective coating. But they should also have transitions as well, it just makes sense.

– I think that’s another kind of trick, not trick, I feel bad about saying trick because we’re not trying to trick anybody. Like tools? So okay, how do I kind of try to increase my capture rate? Don’t fall victim to the way vision plans try to tell us how to sell glasses. Because if you look at how a vision plan breaks things down, oh it’s this co-pay for the lenses it’s this co-pay for the frame, it’s this co-pay for the a-r coating, and this for the UV blocker. They need all of those things, right? So, when my opticians that I’m explaining solutions about I want this, this, this, this, this, that’s what the patient needs. My opticians printed everything as one total complete package. Now if at the end of everything, the patient’s like break that down for me. Okay, we can go into bits and pieces and talk about it in more detail, but I’m not writing a prescription for a plastic pair of glasses without anti-reflective coating. My prescription is for this whole entire bundle. So, my opticians need to present it as a whole entire bundle right from the start.

– Yep, and something that you can do also to just emphasise that is make sure you print it out on the actual prescription as well. Write down exactly what you are prescribing. And also get out of the habit of recommending. I don’t recommend anything, I prescribe. Now if you recommend something, I mean like you go to a doctor’s office and they say, I recommend these antibiotics, you’re going to look at that physician like they’re crazy. And so why would you as an optometrist, say I recommend you to get this anti-reflective coating or this blue light protection. No, you prescribe it and you put it on their prescription so they can see this is what Dr. Glover prescribed. This is what Dr. Lyerly prescribed. And then you give them the reason why you prescribed it as well and then again, you’re solving a problem indirectly. You’re not selling something to someone, you’re solving a problem. And that’s what we do as eyecare professionals.

– You bet, it’s the confidence that you’ve asked all the questions, you know the patient really well, so therefore here’s the prescription for you.

– Yeah.

– Yeah, that’s great. Well, it’s been great to have a chat with you guys today, there’s been so much that I’ve gleaned from these interviews and yeah, thank you both for sharing your enthusiasm for your practises and for optometry.

– Thank you.

– Thanks for having us.

– Thank you, Leigh, it’s such a pleasure.

– Oh, it’s great.

– Hey. Don’t forget to tell everyone, or I’ll tell ’em. You’re actually on our podcast comin’ up in a couple of weeks and we touched on everything from optometry in Australia to social media, practise management, you name it and it’s a lot of good jewels, so we want everyone to tune into the Defocus Media podcast and we have you on there as well.

– Absolutely, and that’s on iTunes, the iTunes store?

– iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher. We’re about to get on Spotify as well. You can go to the website, www.defocusmedia.com and you can consume it any kind of way you want but we’re pretty much everywhere.

– Absolutely. What’s the best way to follow Defocus Media on social media?

– Just go to our Instagram page, www.instagram.com/defocusmedia our handle is Defocus Media pretty much on all platforms, from Twitter to Instagram to Facebook. We keep it simple, ’cause we want you to follow us and we’re going to continue to hit you with great content. With Defocus Media, we just want to make sure that we give a platform for eyecare professionals to talk about how great optometry is and how we can help enhance the profession as well.

– Absolutely. And Dr. Lyerly, how about yourself? What’s your personal Instagram?

– Well in addition to finding me on Defocus, I’m also at @Eyedolatry_blog on Instagram. That’s where I go on more of my like women optometry diatribes, so. So, if you’re feeling like a need for some female empowerment, usually you can at me at @Eyedolatry_blog for that conversation. But sometimes I bleed that over into Defocus too.

– I love it, it’s great together.

– You want to know something that I never give out? Which is people look at me like I’m odd, but I don’t like to impact my following. I never give out my practise social media handles to other eyecare professionals. I always try to only save that for patient base. Because you know, with these algorithms and stuff, your friends will be able to see your page and I don’t want just eyecare professionals seeing my Eye See Euphoria page. Now with Defocus Media, I tell everyone about it because for Jen and I, that’s more business to business instead of business to consumer, but I think that’s one thing that a lot of eyecare professionals tend to not do a great job of is they target eyecare professionals instead of eyecare consumers patients and they tend to get lost in the sauce because they’re not going to get that many views or likes or something that’s really going to convert into an actual exam or something as well. But that’s just me, what do I know.

– Absolutely, yeah. Well it’s about sharing that, sharing the real stories that people relate to. Yeah, I like that, that’s a good point. So, by all means, check out Defocus Media on the website, social media, Instagram. And the Defocus Media podcast as well. It’s a great podcast.

– Thanks, I hope you have us back, man. We really enjoyed this show, man. We’re avid listeners and followers of everything that you do and I think it’s very cool that we’re actually in three different time zones, which people probably don’t know right now, you know. Jen is out in North Carolina, I’m actually in Lagos, Nigeria and you’re out in Australia. And it’s what, it’s about 11:00 PM here, and what time is it where you’re at?

– I’m at 8:00 AM, I’m just about to head off to the office and how about for you?

– So, we need to go.

– So you’ve got breakfast, dinner, and a midnight snack goin’ on right now.

– There you go. Awesome.

– It’d be wonderful to have you guys on again soon, it’s been a lot of fun today, so thank you so much for joining us.

– Alright man, have a good one.

– Have a good one, cheers.

Summary
Title
How to improve your Capture Rate and increase Optical Sales
Description

So, we're lucky in that so many people are meeting eye care needs, right? 70% of millennials have digital eye strain and tired eyes at the end of the day. How can it help increase optical sales and improve capture rate?

Free Download: How to use Google to bring you more potential patients

Free Download: How to use Google to bring you more potential patients

Need new patients? Don't get left behind. Download the guide "How to use Google to bring you more potential patients" as seen in Optometry Australia News 2018

 

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