All successful businesses have something in common: they offer customers a truly unique experience through a service or product.
As an eye care practice, this can be difficult. Even though all practices are made up of a special team that patients won’t find anywhere else, it can be hard to get patients in the door with this alone.
In today’s eye care environment, patients are looking for specialty services and products that go beyond what they might find at other practices. They will seek out practices that are able to offer this to them. One of these key unique products is specialty contact lenses.
Keep reading to learn how focusing on specialty contact lenses can transform your eye care practice.
Clear & Comfortable Vision
As a member of the eye care industry, you want to offer patients a variety of options to support their eye and vision health. With advancements in specialty contact lenses, your practice now has the opportunity to offer contacts to patients you may have turned away in the past. This is an important, potentially life-changing offer to make to your patients.
However, offering specialty contact lenses goes beyond just helping your current patients. Introducing specialty contact lenses into your practice is an opportunity to attract more patients, build relationships, and help more people in your community.
The following are specialty contact lenses for your practice to consider:
- Scleral contact lenses
- Prosthetic contact lenses
- RGP contact lenses
- Hybrid contact lenses
- Soft contact lenses
- Orthokeratology contact lenses
- MiSight contact lenses
Building Lasting Relationships
Working in the eye care industry, you’re aware of the unique value specialty contact lenses can give patients dealing with vision or eye issues. Whether it’s a scleral lens for a dry eye patient or an ortho-k lens for myopia control, your patients rely on you to help them with clear and comfortable vision.
Sharing these lenses with your patients can be significant and can help you build a new level of trust that exceeds standard eye care. As a practice owner, optometrist, or optician, this should be the ultimate goal. Patients that trust your practice will continue to come to you year after year and spread awareness of the experience you provide.
While these relationships may start with specialty contact lenses, they can quickly form a long-lasting, full-service eye care relationship. As these relationships will be built on trust, they will also be some of the most rewarding.
Supporting Myopia Control
By the year 2050, it’s estimated that nearly 5 billion people will be diagnosed with myopia. This rise in myopia will have a significant impact on the eye care industry. Now is the time for your practice to start preparing for this increase in myopia control. As an eye care practice, you can have a significant impact on your community and their vision.
Investing in specialty contacts for myopia control now is also an opportunity for your practice to be an early entrant in the myopia niche. Being an early entrant gives your practice the chance to establish yourself as a leader and be recognizable in the industry. As many types of specialty contacts can’t be purchased online, your practice can quickly become the “go-to” spot in your community.
Increasing Revenue
Working in eye care, it can be difficult to talk about the cost of services and products with patients. However, with the difference specialty lenses can make in a patient’s life, it’s a crucial conversation to have. Offering specialty lenses can have a significant impact on your practice’s finances, as well as your patient’s vision.
When you determine a patient needs specialty contact lenses, it’s important to share why they need what they need, rather than just recommending them. With this explanation, patients will have a better understanding of the potentially life-changing difference these lenses can have.
In addition to using specialty contact lenses to make a significant impact on your patient’s eye comfort and vision, the lenses will help you spend more time with fewer patients, while still experiencing higher revenues.
Growing Your Practice With Specialty Contact Lenses
Just like building the foundation of your practice’s initial services can take time, so can understanding specialty contact lenses. What’s more, specialty contact lenses can require additional education. Understanding and sharing the benefits of these lenses with patients is a journey and will not happen overnight (this is expected).
Taking the time now to invest in specialty contact lenses is an investment in your practice’s future, both with your patient basis and financially. With the growth of technology in eye care and the rise of vision issues, the importance of specialty contact lenses will only continue to grow.
After investing in specialty contact lenses, it’s crucial to have the right marketing strategy to share this new investment with your community. If you’re interested in learning more about marketing specialty contact lenses, give us a call!
