Optician India

I like talking with other eye specialists as they often have good ideas, or they have made connections I did not think of, or they help me make a new connection; connections that help me think better or make good use of my time or be a better practitioner. I attend conferences to listen to experts. I read a lot, to tap the expertise of people who have gone before, to learn about what to do and what not to do. Great ideas can come from many sources within the optical industry and also from outside the optical industry. It pays to be vigilant.

The Good, Better, Best approach to pricing has been widely adopted throughout the optical industry. The Better and Best options contain incrementally more features than the Good option and the price of the Better option is more than the Good option and the price of the Best option is more than the Better option. One author highlights early use of the Good, Better, Best in the car insurance business in 2005. Here a four point tier system was used. Value, Standard, Gold and Platinum. It was used 100 years ago to sell cars. The Good, Better, Best approach has been widely adopted throughout the optical industry and in my experience it has been limited to the pricing of progressive (varifocal) lenses. One company I worked for had a three tier pricing system for progressive lenses that started with Silver, then Gold and ended with Platinum. Each higher tier had a wider intermediate corridor and a wider reading area. I prefer a three tier system. For me as a practitioner and also as a customer a three tier system seems less complicated. There’s one in the middle, there’s one lower down that’s cheaper with less features and there’s one above that is more expensive. It’s more balanced than four. For me, three is the magic number.

One of the thoughts behind the Good, Better, Best approach is that some customers who would normally choose a low cost lens (Good) will upgrade to the middle or Best lens when the lenses are categorised into three tiers. A few customers who would normally choose the middle lens (Best) might upgrade to the Better tier. It seems that the human psyche leads to more upgrades than downgrades. More upgrades mean better profitability and a more prosperous practice.

I don’t see why the Good, Better, Best approach should be limited only to progressive spectacle lenses. With a little thought and some planning the approach can be applied throughout a practice:

For single vision and bifocal spectacle lenses, Good could be a hard coated lens, Better could be a hard and antireflection coated lens and Best could be a high end multipurpose coating such as Crizal. These can be offered by the eye care specialist or the dispensing optician.

For tints, Good could be a fixed tint, Better could be a photochromic that works with ultraviolet light and Better could be a photochromic that works with sunlight and therefore light adapts inside a car. These can be offered by the eye care specialist or the dispensing optician.

For daily contact lenses , Good could be a basic material with good comfort, Better could be better comfort and Best could be a less providing the best possible comfort. 

For monthly replacement contact lenses, Good could be a basic material with decent cleaning solutions, Better could be a more comfortable material with better solutions and Best the most comfortable material and the best possible solutions. These can be offered by the eye care specialist.

But the Good, Better, Best approach can also be used in the investigate tests in practice:

For general health screening, Good could be a fundus photograph, Better could be a fundus photograph plus an OCT scan, Best could be a fundus photograph, OCT and visual field analysis or macular pigment optical density. These tiers could be branded as a wellness package and aimed at those patients with risk factors for age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetes, and other eye diseases. Other tests that can be included here are wide-field photography (OptoMap) and low contrast visual acuity. These can be offered by the eye care specialist. It is my experience that having a ‘Best’ option means people will upgrade to and purchase tests that they haven’t purchased before. The price of each tier would take into account the time taken to perform the tests.

The Good, Best, Better approach can also be used for treatments you offer. For example, for dry eye the Good option could be artificial tears, Better could be artificial tear drops and lid margin hygiene and Best could be artificial tear drops, lid margin hygiene and Low-Level Light Therapy (for Mebomian gland dysfunction). These can be offered by the eye care specialist.

In addition, narrowing down choices to Good, Better, Best makes life simpler, especially with spectacles and contact lenses. It makes it less overwhelming for the patient to make a decision. When there are Good, Better, Best choices the only option is buy or don’t buy. A Good, Better, Best approach can shift people to think about spending on incremental value rather than spending or not spending. Three differently priced options also gives people a sense of empowerment. A Good, Better, best approach helps make use of the Goldilocks effect, named after the famous children’s story. Given three incremental choices people often choose the middle one.

One expert has suggested setting a Good price that is 25% (or less) below Better, and that the Best price should not exceed Better by more than 50%. I don’t want to be prescriptive here as each practice owner will be the best person to decide on how to set prices for each option and on what incremental features to offer.

In practice, I have noticed two approaches to using the Good, Better, Best approach. One is where the Best option is recommended first and the reasons for taking up this option given along with the price. If the patient finds this too expensive the Better option can be offered and if this is too expensive the Good option can be offered. Another approach is to show all three options, written out in easy to understand language with the incremental beneficial features clearly stated, and then with the appropriate advice asking the patient to make an informed choice.

Products, investigations and treatments can be offered using the Good, Better, Best approach. In my experience patients value expertise in offering them the best quality products and technology and it’s good to offer patients multiple levels of solutions that you know they aren’t getting elsewhere.

I learned a lot about the Good, Better, Best pricing approach by reading ‘The Good-Better-Best Approach to Pricing, Rafi Mohammed, Harvard Business Review, September-October 2018.’