Optician India

Welcome to question of the day #363

Eyetool question of the day #363

I run my own community eye care practice and was thinking of introducing some special offers on glasses. Do you have any advice?

I’m not a big supporter of discounted prices on products and prefer to use high standards of customer service to ensure long term practice sustainability and prosperity. However, there is a discount system I came across recently that I think has some merit.

The patient pays the full price for a pair of glasses and then is offered a second pair to the same prescription for half-price.

So if a person buys a pair of single vision reading glasses they pay full price for pair one and half-price for pair two. If they choose different frames for each pair then the lower cost pair is provided for half price.

The way to propose this to the patient is that the second pair would be useful just in case something happens to the first pair, for example, while on holiday or even at home as it can take several days to make a pair of prescription reading glasses. Or that it would be useful to have one pair for reading in the living room and another pair for night time reading in the bed room.

The same for those people that need single vision distance glasses especially if they are required for driving. Damaging the only pair of driving glasses whilst on a journey away from home could make it difficult to drive back without a backup pair of driving glasses. Or consider a pair of sunglasses for outside use and a clear pair for inside use.

For varifocal and bifocal wearers the recommendation could be for a photochromic or sunglasses pair for use outside in a sunny environment and a standard pair when inside, again the lower cost of the two being offered at half-price.

If a person needs single vision distance and single vision near glasses then I suggest that both pairs are offered at full price.

However, for varifocal and bifocal wearers a pair of computer varifocals could be recommended for using screen devices. I know that the prescription for the computer varifocals would be different but this may be a market that you could open up by incentivising the patient to try a type of lens that they haven’t tried before and may not try at full price.

Some people may want a second pair with a different frame so that they can have a second pair for a ‘different look’.

You may want to stipulate a minimum spend value for pair one in order for the offer to apply and you may want to time limit the offer.

These incentives will help increase sales and as long as there is still a profit margin on the half-price pair will help with practice sustainability and prosperity.