Three Ways We’ve Grown Our Practice Amidst Competition 

I purchased a 40-year-old practice in 2019 and we’ve grown every year despite competitors popping up, even down the street. I attribute that growth to three things: products, partnerships, and patient care.

Products
After purchasing an established practice in Tucson, one of the first things we did was start modernizing it. We added more instrumentation, more diagnostic tools, more state-of-the art equipment—much of it with VSP’s guidance on how to move the practice forward and create an experience patients are seeking. 
We also made sure we were stocking the products our patients wanted, offering a wide range of frames to accommodate every style and price point. The Marchon and Altair frames in particular are very popular with our VSP patients, who love the quality, the wide variety of styles, and the extra value they get for their money. The “Follow Your Heart” lens stamps make it easy for them to quickly identify the brands that will maximize their benefits, and the practice benefits from the rebates on these frames, helping our bottom line. 

Partnerships
Partnering with VSP Vision has been instrumental in growing our practice, providing a wonderful collaboration to make sure things are going well for both the practice and our patients. Our VSP reps communicate with us regularly, offering recommendations to facilitate our growth and training our staff so they are even more equipped to provide the excellent patient care that we’re known for providing. Being part of VSP Premier Edge gives us heightened exposure, ways to increase our revenue and save money for our patients, among additional benefits to enhance the practice and staff.

We recently joined PECAA to take advantage of the VSP Vision Exam Rebate and Rebate Enhancement, which gives us additional revenue for VSP eye exams. We see a lot of VSP patients in our practice, so it’s been nice to reinvest that money into our staff, patients, and new technology for the practice, and we’re looking forward to leveraging the other benefits of that partnership. 

Patient Care
With the backing of popular, high-quality products and collaborative partnerships, the success of our practice ultimately comes down to how we treat our patients. Bringing in new patients is relatively easy—in addition to the methods above, we partner with large companies nearby to supply safety glasses to their employees, who come in for their eye exams and typically purchase additional glasses or contacts; we participate in the VSP Individual Plans Doctor Program to grow patient loyalty, retention, and satisfaction; and we get a lot of new patients through recommendations from our current ones. What keeps those patients coming back is the care and attention they receive once they are here—from our highly tenured and knowledgeable staff, who work closely with patients to identify their specific needs and make recommendations to improve their vision, to the friendly atmosphere and the personalized care they receive from the doctors. 

My favorite patient is my third patient as a practicing OD. I was nervous and flustered, but she saw something in me, followed me over the years to different locations, and is still a patient today.  As Eye See It, loyalty like that is the true definition of success.