9 Tips On Charging For Services

Photo:Damian Yerrick

One topic that has come up over the last 20 years, is what to give away and what to charge for in eyecare offices. Today with the consumer increasingly shopping online and coming into the office and wanting free adjustments, free nosepads, free advice, the question always arises- Should you charge?

OptiBoard had some some great tips on how and when to charge for nosepads, adjustments and all the little things that can nickel and dime an eyecare office. (Thanks all Optiboarder’s for these great ideas)

Tip #1

• Let’s say you sold a pair of nose pads for $5. You made $5. You are ahead of the game by $5. You sell 10 pairs of nose pads and now you are at $50. So now you have some money to buy a pizza for the staff. Isn’t that nice? Now, some clients (and we are talking about clients getting the nose pads for glasses they bought from you) may not like this and they may go somewhere else. That client spent, let’s say, $300 on glasses from you. That means you have to sell 60 pairs of nose pads to make up for that one client who left you. And that is if no others leave you for similar reasons. Now, thinking that if this client buys a new pair from you every 3 years at $300, then over a 30 year span, that is 10 pairs of glasses = $3000. So now you have to sell 600 pairs of nose pads to make up for that one lost client.

Tip#2

• If a pat. has purchased eyewear from us, we don’t charge. If a pat. has not purchased eyewear from us, we charge. The only exception to the latter is adjustments. Here are some opinions on this topic: http://www.ecpmag.com/1webmagazine/2…e-services.asp

Tip #3

• Another solution is you could record the name of the person getting the freebies. If they come in three times (non-customer) and never buy, or if you recognize a different frame in between, you can mention that the other times were freebies and this time you are charging. Also, always tell them the fee before you do the service, not after.

Tip #4

• We price our frames and lenses to include essentially a lifetime of nosepads, temple tips etc. We let our patients know this so that they don’t even think twice about where they are going when they need anything at all remotely having to do with their eyes or glasses. We MUST always be the only place they think of going to for help.

Tip#5

• You would be surprised how many people come back to lay down $500 because of a free pair of 50 cent nose pads and a good cleaning.

Tip #6

• We live in a tourism area and charge a $10 donation to our charity. We do get a few per year that want me to do it for free and they then need to wait until they get home. Our clients we don’t charge but they put in more money than anyone.

Tip#6

• I work in an ophthalmology office. The Drs. stress customer service, and every couple years, they have us watch the video “Give em the pickle” (you can watch it on youtube. It’s from Farrell’s ice cream parlour). We don’t give away the store, but we make sure we keep the patient happy. Our giveaways usually consist of nosepads, adjustments, and an occasional frame case.

Tip #7

• In this day of “discount” chain & Internet customers you have to teach your patients and those who are not the value of their purchase. you charge for your SERVICE & TIME for non-customers, explaining that it is a free service only to your customers who have purchased the glasses from you for as long as they have those glasses. MAKE SURE your own customers are informed at time of dispensing of this valuable lifetime service, which is included in the cost of those glasses. They have paid for your service, make sure they know it. We all like to get value for our money spent!

Tip#8

• Ultimately I started using a method that Chris Ryser brought up some years back, we would do the repairs and charge it to an account that we set up in the system and then I would zero it out. The Majority of patients would look at the receipt and be perplexed sometimes they would complain that they shouldn’t be charged anything. I would tell them that the service costs money we just choose not to charge them for it as a courtesy. You would be amazed at how well that worked. I think Chris said it came from a jeweler that would do that with watch batteries. I like Craigs idea of having them donate to your favorite charity as most people won’t complain about it and the charity gets money so it’s win win for everyone. It’s always nice to let people know that it’s not FREE, and that you don’t think they should pay for it if you do provide it at no charge.

Tip #9

• This problem came to my attention about a year ago when we started having many patients from other local optical stores come in for adjustments and what I refer to as consultations. I decided that since these other practice owners were not paying the salaries of our well educated staff, we would start charging non patients a $10 optical service fee. This fee applied to any glasses not purchased in our office and included taking PD’s, adjustments, minor repairs such as nosepads, temple tips and screw replacements. We also charge this fee if we have to analyze and troubleshoot glasses filled elsewhere. This fee covers 1 year of these services and we give them a business card with the expiration date and $20 coupon towards their next eyewear purchase in our office. This policy lets patients know these services have value, but the discount rewards the person that is going to be a loyal new patient to the practice.

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