Ordering contact lenses online is nothing new, and patients are looking for convenience. Barriers to ordering from a doctor's office are calling, order, and come drive to pick it up. all during business hours that often conflict with their own work schedules (not to mention rising gas prices). With the convenience of the online world, it is important to offer your patients ship to home options to increase your true capture rate. Remember, distributors can't assess how many patients walk with their Rx or re-order online. According to Jobson Optical Research's Contact Lens Insight Survey, 55.2% of patients who order online cited it was "just easier to purchase online."
If you see 500 contact lens patients a year, about 25-35% of them are ordering or re-ordering online. By capturing a fraction of those, you can bring in $2500+ in sales monthly (at $150-$300 per sale). To learn more about your true capture rate, you can utilize an ROI calculator to better understand what business is leaving your practice.
Contact lens ordering and dispensing can take up 15+ minutes per patient. For every 500 orders that is 125+ hours spent simply handling contact lens orders. Cutting down ordering time by automating the process can allow you and your staff to have more valuable time to spend with your patients.
We started using a reminder and ordering system during the initial COVID shut down as we looked for ways to improve staff efficiency and encourage patients to order with us. It has definitely done both of those things! My staff loves it because it’s a much more streamlined way to order and ship contacts to patients. Patients are more prompt with ordering contacts from us or coming in when they’re due for an exam. - Sundra Lemanski, OD
Reducing Costs
The amount of time an ordering system saves my staff is over $500/month. I would have had to pay this extra time to my staff we did it the old fashioned way. Selling online means I have zero inventory at our office and our only CL shipments to the office are trials. -Ryan Capouch, OD
Out of the many technology updates we implemented during COVID, online contact lens sales has definitely been one of our favorites. We love how our patients can access their prescription and order on their own, opening up time off the phones for our front desk. We find that more of our patients like to follow up on their healthcare from home on their phones or laptops. - Elizabeth Chen OD