Price Comparisons

I was talking with some business owners the other day and they were asking me about how I compete with all the sales that the big box and chain optical stores provide. I said that the key to competing is to educate our patients about what the ‘sales’ are. The interesting thing is that when a chain optical store offers $75 off coupons, this brings their price into the normal price range of our clinic. So basically if someone is shopping at an optical store without a coupon they are paying $75-$150 more than they should.

The other aspect that we educate our patients on is that quality of frames and lenses can vary dramatically. We can offer very inexpensive frames and lenses if a patient would like, however we don’t recommend it because we can’t afford our patients to be unhappy when their coatings or frames start to fall apart within a year.

Michael Nelson, OD