Getting the price right in 2012 is not easy. If you charge significantly more than your immediate competitors you will find that patients begin to shop around. Then there are bucket shops, the Internet and even pound shops. However, you need to make sufficient gross profit to pay the rent, the staff, the bills, the tax man, yourself and it would be nice to have a little left over to ensure that the practice survives.
The Myers La Roche Pricing Programme calculates a structured system for frames, lenses, contact lenses and professional fees based upon the actual socio-economics and demographics of your specific catchment area to ensure that your prices are right. The results only work in the practices of professional optometrists and opticians. They do not apply to dispensing-only shops, chain stores or domiciliary businesses.
Spectacle Frames
Your patients are extremely sensitive to your frame prices. Unfortunately, they do not often compare like with like. Even before you examine their eyes, they will make judgements about your practice based largely on the price of your frames. It is absolutely essential to use the correct pricing formulae for frames.
Our recommendation gives you a cost price versus selling price structure for frames.
However, you also need to ensure that you have the correct number of frames at each price point. Too few and you will offer insufficient choice and potentially lose patients to the competition. Too m
any and you could overwhelm patients and reduce profitability by encouraging patients to 'shop down'; an increasing problem in these difficult times. Over-stocking of frames also hits profitability and reduces the market value of your practice.
Eyeglass Lenses
Your patients are less sensitive to local variations in the price spectacle lenses than frames. Nonetheless, you need charge a fair price for lenses, particularly progressive lenses, to provide good value to patients whilst protecting your profit margin. Unlike frames, we cannot give you cost price/selling price formulae for lenses.
Our recommendations provide you with a series of tables for single vision, bifocal and progressive lenses in various refractive indices and with a variety of coatings.
Contact Lenses
Contact lenses are a critical part of any successful independent optometric practice. Since the collapse of Leman Brothers, independent practices with a high proportion of contact lens income have consistently out-performed the market. It is important to remember that the average contact lens patient spends 2.8 times the average spectacle only wearer.
However, many independent practices over-charge for boxes of lenses and under-charge for their professional time. In consequence they lose market to the multiples and the Internet. Getting the price of contact lenses right is essential.
Our recommended price allows you to compete effectively with the Internet, the chain stores and bucket shops. You will increase profitability, market share and survivability.
Professional Fee
What to charge for professional fees that lie outside of the General Ophthalmic Services has until now been a problem for indep
endent practitioners. Fortunately, it is not an area that is very price sensitive. The services are not available on the Internet or in dispensing-only shops and only in a limited form in the chain stores. However, without a proper structure, the temptation is to under-charge or even make no charge for services which are not included in a 'sight test'.
Our recommended fee structure will show you what you should be charging in your area for a range of professional services including private eye examinations, orthokeratology, therapeutics, retinal photography, OCT and many more.
How we calculate your pricing policy?
All we require from you is the postal areas (key parts of the postcode) in which the majority of your patients live. Most modern practice management systems will provide this information.
Our qualified marketing consultants then analyse your catchment pockets using socio-economic and demographic data provided by the Office for National Statistics and your Local Authority. From our own research, we have developed the optimal pricing structure differing sets of populations. This is monitored as the economic situation in the Country changes.
We then produce a detailed report showing recommendations for professional eye care fees, frames, lenses and contact lenses at your practice based on your mix of patients. The report also details the percentage of frames to display at each price point to maximise conversion rates and dispensing values.
What does it cost?
The Recommended Pricing Policy for your practice costs just £197 (+ VAT). If you own more than one practice, you may need to apply different pricing policies in different areas. This maximises profitability and patient statisfaction.
The current volatility of the UK market means that we may need to recalculate your recommendations more than once a year.
The Pricing Policy Programme relies on the availability of accurate statistical information from Government and at present is only available in the UK.
How long will it take to recover my outlay?
This largely depends upon how quickly you introduce the changes. For contact lens patients, we recommend that you introduce the changes at their next eye examination or contact lens fit / re-fit. The most time consuming but critical area is the frames on display. Once the re-pricing of frames, eyeglass lenses and professional fees is complete, you will probably recover our fee within a few days.
What do you do next?
Contact us and tick the 'Price Policy' box and we will contact you. Once we have all the necessary data from your practice, we aim to send you the Recommended Pricing Policy for your practice within 10 working days.
Need more information?
Telephone 0161 929 8389 to speak to qualified marketing consultant. Please have your debit card / credit card details available when you call. Telephone conversations are recorded for quality and training purposes.
