Capture Rate

[rosesformonsters]

The optical manager at the shop where I work is OBSESSED with her capture rate. I feel that the way she calculates the capture rate doesn't really make any sense. I've brought up the subject with her twice, she got ticked off both times. I haven't mentioned it since and don't have any intention of approaching the subject with her again. She gets annoyed because her capture rate is low month after month after month. She has never had a good capture rate since I've worked there and is never going to have a good capture rate because of the way she calculates it. It's always low because she counts contact lens patients who never buy glasses. It makes no sense. My opinion is that the contact lens patients who never buy glasses should not be included in the capture rate calculations because they're not really potential customers. Including people who never buy glasses is like saying that anyone walking down the street is a potential customer.

So, let me throw out a question here for the folks who pay attention to their capture rate.

If you only sell glasses in your optical department, do you include contact lens only patients in your capture rate calculation?

[optical24/7]

Normally, you use all refractions done in a given time frame vs sales of glasses. That keeps it simple. But there are variables to the “rule”. Like if you don’t have an OD/MD at your location, you rely on walk-in, well, your metric will and should be different. You can really use any variation, exclude CL exams if you want, (though they get refracted too). Now, if you use different metrics location to location (or shift to shift), you aren’t comparing apples to apples.

[NAICITPO]

The optical manager at the shop where I work is OBSESSED with her capture rate. I feel that the way she calculates the capture rate doesn't really make any sense. I've brought up the subject with her twice, she got ticked off both times. I haven't mentioned it since and don't have any intention of approaching the subject with her again. She gets annoyed because her capture rate is low month after month after month. She has never had a good capture rate since I've worked there and is never going to have a good capture rate because of the way she calculates it. It's always low because she counts contact lens patients who never buy glasses. It makes no sense. My opinion is that the contact lens patients who never buy glasses should not be included in the capture rate calculations because they're not really potential customers. Including people who never buy glasses is like saying that anyone walking down the street is a potential customer.

So, let me throw out a question here for the folks who pay attention to their capture rate.

If you only sell glasses in your optical department, do you include contact lens only patients in your capture rate calculation?

She must have worked for the evil empire. KPI's are the only thing that matters when you are managing 1,000 locations. I am much happier working in private practice with a couple other professional opticians but I think my years working for Lux has served me well. Getting a little perspective after having been in that environment it seems that capture rate is a much bigger doctor statistic than it is an optical statistic. We have 4 doctors at my practice and the head doc/owner (who is a great salesman) beats the other 3 doctors by 15-20% in capture rate.

More specifically, contact lens wearers on average buy new glasses around once every 4 years. Maybe your manager could adjust the capture rate for these customers/patients after the fact, but that seems like a lot of work to me for something kind of trivial. I'd focus on how to improve selling contacts. This is the favorite topic of all of your contact lens reps and they will be more than happy to help you sell more contacts.

If you want to help increase glasses capture rate with contact sales:

-Ask contact lens patients to bring their glasses to the appointment. Then coach your doctors to talk to their patient about the differences in their new Rx and their old glasses. Have them hold the glasses up to the light and show the patient and then ask, "Can you see through these?"

-Have sales on plano suns when you order contacts. 30% off when you order contacts, and 50% off when you order a year supply.

Just some thoughts...

[rosesformonsters]

She must have worked for the evil empire. KPI's are the only thing that matters when you are managing 1,000 locations. I am much happier working in private practice with a couple other professional opticians but I think my years working for Lux has served me well. Getting a little perspective after having been in that environment it seems that capture rate is a much bigger doctor statistic than it is an optical statistic. We have 4 doctors at my practice and the head doc/owner (who is a great salesman) beats the other 3 doctors by 15-20% in capture rate.

More specifically, contact lens wearers on average buy new glasses around once every 4 years. Maybe your manager could adjust the capture rate for these customers/patients after the fact, but that seems like a lot of work to me for something kind of trivial. I'd focus on how to improve selling contacts. This is the favorite topic of all of your contact lens reps and they will be more than happy to help you sell more contacts.

If you want to help increase glasses capture rate with contact sales:

-Ask contact lens patients to bring their glasses to the appointment. Then coach your doctors to talk to their patient about the differences in their new Rx and their old glasses. Have them hold the glasses up to the light and show the patient and then ask, "Can you see through these?"

-Have sales on plano suns when you order contacts. 30% off when you order contacts, and 50% off when you order a year supply.

Just some thoughts...

Once upon a time she worked for a bigger practice -- a chain with 5-6 regional offices.

The practice we work for now is a one doctor practice in small town America. The office is open four days a week (34 hours). The doctor's office and the optical shop are in two different buildings, separated by a parking lot. We get very little walk-in traffic or outside scripts. 95% of our sales are our doctor's patients. There are patients who come into his office for contact lenses that don't even know that he owns an optical shop -- they've never even been in the building. The doctor's receptionist and his office manager are supposed to encourage patients to buy their glasses at our optical shop. They rarely, if ever, tell anyone to come over to the shop.

I honestly couldn't even tell you why the capture rate is so important to her in a small shop like this. She used to keep the numbers on a white board on the wall in the lab, but it was making her crazy, so she doesn't do that anymore.

[NAICITPO]

Once upon a time she worked for a bigger practice -- a chain with 5-6 regional offices.

The practice we work for now is a one doctor practice in small town America. The office is open four days a week (34 hours). The doctor's office and the optical shop are in two different buildings, separated by a parking lot. We get very little walk-in traffic or outside scripts. 95% of our sales are our doctor's patients. There are patients who come into his office for contact lenses that don't even know that he owns an optical shop -- they've never even been in the building. The doctor's receptionist and his office manager are supposed to encourage patients to buy their glasses at our optical shop. They rarely, if ever, tell anyone to come over to the shop.

I honestly couldn't even tell you why the capture rate is so important to her in a small shop like this. She used to keep the numbers on a white board on the wall in the lab, but it was making her crazy, so she doesn't do that anymore.

Does the doctor own both the optical and the exam lane?

[rosesformonsters]

Does the doctor own both the optical and the exam lane?

Yes.

[DanLiv]

The doctor's office and the optical shop are in two different buildings, separated by a parking lot. We get very little walk-in traffic or outside scripts. 95% of our sales are our doctor's patients. There are patients who come into his office for contact lenses that don't even know that he owns an optical shop -- they've never even been in the building. The doctor's receptionist and his office manager are supposed to encourage patients to buy their glasses at our optical shop. They rarely, if ever, tell anyone to come over to the shop.

If the optical manager is only responsible for the optical, and the doctor isn't chewing her out for poor capture, then capture should be the number of pairs sold divided by the number of people that walk in to the optical. Exam or CL-only patients that come and go from the clinic without stepping foot in the optical should not be factored in.

However, the doctor SHOULD be concerned about that since he owns both business. Any exam that he does not send to his own optical is the practice's failure. He should get his clinic and optical working together to drive as many patients as possible to the optical. Anyone getting refractions SHOULD have glasses, and probably does, and if they are not getting them from the doctors own optical they are getting them somewhere else, and yes that is failed capture. But it sounds like the doctor has not structured his business to care about the optical, so yes the manager is making herself uselessly crazy about something she can't fix.

Capture is important to know. No one steps in to an optical without some interest in buying. If 50% of interested potential customers walk out without buying, there's something wrong with your business practice. You can't identify that unless you are at least aware of it.

[NAICITPO]

Yes.

Sigh. Doctors like this have no business owning a business. They should be working for an ophthalmology practice, maybe a Lasik center. Might as well not even have an optical if the doc is terrified of asking THEIR patients to be customers in THEIR optical. SMH.

[optical24/7]

Believe it or not, there was a time, some OD’s didn’t give a rip if you didn’t buy glasses from them. They gave solid advice, offered best design options on their patents visual needs, and X was the price. They actually cared about their patients, and were up to date on available options. Some patents didn’t like the advice, but that was ok. They were there for their patients, and if they strayed, they were there to educate them on why the cheap route they took didn’t work, fixed their problem and had a patient for life.

I ain’t suckin’ up, but I think drk is one of those rare docs that will forgo profit over principle. Stupid if you want to make a fist full of dollars, but you sure sleep good at night…

Was all that related to capture rate?..Yea…

[NAICITPO]

Believe it or not, there was a time, some OD’s didn’t give a rip if you didn’t buy glasses from them. They gave solid advice, offered best design options on their patents visual needs, and X was the price. They actually cared about their patients, and were up to date on available options. Some patents didn’t like the advice, but that was ok. They were there for their patients, and if they strayed, they were there to educate them on why the cheap route they took didn’t work, fixed their problem and had a patient for life.

I ain’t suckin’ up, but I think drk is one of those rare docs that will forgo profit over principle. Stupid if you want to make a fist full of dollars, but you sure sleep good at night…

Was all that related to capture rate?..Yea…

Yeah... How about you do both? Caring for your patients/customers is HOW you make money. Making money is the product of how well you take care of them! You are creating a false dichotomy where you are either Lenscrafters and only care about money or you are doctor who cares but isn't business savvy and is terrified to recommend their own products.

[rosesformonsters]

Sigh. Doctors like this have no business owning a business. They should be working for an ophthalmology practice, maybe a Lasik center. Might as well not even have an optical if the doc is terrified of asking THEIR patients to be customers in THEIR optical. SMH.

This particular doctor is totally DGAF and I'm pretty sure he basically checked out years ago and is just waiting for retirement. I don't think he's so much terrified of encouraging patients to shop in his optical shop as much as he just doesn't care anymore.

I think he's actively trying to sell the business, but I'm the last hired employee and no one tells me anything, so I can't comment on that with any certainty.

[drk]

I think that the doctor should use the power of the exam chair and the fear of blindness to drive patients to their optical.

What I do is say "Mrs. Jones, your old glasses' prescription is running out of them. You need new lenses. You will be unlikely to pass your driver's license test. And without UV protection, which has worn off in your glasses, over time, you are 25 times more likely to get macular degeneration and suffer blindness."

Then I escort them into the optical, and somewhat loudly say to my optician "Mrs. Jones' vision is in bad shape. She needs new glasses before it's too late."

My capture rate is close to 90%.

[rosesformonsters]

I think that the doctor should use the power of the exam chair and the fear of blindness to drive patients to their optical.

What I do is say "Mrs. Jones, your old glasses' prescription is running out of them. You need new lenses. You will be unlikely to pass your driver's license test. And without UV protection, which has worn off in your glasses, over time, you are 25 times more likely to get macular degeneration and suffer blindness."

Then I escort them into the optical, and somewhat loudly say to my optician "Mrs. Jones' vision is in bad shape. She needs new glasses before it's too late."

My capture rate is close to 90%.

The capture rate at the shop where I work is around 40%

[DanLiv]

The capture rate at the shop where I work is around 40%

I don't even think that's bad if you are figuring in all the patients that never even step foot into your optical.

[Skol]

I think that the doctor should use the power of the exam chair and the fear of blindness to drive patients to their optical.

What I do is say "Mrs. Jones, your old glasses' prescription is running out of them. You need new lenses. You will be unlikely to pass your driver's license test. And without UV protection, which has worn off in your glasses, over time, you are 25 times more likely to get macular degeneration and suffer blindness."

Then I escort them into the optical, and somewhat loudly say to my optician "Mrs. Jones' vision is in bad shape. She needs new glasses before it's too late."

My capture rate is close to 90%.

Hype the danger of blue light and you'll get to 98%.

[Uncle Fester]

I think that the doctor should use the power of the exam chair and the fear of blindness to drive patients to their optical.

What I do is say "Mrs. Jones, your old glasses' prescription is running out of them. You need new lenses. You will be unlikely to pass your driver's license test. And without UV protection, which has worn off in your glasses, over time, you are 25 times more likely to get macular degeneration and suffer blindness."

Then I escort them into the optical, and somewhat loudly say to my optician "Mrs. Jones' vision is in bad shape. She needs new glasses before it's too late."

My capture rate is close to 90%.

The big bucks are in the medical billings.

drk has a technique where if he holds a fluoroscein test strip at just the right angle he gets a next day emergency visit for a scratched cornea for CL patients who are going to otherwise walk...Then his overworked and underpaid optician sells them new glasses while the cornea heals...

or so I've heard...

[drk]

It's common procedure.