Small businesses, health-related practices, and optometry practices in particular, have more complex tasks and processes now compared to their counterparts ten or twenty years ago. This has been caused by factors such as changing customer needs, available technology and overall trends within the industry. Practices that are able to adapt and thrive will mention centralisation and automation as their key secrets.
Centralisation and automation are possible through a cloud-based practice management tool which has brought efficiency in the service provided to customers as well as in streamlining how we manage our businesses. With an online practice management tool designed for your specific type of trade, being present and having an eagle view of every aspect of your business is doable. No wonder that the global practice management market is valued at $17.6 billion USD in 2024. This means many types of practices all over the world are finding it beneficial to integrate practice management tools in their businesses. These types of tools work and there are still yet plenty of room for additional and better features. If you are still not using one for your practice then here are a few signs that will hopefully let you consider a more modern approach to managing your optical store.
1. You rely heavily on spreadsheets and logbooks for your finances.
Entering numeric data manually entails concentration, time, and most importantly, a fair level of accounting skills. A formula may be changed accidentally, some figures may be missed, and many things could happen. But when you automate your entire accounting from collections to payments, then you are saving a great deal of time and effort, as well as minimising the risk of miscalculation.
2. Your customer files are everywhere.
Do you struggle to look for your customer's files, finding out about their eye health history, their purchases, Rxs, even details of their last visit? Do not let this be the scenario each time you get a booking for an eye test. Practice management tools work as a central depot for everything about your customer. You need not look anywhere else; you just need to search for their names and then have access to their entire patient history in just a few clicks. This way, data is organised and stored securely in one single location.
3. You still use a planner or your phone’s calendar to record appointments.
There is a much better way to manage appointments and seeing them all in one single dashboard. You can customise what type each appointment is, you can record the duration of time you plan to spend on a customer visit, you can place notes, you can set reminders, you can choose to modify or cancel, and synchronise with your smartphone or tablet so you get alerts there too.
4. You are starting to lose track of what is happening in other aspects of your business.
Being a business owner means being pulled to different projects and areas of your business all the time. You will experience doing marketing, inventory, customer support, and many more. While this may not be new to you, it’ll be much easier to process and manage everything in one single place. A practice management tool can help you stay on top of all the things that are happening around your business. It minimises confusion and increases efficiency. You can also provide access to your key staff, so they stay updated too or perform assigned roles within the practice management system.
5. You are new to digital marketing.
Digital marketing, backed with the right strategy, can be a cost-effective tool to promote your optical store. Popular digital marketing tools are social media, email marketing, and blogging. Don’t you know that you can do all these through a practice management tool? This means you will no longer need to log in to your social media pages and post in each one of them. Just link them to your practice portal and then post updates from the dashboard. Same with your blogs. No need to access your website as you can publish articles straight from your practice management tool. And if you want to announce a new product or a promo special to your customers, you can send them an email too right from the very same tool.
6. Your customer support requests are piling up.
Requests for eyewear repairs, contact lens reorders, and enquiries are just some of the requests that you will encounter. Monitoring them all properly could make or break how your customers see you as a reliable practice. These support requests and even complaints should be attended to and resolved in a timely manner else the risk of losing a customer. Take note that a single unresolved case may escalate and can travel through the market very quickly. A practice management tool can help you organise these so you will never have to miss on acting on support requests quickly.
Do not let any of these signs cause any backlogs in your business. Efficiency means being able to accomplish more, including servicing your customers. Efficiency leads to growth. It is now time for you to tech-up and upgrade your optical business with a cloud-based practice management tool like the Ocelot+!
