Make First Impressions Count

By John Rumpakis, O.D., M.B.A.

Optometry provides nearly three-quarters of all first-time eye care encounters. In any other industry, having a near 75-percent market share would be phenomenal. Recognize how powerful this statistic is.

As the old saying goes, "You never have a second chance to make a first impression." So maximize the opportunity of the first impression you make with the patients you see every day. It has been stated that 78 percent of the U.S. population doesn't know the difference between an ophthalmologist, optometrist or optician.

Yet, these same people would probably define optometrists as those who prescribe glasses or contact lenses. People don’t know what they don't know! You, and only you, have the ability to provide them with the knowledge of what services you can provide.

Ocular allergy and dry eye affect somewhere between 25 percent and 40 percent of the population. These are easy conditions to diagnose and easy conditions to treat. It's also possible to schedule these visits without eating into your existing schedule. Because the irritations of ocular allergies and dry eye are so commonplace, there are many opportunities to educate your patient population about your ability to treat these conditions.

Don't let this opportunity get away from you. The very people you see each and every day suffer from these conditions and may not mention them to you because they may not be aware that you have the expertise to do anything about them.

This is your opportunity to provide the standard of care for conditions you should be diagnosing and treating. This is your opportunity to change their minds. This is your opportunity to change their appreciation of your expertise. This is your opportunity to educate them about how you can provide a solution to conditions that they have self-treated with little success. This is your opportunity to make a first impression that lasts.