Let's be honest, a lot of us business owners can get caught up on how to "save money" - a venture that takes up a lot of time, energy and mind space. There is nothing wrong with looking at how to find cost savings, but the same energy used to cut expenses could be used to generate revenue instead.
Here are some common scenarios in ways we look to "save" money that actually costs us more than we think.
Saving $3/box of contacts by ordering direct from the manufacturer = 10-15 minutes of staff time logging into a separate ordering portals, entering in data manually = cost is around $5 in staff time per order.
Saving 40% by purchasing close out frames = can take 6-12 months longer to sell, which can double your loss in revenue by your investment sitting in your inventory and not producing income.
Saving money by cutting a technology that streamlines checking insurance or other services you can't easily quantify = costs you staff time and a loss of customer acquisition.
Staff time can be used 2 ways: To generate revenue OR to dwindle profits by performing mundane tasks.
Ways staff can generate revenue:
- Taking time on calls to sell your practice and services, book appointments, answer questions.
- Sell inventory, contact lenses, supplies.
- Work up patients, running tests.
- Taking the time/energy to really give the patient a personal experience they will rave about.
- Asking for referrals of their friends/family from current patients.
- Having a happy attitude because they aren't run down by mundane tasks. Happy staff = Happy patients = Happy doctor!
Ways staff time dwindles profits in a practice:
Problem: Doing mundane tasks like manually processing contact lens orders, or ordering direct from all different manufacturers, which doesn't auto-remind the patient when due to reorder and takes up 15+ min of staff time.
Solution: Utilize a system like Dr. Contact Lens that integrates with your EMR and makes contact lens ordering a seamless 1 step process for both your staff & patients.
Cost: $2,500/year
Savings: Saves 15 minutes of staff time per order. On 700 orders a year that is 175 hours or $4,000+ in paid staff time simply processing orders. Not to mention there will be no follow up when patient due to reorder.
ROI: Capture walking scripts and re-orders and expect to see a minimum of a 20% increase in annual contact lens sales. For the average 1-2 OD practice that is $100k+ in revenue. Learn more about your contact lens ROI here.
Problem: Working hard at trying to figure out what insurance company a patient has by checking them all manually.
Solution: Utilize a system like Practice Pal that quickly finds anyone's vision plan in one easy to use platform.
Cost: $2,400/year
Savings: Saves an average of 5 minutes of staff time when verifying insurance, and can save 3-5 patient calls a month who don't know what insurance they have so they don't book.
ROI: Capture 5 extra patients a month by having a quick way to verify their insurance while staff is on the phone, and bring in a potential of $21,000/year.
Problem: Spending time selecting frames, and then losing the sale because the patient can't afford it.
Solution: Utilize a system like Sunbit, which is easy to use pay over time financing. No credit card needed, just an easy to way to save a sale. Offer package deals that help you compete like Twelve84. A price point that most people are comfortable with, with styles that are easy to sell.
Cost: $1,200/year (Sunbit), $2,150/year (Twelve84)
ROI: Capture 14 pairs per month, and your practice can expect to add a minimum of $33,000/year in revenue with Twelve84 product sold ($22,000 net profit). Capture 10 extra sales a month with this sunbit and tap into a revenue stream of $42,000/year (based on an avg. sale of $350 per customer).
Problem: Manually reminding patients about their appointments, annual exams or re-orders. Calling patients overdue to see you.
Solution: Utilize a system like Weave that automatically reminds patients when they need to see you, upcoming appointments and makes communication easy with text & email options. Use a system like Dr. Contact Lens that mines your data and generates auto-reminders via text & email when patients are due to order contacts. Offer a live chat like Simplifeye on your website to save your staff time on easy to answer question like hours, insurance, etc. Have a company like Roya.com create a custom website that can show who you are and all that you offer.
Cost: $6,588/year (Weave), $4,788/year (Simplifeye), $1,800/year (Roya.com)
Savings: Having a website, a live chat and a text/email phone system that auto-reminds patients can save you over 300 hours in staff time annually, or around $7,500/year.
ROI: Capture lost revenue by never missing a call or message from a patient. The average practice misses about 12 calls a day. Convert 5% of those into appointments and tap into a revenue stream of $50,400/year.Capture 20 more customers a month with a strong online presence, and you will bring in an average of $84,000 more a year (at an average worth of $350/per patient).Capture your after hours visitors with more ease. Just 10 extra patients a month booked is a revenue steam of $42,000/year.
Problem: Patients that want to come to your practice will call to see if they can use their benefits at your office; getting on the phone to verify out-of-network benefits and filing claims as a courtesy can be a huge time suck, and giving receipts to patients to file OON claims on their own is no guarantee that your patient will ever see those benefits. (Alt: Some vision plans aren’t worth being credentialed for and sometimes vision plans don’t let your practice on panel.)
Solution: Anagram Access is the only software that both verifies patients’ out-of-network benefits and electronically submits out-of-network claims; now your practice can quickly and easily bill on their behalf for reimbursement. Your staff doesn’t have to waste any more time wrangling vision plans for benefit verification or submitting paper claims. (Bonus: Anagram will train your staff on speaking to patients about Open Access benefits so they can capture more out-of-network patients.)
Cost: Anagram Access costs as little as $3,600/year.
ROI: Just one new out-of-network or private-pay patient per month is enough to cover the cost of Anagram. Capture just five Open Access patients per month, and your ROI can be over $15,000 a year!
Problem: Emailing patients copies of their prescription.
Solution: Send them a digital copy of their contact lens Rx in one easy click. The Rx lives inside your contact lens store where they can always easily order using insurance in one click. Offer a contact lens that is only sold at your practice at a better price point with Eyeris. A win-win in cost savings and revenue generation.
Cost: $2500/year (Dr. Contact Lens), No cost for an Eyeris fit set
Savings: Send digital scripts in one click from our system, saving 50+ hours in emailing time a year.
ROI: Capture 20% of walking scripts a year, bringing an extra revenue stream of $25,000+ per year.
Other ways we try to "save" money that costs us more than we think:
Problem: Doing our own books to "save" money on a bookkeeper.
Solution: Use a professional like For Eyes Bookkeeping, well versed in eyecare to keep your books up to date & done correctly. This will free up your time to do better things, like see and engage with your patients or work on your business.
Cost: $2,988/year
Problem: Staff that isn't proficiently trained, or doesn't bill insurance correctly.
Solution: Sign up for a service like Spexy, that offers everything from training on frame management, sales and insurance billing.
Cost: $408/year
ROI: Capture 10 more sales a month with staff that is proficient in explaining, billing & selling. That is a potential revenue of $30,000/year in sales. Generate more and save more time with staff that is confident with what they do.
Problem: An outdated optical design.
Solution: Invest in a redesign of your optical with a company like OMG marketing group. This will help create a space you are happy to see everyday, and that your patients will want to come to. The space you sell in is the first impression your patients get when walking into your practice. Show them you are invested in offering them an experience that helps you stand out from the crowd.
Problem: Referring out for testing.
Solution: Offer visual field testing in house with a simple modern solution like Heru. Heru offers 6 Vision Diagnostic Exams, which can be billed with 5 CPT Codes, all in 1 Wearable Solution.
ROI: Run 100+ tests a year to bring in an extra revenue stream of $25,000+.
Problem: Not having differentiating offerings.
Solution: Offer Neurolenses is a great way to stand out from the crowd and offer a treatment that will make a large impact on your patient's day to day lives. The NMD2 is an objective, accurate and repeatable way to measure eye alignment. The cutting-edge eye tracking system allows the NMD2 to identify eye misalignment as small as 0.1 Prism Diopters, acquiring over 10,000 data points per patient.
Cost: $36,990. There is no monthly fee or per click fee for using the device, nor is there a fee for onboarding or subsequent trainings.
ROI: Capture 10 sales of neurolenses a month to tap into a revenue stream of $72,000/year.
Problem: Having trouble keeping up with bills, unsure about how to operate business proficiently.
Solution: Invest in practice consulting with a company like Akrinos to learn how to streamline your business and bring in more revenue with confidence.
Cost: Analyze.Strategize.Implement.™ consulting solutions start at $1,650/mo. + Set-Up, and The Practice Launchpad™ a la carte start-up services start at $2,625. Mention Techifeye and receive 25%-Off Analyze.Strategize.Implement.™ Set-Up and 20%-Off The Practice Launchpad™
As you can see, often saving money or staff time requires us to invest in services that will return a higher ROI. Learn more about these revenue generating technologies by reserving a demo, and taking the time to invest in your practice and staff. At TechifEYE, we are here to help you move forward and find success!