Optometry Marketing Through Engaging Employees

Optometry practices grow faster and achieve higher returns when they engage their employees in a common purpose marketing and commit them to the practice strategy. Customer satisfaction has a direct impact on loyalty which has a direct positive impact on profitability. Increasing customer satisfaction increases profits. The way to increase customer satisfaction is through increasing and improving customer services. Improving customer service is a direct result of improving employee engagement through improving employee loyalty, employee commitment, and employee productivity. The process is self-reinforcing and it connects employee engagement, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and practice growth.

The link between the quality of service that the practice provides and the financial growth puts forward the necessity that Optometry practices have in targeting the right employees. Targeting the right employees should complement the practice’s strategy of targeting the right customers employing the right value proposition. The engagement of employees depends on the value proposition you are able to provide them. A good employee value proposition makes the recruitment of attractive high-quality employees easy. Employees presented with a compelling value proposition are reluctant or disinclined to leave the practice. Retaining high-quality employees with the appropriate skills and knowledge increases the practice’s performance and reduces recruitment costs as well.

The principle of engaging employees is based on ensuring that all employees will get to share the same value and the same purpose in order to increase performance. To achieve this, you should start by understanding your employees and segmenting them into categories such as employees good with dealing with patients, employees good with phone communication, and employees good with technology, legal, management, or operations. Employees of different groups are presented with a different value proposition. All employees, even those who don’t directly work with the patients need to understand the business is able to employ them because of the good services that customers are paying for. Therefore, customer satisfaction should become their top priority in order for the business to perform well. Through effective communication, cooperation, and coordination all aspects of the corporate practice should function effectively to allow those in direct contact with the customer to provide the best care.

Good leadership is a key player in affecting change and engaging employees. The Optometrist should be the role model in terms of applying the strategy and boosting employee engagement. The Optometrist should ensure smooth and good communication of the strategy with all employees. He should instill change, empower employee’s behavior, and develop measures. Change can take months in an Optometry practice. It must be followed and managed rationally with clear responsibilities. Change measures should be developed and linked to the practice performance and financial measures. Performance measures could include revenue per employee, employee average retention rate or duration, employee’s level of engagement. Well-managed marketing through employee engagement can be very effective to the point that it can become part of the competitive advantage of the practice and it can help to differentiate it from other practices.