Spectrum Eyecare & Eyewear: A Case Study In Building Success

Spectrum Eyecare & Eyewear, with it's impressive practice history dating back to 1897, already had an e-store at the time of the COVID-19 lockdown. Unfortunately, the practice found the site limited in its use. Their patients found the store difficult to navigate; therefore, they were not eager to adopt online purchasing.

It would be understandable, given their lacklustre history with e- commerce, that the Optometrists and supporting staff at Spectrum would be hesitant to dive into another e-store project, especially at such a critical time. Still, after review of Sightly's functions and features, the decision was made to proceed with the implementation of a Sightly patient-commerce solution. Read on to find out how this decision has impacted their business.

"Our Sightly webstore is not only helpful in processing sales but also for marketing, our patients can easily see the products we carry as well as the pricing."

SPECTRUM EYECARE & EYEWEAR

Location:
Fredericton, New Brunswick

Challenge:
Global pandemic resulting in business closure and threatening interruption of patient care.

Solution:
Implementation of a fully customizable, Sightly online storefront to facilitate patient delivery of eye care products and lens reorders.

Storefront:
https://spectrumvisionclinic.sightlyapps.com

Quick Stats:

• 1075 Emails sent in the first three months,
• 92 SMS Messages sent in the first three months,
• 175+ Patient profiles created in the first three months

IMPLEMENTING THE SIGHTLY PLATFORM SOLUTION

"We have been collecting patient emails for the past few years so I was able to proactively onboard those patients that were scheduled to reorder soon"

Sightly (S): What prompted your practice to launch an online storefront?
Spectrum Eyecare & Eyewear (SEE): When we closed our doors due to COVID we wanted to make sure that we could still provide contact lenses and dry eye products for our patients. We did have an older webstore that prior to COVID, did not have many sales. It was only for contact lenses, not very user friendly (for the patient or for us) and did not match the look of our website. We were also trying to coordinate dry eye product sales through voicemails/email and curbside pick up. With Sightly we saw a platform that looked good, was functional and where we could also provide our dry eye products. I feel our Sightly webstore is not only helpful in processing sales but also for marketing, our patients can easily see the products we carry as well as the pricing.

S: What steps are you taking to ensure Sightly is a successful addition to your practice?
SEE: We are proactively registering patients to the webstore. Our current away and hold voicemail messages let patients know that our webstore is open “24-7” for contact lens and dry eye product orders. We have a message promoting our webstore on all office receipts. We have promoted the webstore on Facebook and Instagram.

S: How did you introduce your online storefront to your patients?
SEE: When we were closed due to COVID we communicated with our patients through Facebook/Instagram and directed patients to our website to place contact lens and dry eye orders. Our front desk email address had a automatic reply to inform our patients of our closed status as well as promoting the webstore. We changed our voicemail message to inform patients of the webstore. I also ran a report through our EHR to identify patients that should have ordered contact lenses in March, April and May. We have been collecting patient emails for the past few years so I was able to proactively onboard those patients that were scheduled to reorder soon. Now that we’re open, the optometrists are informing the contact lens and dry eye patients we see about the webstore and offering to sign them up. We are doing new fits again and automatically sign those patients up to the webstore.

S: How are your patients taking to the store? Have you received any feedback from those using it?
SEE: The patients appreciate the service and the ability to place their contact lens orders at any time of the day or week.

S: How often are you communicating with your patients and directing them to your storefront?
SEE: At this time, we are communicating with our patients as we see them or when they contact us by phone or email. We have also been proactively onboarding patients that we know are coming due, to order contact lenses. I foresee in the near future running an email marketing campaign to inform more patients about the storefront.

S: Have you tried Sightly’s email marketing feature?
SEE: We just launched out first email campaign. I’ll be interested to see how many sign-ups and orders are produced from the mail out.

S: Which of Sightly’s functions or features are you finding most beneficial to your practice?
SEE: The reminder to reorder feature is very promising. If we can make the process easy for our patients I think we will find that they will reorder closer to their prescribed replacement schedule.

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