Optician websites, eye test bookings and recalls
ROISynth builds opticians a website that books eye tests online, recall reminders timed to when each patient’s next test is due, and contact lens reorders that arrive as orders rather than phone calls.
Somebody notices they’re holding their phone at arm’s length. They last had an eye test three years ago and can’t remember where.
They search, find a chain with online booking, and book there. You tested their eyes last time, have their prescription on file, and never heard from them again.
An eye test comes round every couple of years, and most people only remember it when their eyes remind them.
Who this page is for
Independent opticians and optometry practices: businesses that combine clinical eye tests on a recall cycle with the retail sale of frames, lenses and contact lenses, serve every age from children to older patients, and compete with national chains that make booking easy.
What does ROISynth build for an optician?
Online booking for eye tests, with the kind of test and any symptoms asked first, and a recall system that contacts each patient as their next test comes due rather than waiting for them to notice. Contact lens wearers reorder from their account, and the order arrives for the practice to fulfil.
The site also shows the frames you stock, so the patient comes in already interested in something on your shelves.
What goes wrong for an optician that doesn’t for a dentist?
The gap is longer. A dental check-up is twice a year; an eye test is every year or two, long enough for a patient to forget who they saw and drift to whoever advertises.
And you are two businesses at once: a clinic and a shop. The patient who has the test with you but buys glasses elsewhere is the half of the visit that pays for the other half. Children’s tests, reading glasses and sports lenses each bring a different customer through the door, and each deserves its own clear page.
How do patients reach an optician?
When something changes — headaches, blurred reading, a broken pair of glasses — or when they are reminded. The first kind search and book wherever is easiest; the second kind come back to you.
Being the practice that reminds them, and the one they can book online, keeps both kinds at your door.
How does it fit around a day of tests and fittings?
Tests are booked into your diary with the patient’s details and reason; the day before, the patient is reminded. Contact lens orders come in written down, and the collection message goes out when they arrive in the practice.
Prices and frame photos change when you get new stock, without waiting for anyone to update the site. Patients due a test who haven’t booked get a second, gentler note rather than silence.
What does an optician own at the end?
The website, the patient records and the recall list, kept in your practice’s accounts, and the code is yours too.
Every patient you have tested is a future test and a future pair of glasses. Keeping that list in your own hands is what stops the chains from inheriting it.
What actually changes, in the order it matters to you.
- The follow-up that always gets forgotten, never gets forgotten.
- Orders arrive without anyone writing them down.
- Your prices and photos change when you say so, without waiting on anyone.
- Every customer hears from you at the right moment, and nobody sends one by hand.
- People who need bigger text or more contrast can still read it.
- A customer's history is remembered forever, so nobody re-explains anything.
- Your ads point at your street, not your country.
The audit will show you what somebody finds when they search for an eye test near them, and whether they can book yours as easily as a chain’s.
Questions people ask
- How are patients reminded that their eye test is due?
- A recall system contacts each patient as their next test comes due rather than waiting for them to notice.
- Can contact lens wearers reorder online?
- Yes. Contact lens wearers reorder from their account, and the order arrives for the practice to fulfil.
- Why show frames on the website?
- So the patient comes in already interested in something on your shelves — the sale is the half of the visit that pays for the other half. Children’s tests, reading glasses and sports lenses each bring a different customer through the door, and each deserves its own clear page.
- Can we compete with a chain’s online booking?
- Yes. Being the practice that reminds them, and the one they can book online, keeps both kinds of patient at your door.
Want to talk through how this would fit your business? Message on WhatsApp, or send a message and it reaches the person who would do the work.