During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, eyecare practitioners looked to their online contact lens ordering software to help with contact lens capture rates. Not being able to see patients, practitioners would call, email, or text them and invite them to order lenses. When not speaking to them directly, they could direct patients to an online portal where they would be able to order the lenses.

Though it was not used extensively before the pandemic, we were glad that we had a technology in place for our offices during COVID-19. Now we ask, is online contact lens ordering the new normal for our offices?

Practitioners have often hesitated to incorporate online contact lens ordering onto their website for fear that patients will choose to go to a major online retailer to order their lenses, rather than visit their website. Instead of setting up a system connected to the practice website, many stuck their heads in the sand and assumed that patients all ordered lenses at the office or over the phone.

Options Abound

The reality is that patients want to have access options when ordering their lenses. We have heard from patients that they elected to go online because they did not get a call back from an office or that they couldn’t get someone to answer. As a result of in-person foibles, practices often lose out on thousands of dollars of contact lens sales revenue. However, various methods of contact lens online ordering can be set up to allow a practice to retain the revenue from the contact lens order.

One method, set up through contact lens distributors, has the distributor set up a ghost site that is connected to the practice’s website—and looks like the practice’s website. Eyecare practitioners simply allow patients to select their contact lenses and quantity, pay for the contact lenses, and it is done. The practice then gets notification of the order and approves it. The distributor puts the order through and credits the practice financially for the order. Often, this is free or carries a minimal charge, as it is affiliated with your work with your contact lens distributor.

Another method uses a paid online portal for patients to get their contact lens prescriptions. If patients desire to print their prescriptions, they can do so from this website. While they are on the site, they see the price of the lenses and can choose to purchase them from the practice right then and there.

The paid systems allow eyecare practitioners to connect to patients’ electronic health records to gain prescription data and insurance information. In many cases, rebates can be updated for the patients’ use as well. When patients can see their own insurance and rebates applied to an order, they may be more eager to choose your online ordering over the competition’s.

The Verdict

Having patients order contact lenses from our offices’ online websites has more advantages than just the revenue from the lens sales. It also frees up staff time from verification of cumbersome faxes and phone calls from other retailers. Additionally, it ensures that the patient is truly getting the contact lens product that was prescribed for their vision and ocular surface health and well-being.

Join the new normal and see how eyecare practitioners can improve this online contact lens ordering process for the practice, team, and patients’ experience. CLS