A week of news - avoid expensive contact lens mistake

Latest research by the news desk and CooperVision shows only half of UK practice offer direct debit services to their customers.

For a more detailed breakdown, see this week’s news, but this stunningly low headline figure highlights an obvious opportunity to capture more patients.

But while committing longstanding patients to a regular payment might not feel instantly comfortable to some practitioners, a generation of contact lens wearers might even come to expect it.

Indeed, the majority are happy to swap physical bills and written correspondence with online banking and email. The average patient walking through the door is likely to subscribe to services such as Lovefilm or Spotify without a second thought, on top of regular phone and Internet contracts.

It means the concept of automatic payments is far from unsettling for many, and even a relief for some.

There will, of course, be exceptions who would rather keep their finances above board and tightly regulated, but the worst they can say is no.

The option for some practices is not yet there, but investing in a direct debit system is likely to pay dividends on a number of levels. Not only do they encourage repeat orders but they drive customers back to your practice automatically.

And while direct debits can be cancelled, for many of us there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.

Practitioners could be forgiven for growing tired of the bombardment of pro-contact lens messages, but surely this is one to breathe life into the business as a whole.