Lynne Hansford is chairman of the Association of Optometrists and has used EyePlan at her practice, Hansford & Stevens Opticians, Caerphilly, for two and a half years.
'EyePlan has been brilliant. It's the best thing we ever did. It's a great way of implementing the AOP's principle that practitioners should be charging properly for their time.
'We were running a contact lens scheme in house and it just got so difficult and time-consuming. We decided we needed to source it out somewhere so we went to EyePlan.
'EyePlan gives you a lot of business support as well as doing your direct debit. There's a lot of product and experience that goes with it so they come and talk to you about the concept and how it works.' She adds that the practice gets EyePlan carrier bags, stationery and point-of-sale material.
'We've swapped all our contact lens patients to it straight away and we changed the fee very slightly.
'Once patients are in EyePlan they can have any product discounted to the EyePlan price.
'It's just fantastic but it isn't for every patient. Some patients are just not interested and prefer to pay upfront.
'It appeals for different reasons. Some people like it because of the eye care they get, others buy it because it means they get discounts on products. They like buying glasses and it means they can have several pairs of glasses at a discounted rate.
'It's a win-win situation. The practice wins because it's got a core of loyal patients who are paying a fixed sum every month, so your income levels don't fluctuate. And you tend to sell better product because it's discounted and patients are willing to buy more. It really works well and for me there is no downside.'
