How did you first get involved with optics?
David Samuel In 1984 I left school after a term of sixth form and tried to get a job in the financial sector. I was struggling to achieve this and so went to an interview in TH Collison in Slough for a trainee dispensing optician role primarily to practice my interviewing skills. On my way home the manager called my dad to see if he thought I would attend college having just dropped out of school. They figured it all out between them and I took the job and started day release training.
How did you get first get involved at Eyesite?
DS After a year at Collisons, I booked an interview with a multiple in Reading. When I got to Reading I could not find the branch so nipped into a independent practice called Eyesite to ask directions. Duncan Ashby’s first words to me were ‘what do you want to go there for’ to which I replied ‘I have an interview but if you need a second year trainee...’. The rest, as they say, is history.
When did you decide to train as a contact lens optician?
DS Even back in 1985 Eyesite was a contact lens oriented practice and we were fitting about 20% of our patients with contact lenses. It was natural for me to carry on with the contact lens course straight after gaining my dispensing optician qualification. After that I subsequently gained a degree in marketing and an MA in business administration by studying on days off and evenings.
How did the Eyesite group and your role within it develop?
DS Eyesite was started in 1984 by Duncan Ashby – an optometrist with amazing vision and foresight. I joined him in 1985 and by 1989 we had four consulting rooms on the go. Duncan encouraged the professional staff to become partners in the business and we all had our roles to play in the opening of additional practices ¬ Brighton in 1991, Winchester in 1996 and Oxford in 2000. By 2013 Duncan was ready to pass on the reigns and so myself and three others completed a management buy-out. Since then we have acquired two more practices which fit the Eyesite culture.
As we have a fantastic management team and brilliant practice teams, these days my skills are largely used to work on our strategy, future planning and staff development.
How significant a role have contact lenses played in the success of your practices?
DS Contact lenses, solutions and related fees account for a third of our overall business. Many of our wearers would never have tried lenses if we were not proactive towards recommending them as a lifestyle choice.
From the early days we were actively recommending contact lenses to our patients and working on the basis that we assumed patients would want to use lenses for at least part of the time unless otherwise stated. We even kept a stock of lenses in the practice. Patients would come in for glasses and go home wearing contact lenses.
Often we would suggest the patient kept quiet about their new lenses and see how long it took their family and friends to realise they were not wearing their specs. The fun aspect was key to getting people talking about lenses and lead to floods of recommendations. This was especially powerful as many people came to see us for lenses quite irritated that their own optician had never recommended them. We still proactively recommend contact lenses and all new patients receive a complimentary contact lens experience as part of their first visit to the practice.
At Optrafair 2017 you will be delivering four lectures on contact lenses and business.
DS The set of presentations address some of the primary issues facing independents and for that matter any practice that wants to grow and maintain its contact lens business. We will have real examples of how practices are employing great strategies for contact lens growth.
Tell us about your involvement with independent practice consultancy Storm.
DS Storm is essentially a tech company offering a huge online resource which has been put together by the Storm team. As well as offering coaching and online learning, we provide members with a performance tracking system designed to help owners understand their business plus a unique customer feedback system so they can understand how their patients are feeling. The real time elements give owners the chance to see their practice dynamically in the here and now.
How did you come to be involved with the BCLA and what does your role of counsellor involve?
DS A couple of years ago at the BCLA conference I was talking with a couple of councillors, who suggested that my experience in contact lenses – in particular from a business perspective may be useful to BCLA. After speaking to the president Brian Tompkins I decided to put myself forward.
Having been on the council for a year now I can see the challenges the contact lens practising parts of the profession face.
I see my role on the BCLA is to try to help practitioners understand that while they may be clinically excellent, to drive more patients their way also requires business and marketing expertise.
David Samuel’s presentations at Optrafair in the Business Theatre
April 1
Keep your enemies close and your contact lens patients even closer…
10:30 - 11:00
How to build an army of raving fans
16:30 - 17:00
April 2
Building your referral-based contact lens business
11:00 - 11:30
April 3
There is a hole in my contact lens bucket!
12:45 - 13:15