In an age when brick and mortar must compete not just with internet but big box and other opticals, presentation is key to not only differentiating yourself from the competition, but providing patients with a pleasing ambiance and atmosphere to encourage browsing and purchasing. Done well, good presentation can lend generous dividends. In-store visual presentation is accountable for the majority of retail purchases, according to Joseph Weishar, author of The Aesthetics of Merchandise Presentation (2005, stmediagroup.com/stbooks). How, then, does an optical retail—especially one attempting to compete by offering patients the boutique experience—succeed through presentation?

When I was new to this field, a mentor told me that when people asked him what opticians did, his answer was, “Opticians make people happy.” Doesn’t that really sum up what we do? We help people to see better and look better, and that makes them happy. That’s something we should all be excited about.

I’ve been hearing a lot of questions from my peers recently about how to address online eyewear purchasing questions with their patients. I fully understand that having a conversation with patients about online purchasing is a delicate topic. I’ve had it with my own patients, more than once, and with varying levels of success. But as I learned how to have this conversation, I noticed the thing that resonated with my patients is a little ditty that first came from the movie “Ghostbusters.” I’ve found that the simple words “who you gonna call” hold more weight than you know.