We believe these challenges are no match for the local eye care provider, who can step in and fill an essential role for community members. By implementing our recommended marketing campaigns and maintaining an active educational presence in your community, you can acquire new patients ahead of each school year! Small changes like referencing back-to-school frames in patient discussions or setting up education displays can make noticeable differences in your customer conversion rate.
Below are strategies you can use to overcome the challenges of a busy back-to-school season, show up as a trusted advocate in eye health, and bring in more customers.
Challenge 1: Skipping school vision screenings
Many student patients either attend school online or do a hybrid in-person and virtual model. Either way, they spend less time at the school campus, meaning they may not see the school nurse for their annual vision screenings. That makes their local optometrist more fundamental to their eye health at the start of the school year.
Let your patients know you're there to fill that role for them. Students shouldn't have to go without their vision screenings and potentially struggle throughout the school year. As an ECP, you are about the future eye health of the community — show them that!
Challenge 2: Indoor lifestyles are increasing myopia
Over the past 15 years, and especially during the pandemic, the world has witnessed an explosion of cases of myopia. 1.6 billion people suffer from some form of myopia, according to the Myopia Institute. If unchecked, it is estimated that by 2050, nearly half of the world's population will be myopic. That is a staggering 5 billion people with potentially preventable vision loss and an increased risk of sight-threatening complications.
The increased indoor lifestyle of children during the pandemic has significantly raised the stakes and increased the burden of myopia. Evidence from across the globe found that the COVID lockdowns with an increase in near vision based activities and less time outdoors resulted in a spike in new cases of myopia and progression of myopia.
As a local ECP, you have the knowledge and foresight to step in right here. We want you to be a trusted, competitive eye care practice by making myopia treatment accessible and easily understood by your community. To do that, you need the best educational materials for parents. Download our myopia white paper to learn more about the importance of catching and slowing the progression of childhood myopia.
Challenge 3: Increased Screen Time, More Digital Eye Strain
There has been, without a doubt, an increase in screen time — for both education and entertainment. Parents should have even more concerns for their children's vision with the increases in screen time. Digital eye strain (DES) is a real thing that not everyone fully understands. As an ECP, you should have open communication with patients often so they recognize the signs
Adult patients likely deal with a lot at home, so they’re letting certain aspects of routine healthcare fall through the cracks. Remind them about the importance of vision care and that their vision plan covers basic eye care and makes premium products more affordable. They and their children deserve to protect the future of their eye health, and once they make their appointment, make sure to treat all of their DES symptoms, not just some.
Read more about DES in our white paper, Our eyes in a digital era. It examines both the causes and possible solutions to what has become a widespread phenomenon.
As an ECP, You Are the Solution
You are crucial to your community. You can now step in and communicate with student patients and their families, letting them know that signs of changing vision and discomfort may not be recognized the way they once were. You are here to observe, educate, and solve.
Start educating patients about how uncorrected vision disorders can make learning more difficult. Due to so much information being presented visually to children, any problem that interferes with getting this visual information efficiently to the brain can make learning more difficult.
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