We have always been a fan of the old fashion mail box delivery, We have a local magazine The Illawarra flame www.theillawarraflame.com.au .

If you constantly see a Brand, when you need the product it generally comes to mind.

We utilise the eyebenefit team ALLOT !! We send MMS messages for end of calendar year, end of financial year. 

We hooked into our Contact lens base and did a direct mail list to let retired wearers know about new products on the market.

We remind our contact lens wearers end of November to stock up over Christmas as labs and suppliers close and patients go on holidays

Our optical software Sunix can print a report on almost anything.

We do try to purchase from our eyebenefit suppliers, this enables a better relationship with our suppliers,  we use offers the suppliers provide to help make some decisions.

We have partnerships with health funds and offer package options for those peoples.

Our data base has identified a percentage of client does enjoy wearing top end product as well. So we keep a broad range of product.

We switched to Rodenstock a almost a year go, this was due to feed back from clients due to coating and warranty reports.  We are really happy with the switch and surprising the about of people who know the brand. This enables us to provide the best possible product for each individual patient, which is important to us - everyone has different eye care needs so we treat each person as a separate case. The stock we keep is primed for longevity, allowing our patients to reuse their previous frames or order spare parts for repairs if they so desire. On the other hand, many chain optical stores order in bulk and cannot offer the same quality of aftercare service that we do at our business. We are committed to ensuring each encounter we have with someone who walks into our business is an enjoyable experience. Our patients are considered a deeply valued part of our family and we always welcome each with a warm smile!

We are a member of the local business chambers, we try to use only local trades.

We utilise all our suppliers for promotions, Downloading their multimedia products.

Not many optical businesses can say they have the experience of five qualified optical dispensers and the choice of three optometrists over a six-day working week! And all locals. This helps across many levels of associations, sporting clubs, and schools.

We ensure to visit trades shows, media and courses help to keep us up to date.  We use social media to advertise new products that will be released and or new arrivals in store.

Joining the EyeBenefit group has proven to be a successful strategy, helping our business to go digital with our marketing campaigns and reach customers more efficiently and effectively!

A lot of our customers expect us to remind them to use it or lose it.  

Our staff are our business! I think many people forget that the most important asset of any business is the staff, as employee satisfaction and emotion can be key to a comfortable environment. 

This creates a friendly and happy place for patients to come for their eye health, increasing the likelihood that they will be satisfied with the service and return. The saying about “long term gain, not short term gain” applies to our business. 

Our staff all understand that it’s never about what you can make off a person in one sale. They embody the mindset of putting the patient first and aim for above-and-beyond service that will lead to return sales year after year, as well as wonderful referrals from happy patients.

Our staff are given the responsibility to deal with our customers and make the decisions we would as business owners. No patient should have to come back another day when the managers are in - that’s not how we work here. Both Linda and I respect our employees’ opinions and knowledge and trust them completely in their judgement, giving them full agency to answer patients’ enquiries on the spot and send them away happy today, not grumpy tomorrow! This also allows our staff to have a connection with the business, as they are making direct decisions for us.

We allow time to ensure when dispensing that the clients receive what they need. You can spend so much time later fixing mistakes, We believe its important to put that energy into them at the beginning.

Measuring

With most of our patients being locals, See Side Optical endeavors to ensure they are fully satisfied by the time they leave the business i.e. we always give them what they need, not what we can sell. As our staff and optometrists all live locally too, we walk past many of our patients on a daily basis and we want to confidently do this with our heads held high, not down. So the easiest satisfaction rate measure is the warm smile and greeting we often receive on the street!

But professionally by Using our database system within the business, we can also see how often patients come to visit/purchase products. It’s required that individuals come to see the optometrist on a monthly, yearly or every second year (which is most common) and the majority of our patients return to us for all their eye care, due to the high satisfaction rate they’ve experienced with us. We have long-time customers who have been coming to the See Side Optical business since we opened 15 years ago!