Many opticals don’t track this metric, but it can play a critical role in your efficiency and how high the ROI is from human resources (i.e. human labor). If the time that is spent with each customer isn’t already being tracked, have your office manager or lead optician begin tracking to establish a baseline.
If the data shows that you’re spending an average of 45 minutes or more per sale, that’s negatively impacting your business. This can lead to two different scenarios: having more optical staff than necessary, or being understaffed and losing sales because impatient customers leave without purchasing anything due to not getting the attention they need.
Aim for a streamlined 20-30 minute sales process from introduction to checkout. If that sounds impossible, we’ll provide a streamlined approach throughout the rest of this section to help get you on the right track.