APPLICATION FOR
DALBY BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AWARDS
Address: 17-67 Cunningham Street,
Shop 21 Dalby Shopping World
Dalby QLD 4405
Phone:
07 4669 7072
Email:
support@ecew.com.au
Date established: 2006
Number of Employees (FTE): 7
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ORGANISATIONAL SUMMARY
Description of your strategy for business improvement:
Eyecare Eyewear is a locally owned and operated Behavioural Optometry Practice
renowned for professional eyecare and innovation in eyewear. At Eyecare Eyewear we
strive to be at the forefront of the latest technologies and trends to enhance our patients
optometry experience. We ensure we are able to maintain and improve this by being a
member of the following associations:
 Optometrist Association Australia
 Australian College of Behavioural Optometry
 Orthokeratology Society of Oceania
 College of Syntonic Australia
We are also fortunate enough to have an extremely close working relationship with our
supplier representatives. We have followed many of our sales reps if they have moved from
company to company demonstrating our commitment to them, and their opinions on the
suitability of their products for our patients. Many we now consider as friends.
Summary of your achievements:
This year marks the seventh year of business for Eyecare Eyewear Dalby and the fourth year
of business for Eyecare Eyewear Chinchilla and we were very proud to celebrate our
14,000th patient to walk through our doors a few months ago. This year we have also been
fortunate to be given the opportunity to open new accounts with two exclusive
internationally renowned brands; Tiffany & Co and Tag Heuer. To be a stockist, both
suppliers of these brands impose stringent criteria to ensure that they maintain their brand
alignment strategies. We believe that our achievement in gaining these brands is a
reflection of our business success and product positioning.
Description of your business environment and the major issues you
face and how you are addressing these:
The major issue faced at Eyecare Eyewear is the competition we face from budget
providers. We acknowledge that when it comes to selling basic distance or reading glasses
we are unable to compete on price. As such, our strategy has also been based on
differentiation, focus and service.
An example of our differentiation strategy includes our high level of progressive lens
spectacle sales. Our lens supplier’s statistic reports indicate that we are more likely to
provide our patients with a more advanced and more customised lens designs compared to
any other of their other accounts. This is also a rate much higher than the industry average.
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An example of our focus strategy is our Orthokeratology proposition. Through the expert
use of a corneal topographer and close relationship with the technicians from Innovative
Contactsi and overnight contacts, we can now provide clear vision during the day, without
the use of any other corrective eyewear for 95% of our patients.
Service is identified as highly important to our patients, including being accessible, personal
and trustworthy. We have addressed this by providing:
 Superior practice locations, closer to home, close to parking, amenities and other
reputable retailers.
 A high level of personalised customer service through the use of our practice
management software and the use of preferred patient communication channels
(mobile or home phone, SMS or email).
 Modern optometry testing equipment and innovative eyewear options mean we are
trusted as the as the place to go if patients have a serious or complex problems with
their eyes or want to be offered he best solution to their visual problem.
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LEADERSHIP (180POINTS)
Describe leadership in your business.
The team at Eyecare Eyewear is led by our business owner Tom Roger and practice manager
Anarda Girle. We are fortunate as a small business to be able to consult and communicate
regularly as a whole team. We also believe that each of our wonderful team members are
an asset to our business and value their input in decision making. As a team we conduct
regular staff meetings where we discuss topics such as:
 New policies and procedures arising from recent stock & equipment acquisitions.
 Customer interactions (good, bad and indifferent) and strategies to build and
enhance these relationships.
 Enhancements to our operational procedures and supplier arrangements which
might improve workflow and profitability.
All topics are discussed and addressed within the context of our core business objective, to
provide: “Professional Eyecare and Innovation in Eyewear”
Each of our team members have their own Key Performance Indicators and are aware of
what is expected of them as a member of the Eyecare Eyewear team.
How you lead the culture of your organisation?
Our leadership strategy involves leading by example. We aim to work efficiently and to the
best of our abilities while realising that we all have lives outside of work.
Through example we encourage and promote:
 Excellence in customer service and business operation skills.
 Local team building and family friendly events where all members of staff and family
are welcome e.g. Chinchilla Melon Festival, Dalby Triathlon, Delicious and Delightful,
Mercantile relay and staff Christmas weekends away.
 Flexible working conditions to accommodate and promote a healthy family life and
appropriate work life balance.
Describe your leadership in the community.
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Eyecare Eyewear donates to and participates in, family friendly events within the
community that reflect our values and work ethics.
Tom continues to provide informative presentations to numerous groups within the
community such as: High and Primary School staff meetings, schools students
reading groups, Mums ‘n’ Bubs groups and Country Women’s Association meetings.
Eyecare Eyewear has an ‘Ask Optomtom’ column which is published in all the
Western Downs Magazines, Cecil Plains Crier and on our Facebook page. The
purpose of this column is to provide useful information to the community in
everyday language. Members of the community are encouraged to email us with any
questions or concerns they would like us to address relating to Optometry.
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STRATEGIC PLANNING (100 POINTS)
Outline the strategic direction of your business.
We are a locally owned and operated behavioural optometry practice renowned for
professional eyecare and innovation in eyewear. Our combination of a highly qualified
optometry team and state-of-the-art computerized eye testing equipment enables the
provision of the highest level in vision care and ocular disease management.
At Eyecare Eyewear we like to do things differently. We stock over 1400 frames from both
local and international designers and have access to the latest spectacle and contact lenses.
This ensures that we can provide an eyewear vision solution that is customised for every
patient.
We also provide for smaller niche optometric market segments. These include:
 Behavioural Vision Care sub specialty. Providing expert optometric care for patients
of all ages with learning difficulties, acquired brain injury, binocular vision and other
visual efficiency problems.
 Prescribing all types of contact lenses. This includes custom orthokeratology rigid
contact lenses for overnight wear to allow for clear vision during the day.
 Prescription safety glasses with expert dispensing advice on eyewear for the
workplace.
Our practice design and layout has been carefully considered to align with our professional
and family centred approach. Our colour scheme and display lighting and layout has been
designed considering the appeal and accessibility to all family members, from children to
adults.
Describe the processes you have in place to achieve this.
Examples of the processes Eyecare Eyewear has in place to achieve alignment with our
strategic direction are as follows:
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Attending ODMA (Optical Distribution and Manufacturing Association) trade show
which is held every two years. This trade show is usually held in Sydney and we invite
all staff members to attend. All travel expenses for the weekend are paid for. This is
an ideal way for us to keep up to date with the latest trends in all aspects of optical
industry.
We meet regularly with our sales representatives to discuss, purchase and
implement the latest product trends and diagnostic technology that is available.
Staff members are encouraged to advance their skills in courses relating to their Key
Performance Indicators. Courses are funded by Eyecare Eyewear and include areas
such as such as marketing, customer relationship building and sales tactics.
Optometry staff members are encouraged to regularly attend conferences and
workshops to better their skills and services.
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INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE (100 POINTS)
Describe how you collect and analyse appropriate data to create
value and make informed decisions in your business.
As a business Eyecare Eyewear relies largely on the data we receive from our patients and
suppliers to make informed business decisions. We operate optometry specific software
called Optomate that has numerous advanced reporting functions. This allows us to create
detailed sales, marketing, recall and job reports. Amongst the many uses of these reports in
the ability to profile our patients and suppliers so we are able to tailor our service to meet
their individual needs. Listed below are examples of this:
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Upon booking an Optometry appointment we collate all personal information,
including specific categories which will help us tailor to our patient’s needs. For
example their: occupation, school, preferred name/nickname, any specific notes
patient has advised us prior to appointment such as any health issues.
Any contact by patients or suppliers is recorded in our note taking system through
our software so all patients or suppliers can be served by any staff member and be
assured that staff member is up to date with their experience with us.
Through categorising our patient data base we are able to market to and provide
specific information according to each individual’s needs. For example, when we
commenced stocking a new and improved ‘Systane’ eye drop for dry eyes we are
able to produce a letter advising all our patients suffering of dry eyes to inform them
of this new and improved product.
Our Optomate software allows us to generate reports analysing the success of any
action we perform. For example, we were able to generate a report detailing the
amount of Systane eye drops purchased since generating the marketing letter
advising our dry eye suffering patients of the new and improved Systane.
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PEOPLE (160 POINTS)
Outline how your business values and empowers staff.
As a small business, Eyecare Eyewear is fortunate to have a close knit team of staff members
between our Dalby and Chinchilla practice. We pride ourselves in our friendly natured family
orientated values and believe that each staff member is a great asset to our business. We
partake in numerous family friendly team building activities together. Below is a list of
examples of how Eyecare Eyewear values and empowers staff.
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Providing flexible rosters suited to family situations.
Promotes furthering education and funding of courses related to KPI’s.
Fully funded staff Christmas party – Last year was a getaway to Bunya Mountains for
staff members and their families for the weekend. This was catered by Love Food
catering with a Thai style theme. We also enjoyed team building activities such as
croquet, bush walking and a charades/mind challenging team board game.
Staff and their families attended Chinchilla Melon Festival this year and worked as a
team to create a float. Breakfast and a surprise monetary bonus were provided to
each staff member for their efforts and contribution.
Staff members and their partners are encouraged to attend ODMA optical fair every
two years which is usually held in Sydney. All flights/accommodation and travel
expenses are paid for along with being invited to exclusive parties from our Suppliers
and Sales representatives. Previously we have been on cruises down the Sydney
Harbour and have been fortunate to meet Debra Hutton in the flesh whilst
purchasing her designer range of frames which have been highlights of ODMA fair in
the past.
Recently one of our valued staff members turned forty and to reward her
commitment and efforts and to celebrate this mile stone our business owner gave
her a weekend away in Byron Bay.
As a team we attend team building activities sponsoring local events such as Dalby
Triathlon, Mercantile relay, Orange Tie Ball and Delicious and Delightful festival.
Staff meetings which are open and positive to encourage ideas and constructive
criticism to improve process and workplace conditions.
On an informant, unstructured way – positive verbal feedback is given when a great
job is done – E.g. When Anarda was noticed for doing a great job with the Facebook
updates
Yearly performance review to give staff and opportunity to demonstrate their
professional development across the year
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Bunya Mountains Getaway
Chinchilla Melon Festival
ODMA Fair Sydney
Dalby Triathlon
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CUSTOMER & MARKET FOCUS (150POINTS)
Describe your customer and marketing plan.
Customer Plan
At Eyecare Eyewear we are proud of our Patient First policy. The goal of this policy is to
ensure that each patient feels; acknowledged, understood and appreciated.
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We think it is important to do the simple things right like acknowledging a patient
when they first walk through the door, even if you are attending to other business.
By listening to our patients and seeking to understand their problems we can be
confident in recommending products and services that will benefit them.
At the completion of every in practice interaction, recall letter or email, it is
procedure that our patients are thanked for their support of our practice.
Marketing Plan
The goal of our marketing plan is to not only deliver “calls to action” but encourage front of
mind positioning and word of mouth referrals. Our marketing is structured to align with the
time of year and relevant events occurring that directly affect our target market. For
example, we promote back to school eye examinations in January after the Christmas
festive season. It is procedure that each marketing project involves social media, website
publications, newspaper articles and practice events and are themed consistently during
these times. Our plan is regularly revised with allowances to create additional, extraordinary
marketing projects if required. Below are some examples of events and projects we have
implemented for this year:
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Participation in the Street Parade for the Chinchilla Melon Festival.
Tiffany & Co VIP night.
Back to school promotion.
Health insurance rebate reminders.
Glaucoma Awareness during Glaucoma week.
How you use this to build and manage customer relationships?
We aim to build relationships with our patients that become more valuable for them with
every additional interaction they have with our practice. This is possible due to our practice
management software which allows for numerous customisations of patient files. Examples
of this customisation include:
 Specifying a patient’s preferred method of communication (home phone, mobile,
SMS or email).
 Documentation of patient interactions and job details (spectacle or contact lens).
 Appling categories to patient files allowing segmentation by diagnoses, needs or
interests.
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Appling pop up notes on patient’s files describing a patient’s individual interests,
particularly those applicable to optometric specialisation. For example “Likes
freshwater fishing – discuss brown polarised floating sunglasses”.
We also build patient relationships through our marketing efforts. Examples of the
marketing tactics we use to promote “Calls to Action” and remain front of mind for our
patients include:
 Cinema advertising
 Shopping centre posters
 Regular Facebook and website updates
 Car signage
 Recall letters, phone calls or emails
Examples of the marketing strategies we use to promote word of mouth referrals include:
 Providing the very best eyewear product mix for each patient. For example, when a
patient leaves our practice with a new pair of glasses that; matches their style, fits
beautifully and helps them see better; they become our number one marketing
resource (word of mouth).
 Networking events such as our Tiffany & Co SPECtacular.
 Chamber Business After Hours events.
 Optomtom questions & answers feature in the Western Downs Magazines.
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PROCESS MANAGEMENT, IMPROVEMENT & INNOVATION (160
POINTS)
Outline how you manage and improve processes in your business.
It is through dealing with patients and listening to our employees, suppliers and optometry
peers that we are able to establish areas to improve our business.
All staff members are encouraged to provide an agenda item for our staff meetings. These
items might include how they dealt with a particular patient’s grievance or any gaps in their
sales knowledge which can then be addressed at our meetings. They may also include
product recommendations from patients.
We encourage all staff members to attend major tradeshows such as the one recently held
in August 2013 by ODMAii (The Optical Distributors & Manufacturers Association). These
tradeshows provide us with the chance to develop and maintain relationships with our
suppliers and their sales representatives. This in turn provides us the opportunity to
discover and purchase new products and services for our patients.
Technology is also a key driver for our business improvement. For example, we ensure that
our core business software remains current and up to date. After careful consideration, we
also endeavour to implement any new remains features from these updates. An example of
a feature that we recently implemented was our SMS reminders and follow up services.
Describe any innovative processes you have developed.
Our practice was the first to implement many innovative optometry and optical dispensing
processes in our area. Examples include:
 Orthokeratology – as listed on the Orthokeratology Society of Oceania website, Tom
is only 1 of 29 practitioners offering this service in Queensland.
 Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) – high definition laser scanning of the ocular
structures.
 Anterior Segment Ocular Photography – photographs of the front of the eye.
 Corneal Topography – Detailed high measurements of the front of the eye.
 Vision Therapy – visually directed movement based exercise designed to stimulate
neural development.
 Vision Information Processing Assessments – additional optometric testing designed
to identify skill deficiencies for the learning process for school aged patients.
 Auto refraction – Estimation of a patient’s refraction using a computerised device.
 Ipad to Apple TV Retail Display – We can provide detailed photos of entire ranges of
frames, in addition to lens design demonstrations at the touch of a button.
 Face time meetings – We use video conferencing for staff meetings and provide an
offering to patients to use this service.
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SUCCESS & SUSTAINABILITY (150POINTS)
Describe how you measure and communicate your business
performance.
We primarily measure our business performance in terms of the following key performance
indicators:
 Number of patients – new and previous patients seen each week and annually.
 Sales Revenues – analysed weekly and segmented by the following:
o Practice location – Chinchilla & Dalby
o Revenue source – Consulting & Dispensing
o Individual performance – Optometrist and dispenser analysis
 Our business performance is also measured by our gross and net profit and how
these figures compare to our optometry practice peer group. These analyses are
conducted annually by Holmes Stubbings Accountantsiii who provide optometry
specific accounting services for over 70 other practices.
 Communication of our business successes occurs at our staff meetings and is used to
further empower our staff.
We are not a business that vigorously promotes our successes which is possibly an area that
we can improve in the futures. This BEA submission has been a challenge in self-promotion.
We primarily use social media to communicate our business success. For example, we
recently posted about our 14,000th patient and the reward we presented just for being our
14000th patient. Other ways that we communicate our business success include:
 VIP nights that align our brand with marketing leading brands
 Facebook, website, newspaper & Instagram.
 Detailing any of our staff’s recently acquired qualifications or achievements on email,
letters or website newsfeed.
How you make decisions for the on-going future of your business?
In addition to the obvious analysis of economic viability, all our strategic decisions are made
with consideration our core business values. These include:
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Respect for family and work life balance.
Maintain professional standards of duty of care.
Provide a degree of innovation that will add value to patient practice interactions.
Once alignment with these values is established, each decision is then assessed and
analysed prior to presentation at a staff meeting. Comment from all staff members is
encouraged prior to implementing change. This empowers staff members and encourages
them to take a component of ownership of the decision which encourages acceptance of
change and successful implementation.
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REFERENCES
i
Innovative Contacts - http://www.innovativecontacts.com.au/
ODMA - http://www.odma.com.au/
iii
Holmes Stubbing Accountants - http://www.hsaccountants.com.au/
ii
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