I heard this story about the optician’s profession, which has much to tell us about accountancy and all business services. Before I start, though, I’m not having a go at opticians; my optician is fantastic and could have been the brilliant optician in the story – if you need a great optician, you should see Michelle at Park Vision.
So here’s the story. A consultant was surveying the optician’s profession. They went to around 150 opticians and asked for a sight test.
They were interested in whether the opticians were any good at offering additional services – not necessarily to make more money but to offer a better service.
It was all the same for the first 100 or so visits; they were offered the basic sight test – the simple ABCD test.
At around the 100th visit, the optician offered a sight test, which was a more detailed test that checked general eye health – the price of this was double the basic price.
During the test, the optician noticed that the patient had the start of a detached retina. An ambulance was called, and they were taken to hospital for emergency surgery.
We call this up-serving rather than upselling.
There are a few important points here.
- Nearly 100 professionals examined the patient and didn’t spot the issue because they were reluctant to up-serve because they felt they were selling and uncomfortable with it.
- In reality, they did their patient a dis-service
- The patient would agree that the extra they paid for the enhanced test was very valuable.
Our enhanced service level for our clients includes more regular contact to help them achieve their potential. Although we believe it is a valuable service, we have been guilty of not promoting it to clients because it feels too ‘sales.’ We now understand that our professional duty is to offer these services to all clients.
If you would like a free initial meeting to look at the critical seven numbers for your business and explore how the five levers of success could transform your business – something worth £795, please book here.
