There is a plethora of optometrists in my hometown of Jacksonville, FL, but that didn’t deter me from opening a practice here five years ago. As Eye See It, there are enough eyes for everyone, and we quickly set our practice apart with a focus on customer service and community involvement. The practice thrived, landing us awards such as “Best in Jacksonville;” and three years later, we opened a second practice in town.
A Career Choice at An Early Age
I knew from the age of four that I wanted to become a doctor. My granddad had glaucoma, and I remember asking him about the little bottle of eye drops always by his side. He told me, “My sight is in this bottle.” At the time, I didn’t know what that meant, but I did understand that medicine was helping him live a better life. The desire to help people like my granddad drove me to the medical profession and ultimately private practice optometry.
A Vision for the Practice
When I opened the practice, my vision was to help as many people as I could—not just patients, but my staff and the community that surrounds the practice. This is where I live, and I want the place where I live to flourish and be a place where people take care of each other. We invest in our staff through education and career development; give back to the community by volunteering and fundraising; treat our patients and staff like family; and regularly celebrate the important role everyone plays in our success.
A Partnership to Support Our Growth
VSP and Premier Edge have supported our practice since the beginning through the relationships that we’ve built, opening us up to more revenue, and giving us what we need to be more successful. We dispense Unity and Marchon/Altair products almost exclusively because of the technological investment VSP makes in the quality of the lenses, the wide range of fashionable frames that our patients love, and the financial value to the practice and our patients. As a practice, we benefit from regular consultation with our reps to increase revenue, and the staff leverages training offered by Premier Edge Training and Education and Uuniversity to enhance the level of customer service that has set us apart. VSP has always been at the top when it comes to supporting private practices, and that partnership has been instrumental in our growth.
Enough Eyes for Everyone
Reflecting on the past five years, I attribute our practice’s success to the group of people with me: my family, my incredible staff, the patients, and our community. While our practice has achieved many of the business goals we set at the beginning, we acknowledge and celebrate the role we play collectively—as an industry, a community, and a family—to care for people and help them live better lives.
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