While many people were enjoying their turkey, football and parades on Thanksgiving day, Tiffany Moore, OD, her family and her staff were hustling to set up the new Empire Optometry office in Santa Rosa, California. Through the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the office operated as usual in its previous 2,000-square-foot location.
On Monday morning, the office reopened, about a mile away, in a 5,0000-square-foot building that Dr. Moore had purchased a year earlier.
Dr. Moore is thrilled with not only the space itself but also what it means for the future for the practice. “We had our biggest sale day in eight years of business on the second day that we were open. The place is so beautiful, and even though we carried many of the same frames in the other location, the boutique look makes the experience more special,” she says.
ADDING SLOTS AND SERVICES
With the new space, Dr. Moore has been able to hire a third doctor. With two doctors, each in one lane, in the previous office, it got crowded quickly. The wait time for appointments was more than a month out.
Now, there are three doctors and five exam lanes, so the doctors can work much more efficiently. In mid-December, Dr. Moore added two more staff members so that the third doctor could be supported. “We’re all women, and we’re all mothers,” she says, saying that it’s a fun vibe as well as helping her juggle time with her baby born last March. She enjoys having other ODs in the office at the same time, which allows them to bounce ideas or questions off each other.
The practice did add an in-house lab, and Dr. Moore says that in the future, she will consider adding aesthetics and a dry eye spa. In the smaller office, such an expansion simply wasn’t possible.
EASIER ACCESS
In addition to being larger, the new space is also more accessible. At the previous location, patients had to pay for metered parking. “It was the most common complaint we heard,” she says. It was inconvenient and sometimes resulted in patients being delayed or annoyed when they arrived. The new space has a huge parking lot, and patients are loving the easier access.
But it’s the large, open optical that has people saying wow. Dr. Moore carries independent lines and uses the space to showcase the brands. For example, she has a library wall where the high-end frames are displayed with great lighting so patients can see the details. She carries frames from Matsuda, LaFont, Tom Ford, Gucci and St. Laurent. “People are bringing their prescriptions here because we carry frames that no one else does. Having a larger space is key because before, we just didn’t have the space to accommodate those shoppers with outside prescriptions as well.” The average frame price is around $500, she says.
She accepts VSP and Medicare for medical, but many of her patients are private pay.
WELCOMING FEEL
Dr. Moore says that she considered bringing in a design firm, but she spent time looking at photos (including those on the Women In Optometry design inspirations pages) to help her identify what she wanted. She scoured stores and the web for the wallpapers, colors and furniture to make her space feel welcoming.
She shopped online at Wayfair, Overstock, Amazon and Etsy. Other than that, her local TJMaxx and Home Goods stores were regular haunts. The wallpaper comes from Spoonflower, online.
“I wanted that boutique feel. I wanted people to walk in and feel like they could find nice products here. We went with warm neutrals with dark accents,” she says. “I also chose to mix male and female frames together – so it’s not a wall of women’s frames over here and men’s frames over there,” she says.
Her opticians, familiar with the lines from the previous office, are all great and helping patients and customers find the styles they want. They’re also good at sharing the story behind the eyewear, elevating the experience for patients.
Staff also love the larger break room. “We had a small break room before, but this one is larger and has an espresso machine and recliners,” she says. “Staff are proud to work here, and they appreciate that I’ve invested in the practice that also makes this a great place to work.”
In just the first few weeks that the practice opened, Dr. Moore says that patients can now book appointments for about two weeks out. “We still haven’t fully geared up, but we have opportunities for growth now that we did not have before.”
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