A Warm Welcome to Robinson Opticians

In January OcuPlan welcomed two more optometrists to our nationwide network of eye care professionals.

Every week, new optometrists and ophthalmologists join the OcuPlan network. All aligned in the goal of providing the highest quality of care for patients with long-term eye disease.

In January we welcomed Robinson Opticians in Rubery and Alvaston Opticians in Derby. It's brilliant to have you on board!

We caught up with Emma Robinson from Robinson Opticians to find out a bit more about them...

So, tell us a bit about Robinson Opticians

We are an independent family business situated at the heart of a small village on the Birmingham/Worcestershire border. We have been practicing for 8 years. The practice is headed up and owned by Ian and myself Emma Robinson. Ian is a qualified dispensing optician. Our team consists of three locum Optometrists and one part time Dispensing Optician, we also have a reception staff of two. Our sister practice in Hagley, Robinson & Sproson Opticians, has been successfully running the OcuPlan scheme for some time, therefore it seemed a natural progression to roll out the service here too.

During the 8 years we have steadily grown and seen our patient base grow, not just from the immediate local area but from neighbouring areas such as Clent, Bromsgrove and Redditch. We like to think we offer a bespoke and personal service to our patients and many we have the privilege of knowing very well. Our business has been helped in it's growth mainly by word of mouth, and this is certainly the case with the families who come to us. We do very little advertising.

We feel we are emerging from the pandemic in a strong position. During the first lock down, we took advantage of the fact we are a family run opticians and the practice remained open to patients for emergency care. Ian would man the practice on alternate days with me. We were able to assist many key workers with breakages and emergency repairs who were sadly unable to gain speedy assistance from their normal optician. We were also able to provide specialised advice on the phone and send people to the local eye hospital who needed to attend.

We also have an on-site audiology suite offering a wide range of hearing care services. This is run by a separate company to ourselves called 'Hear in Hagley' and this has proved popular with our existing patients and new ones alike.

How do you think your customers would describe Robinson Opticians?

We like to think our patients would say we are warm, welcoming, professional and approachable. We take pride in a good patient experience from start to finish. Many of our patients comment that they feel unrushed during their test with ample time and consideration for lens choice. Our patients will testify there is no 'hard sell'. We establish our patients needs and discuss price options that are right for them.

What attracted you to OcuPlan and what would you like to get out of our relationship?

To give patients the opportunity to benefit from the collaboration of expert Ophthalmologists partnering with their local Optometrist. This enables the overall standard of care for patients with specific ocular conditions to be carried out in greater detail with a thought through, joined up process. This gives the patient access to a wealth of experience that they would not necessarily achieve through their local optician alone.

It was great to catch up with Emma, we're looking forward to working with Robinson Opticians to offer their patients the highest quality eye care.

If you'd like more information on OcuPlan, and how we can help your practice and patients, please contact us on support@ocuplan.co.uk