Practical management EP 1: Why having a brand is important

Maria Sampalis, OD, owner of Sampalis Eye Care in Cranston and Providence, Rhode Island, sat down with Optometry Times®' editor Kassi Jackson to talk all-things practice management.

Editor's note: This transcript has been edited for clarity

Jackson:

Hi, everyone. I'm Kassi Jackson with Optometry Times, and I'm here once again with Dr. Maria Sampalis, owner of Sampalis Eye Care in Cranston and Providence, Rhode Island, thank you for being here, Dr. Sampalis.

Sampalis:

Thank you for having me.

Jackson:

So today we're gonna dive into the topic of practice management. There's a lot that we can chat about, so to kick off today's conversation, let's start with building a digital brand. Dr. Sampalis, can you tell us about why having a brand is important?

Sampalis:

Yeah, a brand is important... so when you're not there, it's what other people speak about you. So you want to be able to have a brand out there that people recognize you, and for a doctor's office, it's super important in your community.

When someone's thinking about glasses, eye exams, medical model, whatever the thing is we want them to think of you. So if you have a specialty practice and you're doing myopia management or dry eye, the first person that comes to mind is your practice.

That's why building a brand is super important, because that's the first thing that patient might consider when joining your office because you're the expert in that industry and you build that brand around that.