The Turning Point - From Agency to Platform

Published on September 9, 2020
Kane Harrison⎮Founder & Chief Vision Officer

There was a key turning point for our story at Vision Care Connect. It was when I recognized that we needed to become completely patient-centric and build systems around supporting patients as they move towards physicians and it happened at 38,000 feet. 

Vision Care Connect was initially very focused on ophthalmologists and the administrative operations that supported the ophthalmologists. We had to dig in to learn everything we could about the patient journey and the products and procedures that would be available. As a ‘fly on the wall’ in practices across the country, I would listen intently to the patient-physician interactions. You may not know this, but in the elective out-of-pocket world of surgery, selling is critical. You have to sell the product or service, but the key to success for physicians is selling themselves. This is largely done with an often carefully choreographed bedside manner, and for some, a series of anecdotes designed to lower the barrier to entry while increasing the physician’s likability through genuine interaction. 

One of the many anecdotes that I would hear ophthalmologists repeat often, was when they would draw a comparison between experience and safety. I would first hear, “What do they call the person who finishes last in their class at medical school?”… Nervously, you would hear the patient say, “um… a doctor.” “That’s right!” the ophthalmologists would cheer in an effort to remove the gravity of eye surgery out of the room. Then I would hear, "Now, let me explain this a different way, would you rather get on a plane with someone who had only just come out of flight school? Or would you rather be on a plane with someone who had flown 10,000 hours?”. 

The ophthalmologists used this type of conversational positioning to often justify top tier pricing (in an increasingly commoditized market) and to highlight their experience. After all, would you rather have your eye surgery done by a kid who finished at the bottom of the class and is one year in practice out of school or a seasoned veteran that was magna cum laude, a surgeon that has done and seen it all? Most of us would opt for the latter, even if we had to dig into our pockets a little deeper. 

Fast forward to early 2019, getting ready to fly out to California to meet with a large vision group about Vision Care Connect. And I suggested to my wife, who was pregnant at the time, that we should make this family trip and take Rowan, our daughter who was 3, to the San Diego Zoo. It had been a really hectic time for us, so the idea of getting away as a family was welcomed. We would fly into San Diego and I could do a quick day trip up to Los Angeles for business and get back for the Zoo. 

I really like flying with Southwest, they just make it easy and when you have kids, that goes a long way. We were about 2 hours into our 4-hour flight, I had our daughter sitting on my lap looking out the window and my pregnant wife beside me. It was about that time into the flight where everyone has settled into a movie or dozed off and there is just the ambient noise of the jet engines sucking in the cold thin air. I have always had my deepest thoughts in those moments, the consistency of noise somehow helps my brain to organize information in a unique way. 

Rowan was glued to the window like most 3-year-olds, watching the landscape change below. As I looked down at her, it suddenly struck me that my entire world, the people that I love the most, were right here, and… guess what? I didn't know who was flying the plane. Had the pilots just arrived from a flight school or had they been seasoned in an overseas military encounter and returned as heroes to fly for Southwest? I was suddenly hoping for the latter. 

This was a huge ‘aha’ moment and it changed Vision Care Connect’s positioning and trajectory. I realized that Southwest had built a very specific experience for its passengers and through that consistency of experience, Southwest had built brand trust. They had done this so well that I was willing to trust their brand with the people that were most important to me, and… I didn't even know who the pilots were. Arguably, the most important individuals on our journey to San Diego. 

Now, just think about that for a moment. Most of us wouldn't even get into a car with someone they didn’t know, let alone trust your loved ones with them (obviously, Uber has changed that a little bit) but we have that experience every day with a 300-ton metal object, that is 38,000 feet in the air, moving at 550MPH… oh, and let’s add the fuel load to that equation.  

It was at that moment, that I knew we had it wrong. I had been so focused on the ophthalmologist’s needs (when all they really need is a pair of eyes on a human that trusts them) and not the patient’s needs, which are wide and varying. That is when I realized that the opportunity for Vision Care Connect was to create a consumer-centric brand, a patient-centric brand, where a patient could entrust our brand as the gateway to their procedure. We could create a brand that was so trusted, that the physician isn't necessarily the immediate focus. We could build trust along the patient's journey and set expectations so the patient didn’t think to question the ophthalmologist’s qualifications and level of experience.  

Traditionally, ophthalmology marketing has been focused on a procedure or a physician. It’s why the physician bedside manner has been so important, and little anecdotes help to build rapport with their patients, all the while ‘proving’ value and experience, often to justify cost, even if they shouldn’t have to. It can be a jarring experience for the patient if it’s not executed effectively. The patients are learning about the procedure, meeting an eye surgeon, and being sold all at once. At Vision Care Connect, we recognized that there is a growing need to speak to the patient while they are in the decision process, this is often when they need the greatest support. There was a need to be transparent, and to be consistent. We realized it was time to nurture the patient experience from the first touchpoint, not just when they walk in for their appointment. 

“We are committed to setting the standard in the vision care experience, we are committed to vision health.”

Since that moment, we have been deliberately building and nurturing our culture at Vision Care Connect. Our culture is our foundation. We are committed to setting the standard in the vision care experience, we are committed to vision health and that is what is reflected in our brand. We are creating a patient experience via our Care Connect platform that in some ways is no different from buying an airline ticket. You see and feel consistency at every turn, you visually recognize and trust the colors, you feel and trust the experience, all while having a great time. Just like traveling to a destination, the experience should start the moment you take the first step in your journey. We know the first steps in a ‘vision’ journey can be the hardest, which is why we are here to share that step with the patients.