June 1, 2007

Is Your Dispensary Suffering From Poster-itis?


Talking about overload I recently paid a visit to three offices that I designed some years ago. The owners were all very happy with the design and the increased growth and profits they were experiencing.

But two out of three dispensaries were suffering from "poster-itis"—too many posters standing all over the place. There were posters on the shelves, posters on the dispensing tables, on top of showcases and even on the floor!

All these posters made the dispensary look cluttered and crowded. Clutter is the enemy in the dispensary and poster-itis is usually the main culprit.

Posters on the floor or on top of showcases or displays are an absolute NO-NO! This does absolutely nothing to help you sell frames. So if you are guilty, lay down the law to everyone who works in the dispensary—no more posters on the floor!

The only place to use posters is on a shelf next to the brand of frames depicted. Here is the rule: You may only use ONE poster per shelf. Spreading multiple posters across the same shelf is another NO-NO!

Now if you don't care about selling more higher priced frames you can ignore this advice. If what you are after is a dispensary that looks like a bargain basement, go wild with the posters. Jam them in and don't leave an empty spot anywhere. It will look cheap and communicate to patients that they should expect bargain basement prices.

There is only one cure for poster-itis: Take them ALL out! Then pick out only ONE per brand name and put it back in next to that brand of frames.

The dispensary will probably look bare to your eyes when you get all those posters out of there, but believe me, the patients won't think so. Less posters means less distraction for the patients. They will be able to focus better on the frame styles and colors without a jumble of posters vying for their attention.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I like your blog. The poster-itis entry made me laugh. Our policy is ZERO posters allowed anywhere.

There are a few pics of our office at
www.blinkpdx.com

Clean and modern is the way to go.

Keep up the good blogging.

Mark J. Fast, OD