Nobody wakes up wanting an eye test. The search happens when the glasses snap, the small print on the back of a packet gives up, a letter comes home from school, or the learner permit form asks for an eyesight report. By then the person wants three things quickly: the next Saturday slot they can book without ringing, what the test costs and whether PRSI or a medical card covers it, and what the frames look like and cost. Websites for opticians in Dublin have to answer all three on a phone screen, in the order they are asked.
Booking is the front door
An optometrist in the test room cannot take a call, and the person at the desk is often fitting frames. So the phone rings out and the caller tries the practice up the road. A Book button that shows real availability, lets someone choose an eye test, a contact lens check or a children’s test, and sends a reminder the day before removes most of that. It also fills the Tuesday afternoon slots that used to go quiet, because people book at 10pm from the couch.
If you already run a practice system with its own diary, we connect to it or set up a request form that lands in your inbox for the receptionist to confirm. The options are laid out in how online bookings work.
Prices, PRSI and the question everyone asks
Put the cost of an eye test on the page, and say plainly who can have it covered: PRSI Treatment Benefit for people who qualify, and the medical card scheme. People do not know their own entitlement, so a line saying “we check this for you, bring your PPS number” turns a worry into a booking.
Then the frames. The brands you stock, a “from” price for single vision and for varifocals, the lens options you offer, and what a contact lens trial involves. Repairs and adjustments while you wait deserve their own line, because a nose pad and a screw bring people in who come back for the next pair.
Photograph the frame wall in daylight, the test room with the chart and the equipment, the front of the shop and the people who work there. Stock photos of a model in glasses convince nobody. Your own window display does.
Contact lens wearers come back every month
A contact lens wearer is a repeat customer who reorders on a Sunday night when the last pair is in. A reorder form on the site that takes their name, the lens and the quantity, and sends it to the practice, keeps that business with you rather than with a website abroad. You confirm the order, and the dispensing decision stays yours.
The optician’s year
September brings school letters and students needing a pair before college. January brings the people who promised themselves they would get it checked. May and June bring prescription sunglasses. December is gift vouchers. Each of those is a line on the edit page, written by you in a minute, and a post on the Google listing if you are on Complete.
Reviews in a health setting
Reviews decide between two practices with the same brands and similar prices. After a visit, Complete sends a text or email with a direct link to your Google review box, and we draft replies for you to approve. Replies in a health setting need care: never confirm what someone was seen for, never mention a prescription, thank them and stop. There is more in how to reply to bad Google reviews, which covers the GDPR side for clinics.
What we need to build it
Your list of services with prices or “from” prices, the brands you stock, the names of the optometrists and dispensing opticians with their CORU registration if you want it shown, your hours, a dozen photos, and the name of any practice system you use for the diary. Ten minutes at the practice, or a video call if you are outside Dublin, covers the rest.
Plan and price
Opticians are a booking business with a shop attached, so we recommend Complete at €1,499 to set up and €100 a month: bookings with reminders, review requests, gift vouchers and the chat box that answers “do you do contact lens fittings” while you are in the test room. Essentials at €499 and €50 a month is enough for a practice happy to take bookings by phone that mainly wants to be found. Both are set out on the pricing page, and a dental practice faces much the same choices, which we cover on websites for dentists.