According to Ophthalmic Practice Management Consultant John Pinto, patients repeatedly report a desire for three core attributes from their LASIK providers. Deliver these, and you’ll be more likely to succeed, even if the competition gets rough.

• Surgeon experience.
This is ideally expressed in terms of number of refractive surgery cases. For those doctors with abundant eye surgery experience but scant LASIK experience, years in practice and "total eye microsurgery cases" can be an acceptable substitute for less-sophisticated patients.
• Staff skill, polish and experience.
Patients can immediately sense if your staff members are skilled or rookies. The relative sophistication and high demands of this patient base require that you staff accordingly.
• A long-term relationship.
People are starting to understand that some practices have a traditional, longitudinal relationship with their patients, while other eye surgeons are creating extremely high-volume clinics, with little residual attention after the immediate post-op period. Most patients want the former and are willing to pay more to get it.
In addition, ongoing care through annual checkups (provided by the surgeon or an optometrist-extender) provides at least three benefits. It can be a post-surgical annuity for the practice, through the ability to sell sunglasses and spectacles for any needed residual correction. It maintains a relationship with patients in a position to refer friends to the practice. And it catches any (thankfully rare) complications in-house, rather than in your competitor’s office.