INSIGHTS · EXAMS, SALES & AUR
Your Exams, Sales and AUR Are All Down. The Market Isn’t the Whole Story.
What I learned turning all three around
Houston. A Pearle Vision practice, owned by an optometrist, with a seasoned staff. Exams were down. Revenue was down. Average sale was down. All three at once.
The easy answer would have been the doctor. It wasn't the doctor. Same coverage, same OD hours, same patients in the community. When I spent time in the practice, I found something quieter. A capable, experienced team had stopped holding itself accountable. And the best people on the schedule were working the slowest hours of the week.
I sat down with the owner, shared what I had seen, and we built a plan together. Within 60 days of my visit, all three numbers had turned.
The part I remember most was the owner’s reaction. The doctor told me:
I can’t believe my results. If I had known sooner how to change them, I would have started the coaching and training earlier.Pearle Vision franchise optometrist, Houston
Patrick GibsonMore than 20 years with Luxottica, LensCrafters and Pearle Vision, working alongside independent optometrists and practice owners across the country.
If your practice is in that spot right now, three numbers sliding at the same time, I want you to hear this first. You are not the only one, and it is fixable. Most owners carry it alone, usually late at night with a report open. It doesn't have to stay that way.
What the national numbers are really saying
The industry headlines look healthy. Look underneath and the picture changes.
Frame units dropped about 3% in 2025 while frame dollars rose about 8%.[2] The Vision Council's own research team put it plainly: the growth is coming from higher prices, not from more patients coming through the door.[3] Owners in its provider survey also reported declines in new patients and patient retention.[3]
Now read that one more time, because this is the part that matters to you.
Across the country, the average sale is going up. Prices are rising and patients are trading up when they see a clear benefit.[2] So if your exams are down and your AUR is down too, the market is not the whole explanation. Rising prices are lifting everyone else's average ticket. If yours is falling anyway, something inside the practice is giving it away.
That is not bad news. It is the best news in this article. What is happening inside your practice is the part you control.
It is one problem, not three
Owners tend to treat these as three separate worries. In my experience they are one. Exams feed the optical. Capture rate decides how many of those patients buy. AUR decides what each sale is worth. Optical revenue is simply those three multiplied together.
That is why a small slip in each one hurts more than it looks.
| Example | Exams / mo | Capture | AUR | Eyewear / mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last year | 400 | 55% | $250 | $55,000 |
| This year: small slips | 380 | 52% | $240 | $47,424 |
| The turn | 400 | 58% | $265 | $61,480 |
Illustrative numbers, not a client. The slips cost $7,576 a month, about $91,000 a year, almost 14% of the optical. The turn puts the practice about $78,000 a year above where it started, with the same doctors and the same rent.
Put another way, every day the example practice waits costs it about $250. The same math that hurts you on the way down works for you on the way back up.
Philadelphia, 2011: same units, different result
A Pearle Vision franchise owner in Philadelphia had three locations, and average sale was falling at all three. The owner was frustrated, and honestly a little worn down by it.
I listened first. It became clear quickly that traffic wasn't the issue and the team wasn't the issue. AUR was. So I built the owner a simple picture: every unit the practices had already sold, valued at the franchise's average sale instead of their own.
The owner could see it in one look. Same patients. Same units. A very different revenue line. Once the owner and the team could see the gap in their own numbers, behavior changed. Within 30 days, revenue was climbing. Within 45 days, average sale was up $19 at all three locations, from recommending products based on what each patient actually needed.
Dallas, 2016: the exams that never got booked
In Dallas, a practice watched exams fall year to date with the same doctor in the chair. Nothing about the clinical side had changed. The front of the practice had.
Staff turnover had brought in new people who weren't sure which insurance the practice took, and some patients were being turned away or not encouraged to book. Phone technique was weak, so calls that should have become exams simply didn't.
We fully retrained the team and brought in some new talent. Every patient was welcomed for an exam, whether paying privately or using insurance. The team got a clear list of the top ten plans the practice accepts, and I created a simple scorecard so they could see their own results. Within 60 days, exams were up 30% over the prior month.
Where I look first
Every practice is different, and the fix is never the same twice. But when an owner calls me about these three numbers, these are the places I look before anything else.
Exams down
- The phone and the front desk. How calls are answered, and whether every patient feels welcome to book.
- Your own patient base. Who is past due, and when did anyone last reach them?
- Turnover. New people who don't yet know your plans or your standards.
Sales down
- The walk to the optical. Patients don't see two departments. They see one practice.
- Vision plan patients who walk. EyeMed and VSP patients often leave without buying.
- Your busiest hours. Your strongest people belong where the patients are.
AUR down
- What the conversation leads with. Lenses are the largest dollar category in prescription eyewear.[1]
- Whether the team can see the number. You can't grow what nobody sees.
- The second pair. Sunglasses grew in both units and dollars in 2025.[2]
None of these require new equipment or a bigger marketing budget. They require someone to look closely, and a team that knows someone is watching the results.
Why this matters now
The last weeks of the year are some of the biggest in optical. Patients rush to use their benefits before they expire, books fill, and sales peak. It is also exactly when a stretched team lets patients walk and sells the base option to everyone. The practice that tightens up in November has a much better December, and a much stronger January.
Where I come in
You trained to care for patients. You did not sign up to carry the schedule, the staffing, the optical and the numbers by yourself. I founded LuxeVista Advisory Group to sit beside owners like you, listen first, find where patients and revenue are slipping away, and build a path forward that you and your team own. I work remotely by audio or video, or on site in your practice.
In Houston, Philadelphia and Dallas, nothing about the patients changed. The practices did. If one of these three numbers is keeping you up at night, or you're not sure what they are, that is worth a conversation. You care for your patients. Let me help support your practice.
Through Patrick's guidance, I was able to turn around an underperforming segment of the business. I still consider Patrick a mentor and trusted advisor.Alex Macbeth, SVP of Operations, multi-site eye care · LinkedIn recommendation, 2017
FREE · THREE-NUMBER REVIEW
Send me three numbers. I’ll show you where the revenue is going.
Email me last month’s numbers for your practice:
- Comprehensive exams
- Capture rate (or eyewear sales)
- Average sale
Within 48 hours I’ll email you back where your practice is losing revenue and what it’s worth each month. Free, no obligation, and your numbers stay private.
Email my three numbers Rough numbers are fine. Include your practice name and the best phone number to reach you.Which number moved first in your practice: exams, sales or AUR?
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- The Vision Council, Market inSights 2025 with 2026 Forecast (Jan. 27, 2026), as reported by Optometric Management. optometricmanagement.com
- Alysse Henkel, The Vision Council, "When Growth Comes From Trading Up, Not Showing Up," Eyecare Business, 2026. eyecarebusiness.com
- The Vision Council, Market inSights and Provider inSights Q1–Q2 2026, as reported by OptikNow (Sept. 10, 2026). optiknow.ca
Practice stories are from my operating roles with Luxottica and Pearle Vision, not LuxeVista Advisory Group client engagements. Guidance and advising only; results depend on each practice's execution.