Indie4Indie: Birch Run Eyecare

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Say hello to Birch Run Eyecare, a full service optical practice located in its namesake Birch Run, MI. Birch Run’s mission is to welcome all patients and safeguard the precious gift of eyesight through comprehensive eye care, state-of-the-art technology, and the patient education needed to guide informed care decisions and improve patients’ quality of life.

 

Birch Run Eyecare is an Expert dealer partner of ours, meaning that our relationship has successfully gone beyond a casual partnership! Expert-level partners get to enjoy more rewards as they continue to succeed. 

 

We always love chatting with our partners, and today, we sat down with Dr. Lorraine Byers-Miller and Optical Manager Jessica Thomas of Birch Run Eyecare to hear their thoughts on the practice’s relationship with OGI Eyewear. 

 

Q: What does it mean to you to be part of the independent community, and how are partnerships important in the indie community?

A: Coming from the corporate world in a prior life, the indie community represents true independence, and with that comes more control over what we can offer to our patients not only in their eye care but in how it fits in their day-to-day life. We get to have deeper relationships with our patients, which is so important to us. Partners like OGI Eyewear help us get the word out about our business so we can keep doing what we do. The OGI Eyewear team has helped us with trunk shows, made us invites and window treatments, and our rep, Danielle, is wonderful—she’s always mindful and personalized in her recommendations. It’s easy to tell that OGI Eyewear really cares, both for us and for the indie community. 

 

Q: What makes OGI Eyewear a good partner? Why did you choose us?
A: OGI Eyewear stands apart because they’re so unique. Being located in a more rural area, servicing a wide variety of customers, having a provider like OGI Eyewear means we can provide more exciting options for people to choose from. Our patients can express their personality, their individuality and their own stylish flair with frames that are well-made and high quality. 

 

Q: What do you value most about your partnership with OGI Eyewear? 

A: OGI Eyewear doesn’t just help us directly through product and marketing; they help us discover new things about our own market, too. We had a frame show in October 2022, which is something we’ve started doing more of. When we added some OGI products to our lineup, like the glitzy Seraphin products, we didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary and in fact we weren’t sure our customers would be into them. But those products did really well! It made us take a step back and reconsider what we offer, and helped us elevate our selection and fill a need we didn’t know we had.

 

Q: What’s your favorite OGI Eyewear look?

A: It has to be the Lolligagger, from the OGI collection. They’re gender-neutral, offer multiple fun color options, and they’re fun and trendy and have that signature style OGI is known for. 

 

Q: What three words would you use to describe us? 

A: Colorful, unique and trendy! 

 

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add about partnering with OGI Eyewear?

A: We love the names of the frames from the OGI collection; it makes us smile to have a high-end brand with cool, fun names like Frostbite, Hot Mess, You Betcha and For Pete’s Sake. Seeing that always makes our day. We’re also so thankful to have OGI Eyewear as a partner and as part of our team, and we’re excited to keep working together in this beautiful mutual relationship—we both win when we do that! 

 

Well said! 🎉 We definitely feel the love and we agree completely—we’re looking forward to continuing to learn, grow and succeed together and to taking our relationship to the next level!

 

If you’re an independent practice based in Michigan and you want to partner with OGI Eyewear, reach out to Danielle Stevens—she’s a superstar with a gift for personalized customer service. If you’re outside of those areas, send us an email at info@ogieyewear.com and let’s chat soon!