Have you ever wondered how locally-owned businesses manage to keep their doors open decade after decade?

Dr. Brenda Smoke of Smoke Vision Care seems to be the right person to talk to.

Smoke Vision Care is celebrating its 25th year of serving the Niles-Buchanan area after Brenda and her husband, Dr. Steve Smoke, opened the business in 1991.

“It is probably our true spirit and compassion that we have for our patients that has contributed to our longevity,” Brenda Smoke said. “We focus on really taking care of the patient when they come into the office. We give them personalized attention.”

From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 22, Smoke Vision Care is hosting a community open house to celebrate the anniversary. Doctors will be available for eye exams but also to visit and celebrate with guests. There will be prizes and raffles along with light refreshments.

“I have learned that treating your staff, the people who help us care for our patients, as well as our patients, with the type of care and respect that we would want if we were to be receiving care form the other end is important,” Smoke said. “It is that mutual respect and caring that is unusual in health care today that keeps our patients wanting to come back to us and referring others to us.”

The business has made many changes over the years, keeping up with new medicine.

“We’re making ongoing changes, bringing in all the new technologies. Every year were making a change,” Smoke said. “We’re always in ongoing study and research, bringing all of that to patients. It is that changing that has kept us at the top of our game as a respected provider of the community for 25 years. We embrace change.”

Great customer service is very important, according to people in the community. The Smokes say finding ways to build that genuine relationship with patients is what Smoke Vision makes it their goal to do.

“We reach out on a personal level to our patients. This is something that enables us to have great service,” Smoke said.

The physicians pride themselves in knowing their patients on a first-name basis, and being part of the community they serve.

“I can go into the local grocery store and see patients and have a personal relationship with them,” Smoke said.

When it comes down to it, the Smokes passion for their profession has driven the business’s success.

“I feel the way that we are as people, the natural spirit that we have, is hopefully that trait that helps us to provide that service,” Smoke said. “When you really do care about people it happens naturally. ‘Do unto other as you would have them do unto to you.’ We try to live out that motto.”

So what is the secret to Smoke Vision’s longevity, then? The Smokes say it is simple.

“We have a lot of passion for providing great care and want every patient that comes into our office to have a great experience,” Smoke said. “If you truly put your patients first everything else just goes right.”