VM Staff Report

NEW YORK--A new blueprint is being drawn for today's eyewear customers.

The "deluxe spectacle" is taking its place among the array of product options on offer in optical dispensaries across the country.

"Deluxe" is a reworking of traditional notions of premium frame, lens and lens treatments, a way for independent ECPs in particular to set themselves apart from the competition and deliver the best of modern eyeglass prescription technology to their patients.

Faced with a host of challenges in a market that's become confusing and overloaded with product choices, many of today's forward-thinking ECPs are taking steps to arm themselves with a cadre of ever-improving technologies in lens and frame designs.

There are many new ways for them to take charge of the eyeglass dispensing interaction with patients, counter the margin-numbing aspect of managed care, and service an increasingly curious and demanding customer base.

Both style and optics are part of the new "deluxe" equation.

VM spoke to independents of all stripes around the country to find out what they are doing today to capture the excitement of new products and convey the features and benefits of those to patients who are ready to listen and learn.

Increasingly, the message combines frame and lens information to address a patient's individual Rx, spell out choices in PAL and single-vision designs and materials and recommendations for frames that provide the latest in frame construction, materials and fashion.

For this special report, VM also sought out some examples of just a few of the thousands of "deluxe" ophthalmic eyeglass options that can be pulled together to address this new blueprint. Representative of new lens designs, high-index materials, coatings and frame features that are available now or will be shortly, can be seen by clicking here to provide ideas to dispensers as they engage patients in the eyewear selection process. Manufacturers and wholesale laboratories can be a rich source of information in helping to guide ECPs and their dispensing teams about the new "deluxe" blueprint and they, too, participated in this selection and the creating of several of the illustrated spectacles.

We asked ECPs: If a patient says, "Give me the best eyewear possible," what do they recommend and how do they recommend it? We also asked them how they convince a patient to upgrade from an average frame/lens and lens coating to deluxe eyeglasses. Here's what they told VM...


Presenting the Best First
Sam Morgenstern
Princeton Eye Center
Princeton, NJ (two locations)

"If a patient wants the best, I offer them the newest and lightest-weight titanium frames. Typically they are rimless at the higher end. If they want the newest fashionwise, I'll point them to higher lines and tell them that they're new because of styling or material of the frame, show them how it's made and the little details. I would always show rimless because everyone seems to like it. Most of the rimless are titanium. Lenswise, I'd talk to them about the 1.67 or polycarb in a named progressive like Varilux Panamic or Varilux Liberty. We always try new lens materials because being an ophthalmology practice we have to be on the cutting edge. I try to be as up to date and close to the cutting edge as possible lenswise and that includes the coatings. Most patients take the Alize coat. If you combine that with the high-end materials and the newer frames, that's a good pair of glasses."

Morgenstern added, "I don't give them that option [of requesting the best frame/lens]; I offer it immediately. I will say it's the newest and best I've found. On the coatings for example, there's still resistance with AR with old prejudices because of smudging and cleaning. So I explain the new AR coatings."

Morgenstern noted, "We do everything [all lab work] that's not VSP. We use the Santinelli Less Stress drill. We've had great success with that. The drill paid for itself in a three-to four-week period. I was saving $40 a job because the lab charges for edging, drilling and polishing. With the drill we can offer better service to patient. I can get a drill rimless with AR out within three to four days."

"A lot of people complain about VSP and other plans, but because of it I'm able to offer the newest and more expensive stuff because it costs the patient less. They're not shocked by a $900 pair of glasses because it'll only cost $400. It's easer to sell higher prices there. We only take VSP. Princeton University has VSP so we get a ton of university people. They're educated they want the best and newest. Their plan gives them a lot that others don't. I don't have to charge for photochromic or polycarb. And they get a big allowance on frames so a $350 frame costs about $180. In our Somerset location, they're more close to the vest and may not take all those extras."

Of Princeton's multifocal jobs, 80 percent are progressives. Out of all jobs, 50 percent are AR. Those averages are higher than most people's percentages.

"After they get the first pair and they're happy with it, then they trust me and we can talk about where we can go from there [second pairs]. It makes it an easy sale in sunwear. Ninety to 95 of my Rx sun is polarized," Morgenstern said. We sell a lot of ready made readers because we have a large Lasik business here. The biggest second pair is the variable reading glasses (computer glasses). I'll put reading lenses in the old frame. It's an untapped area now." 


Teaching Conservative Customers About Premium
Tom Hicks
Oxford Opticians
Oxford, Ohio (one location)

Hicks said Oxford, Ohio is a college town that's quite conservative. "Customers are about two to three years behind the current trends I see at Vision Expo. Small plastic frames and small rimless frames are still very hot. I'm also doing a lot with short-corridor PALs, and the best premium category for me has been AR," he said.

High-index is a fast-growing premium lens category for him, about 40 percent, up from previous years. Photochromic is 10 to 15 percent, which is also going up. Eighty-five percent of his presbyopic patients are in PALs, which is also "going up each year."

Hicks said he starts out by discussing premium offerings and then works down if the patient balks at price. About 40 percent of patients buy premium. "A lot of professors, who don't make a lot of money, look for inexpensive stuff, so we teach them about premium."

He upsells them, he said, by using a combination of talking to patients and demos to help persuade them to choose premium eyewear products.

Hicks has his own finishing lab, which is more for convenience and control over the product than cost. He has handled all lab work for 21 years, and only sends out drill mounts. "It takes about six days for three-piece mounts with AR to come back," he said, adding that he uses an Essilor patternless edger and groover.

Hicks said 15 to 18 percent of patients wind up with AR lenses, which is up from two years ago, when it was 2 percent. "In a small town, a lot of [this success or failure] comes from word of mouth. I've been careful about which AR I use." He started using Crizal two years ago, and Zeiss about 12 years ago. He uses Crizal as stock lenses, and will cut and edge the Zeiss hardcoated AR lenses.

"AR started to pick up two years ago.  The biggest problem is to explain that there are different types and qualities of AR lenses," he said.

Hicks put in a Luxottica sun center, but also carries Oakley and Smith, and carries a total of 250 plano sunglasses. "Our polarized business is up significantly, by 35 percent. Plano helps us sell Rx sunwear."


Second Pairs and Premium
Phil Smith, OD
San Diego, Calif.

"We always start out with premium products first, to give our patients the best. We can come down if we need to. AR is always recommended, for computer users and everyday wear patients. In a  work environment, fluorescent fixtures make AR coatings a requirement," said Smith, adding he is a believer in computer vision glasses as a premium product, second-pair sale. He only uses PRIO lenses for computer vision patients and has been dispensing PRIO as long as they have been out. "I usually tell them that no one pair of glasses will work for them. They need a dress pair and a work pair. We have patients measure their computer distance. We send older patients a questionnaire about computer vision when we send a 'welcome to the practice' kit." The majority of CVS patients are PAL wearers. "Most patients find that regular PALS are not as effective for their computer-vision needs."

"Almost everyone gets high-index if they're above 3 diopters. Polycarbonate is just another high-index material."  Smith uses high-index lenses of 1.71 and 1.74 material. "Approximately 45 percent of our patients are getting high index lenses. Polycarbonate itself is about 15 percent of our business." About 75 percent of patients in Smith's office choose AR coatings. "This is higher than the previous year--the coatings are better now than they were a year or two ago. Most are guaranteed for the life of the product.

"We also do more with polarized lenses than photochromic. When possible we move people to a true sunlens rather than photochromics. In San Diego, a true sunlens is better. Clips are big out here also."

Smith has an in-house lab and a lot of tinting and edging is done in it. "If we need specialty edging or special work done, we send it out. The lab also creates the three-piece mounts. Silhouettes are done at the manufacturers' lab." 


Taking Control of Lab Work
Drew Anastasio
Southern Maine Optical
Portland, Maine, one location serving Maine andNew Hampshire

Southern Maine Optical, said Drew Anastasio, works with Crizal and Carat for AR, and has a "significant" Transitions business, along with some SunSensors and Kodak photochromics.

"We recommend a lot of aspheric 1.67, running about 18- to 20 percent high-index, which is up from previous years.  We also see that polycarbonate use up to about 20 percent polycarbonate."

Small B frames and any three-piece mounts need a lot of hand work. Southern Maine's  lab uses the semi-automated Smart Drill, which can drill a lens that's already blocked, and operators can input the drill-hole coordinates, "for consistency." The lab's rimless work accounts for 10 percent of its jobs, which is flat with the last few years.

"Polycarbonate polishes the best. Some are harder; we polish on request."

Anastasio said, "We like the 1.67 for rimless also, particularly Seiko 1.67. We pretty much drill any nonglass materials. We drill CR-39 [monomer from PPG]. We try to stick with poly, Trivex and 1.67."

Grooving is done with automated edgers--the Horizon 60 and the Gerber Kappa, which have been used by Southern Maine Optical for about three years.

AR work is sent out, although Anastasio said they are considering taking AR work in house in the future.


Up-Selling the Customer
Charles Kozlowski
Union Eye Care Centers
Valley View, Ohio (eight locations)

Kozlowski said, "we do a lot with managed care, and that makes things difficult. Some people only want what's covered on their plan, so it is sometimes difficult to present them premium products. As licensed opticians, we feel it's a duty to show them what's available in premium."

"Usually we present their benefit as a 'discount' from the final bill. That usually works pretty well. We tell them they have a great vision benefit and give them full credit for that and deduct it from the total."

Managed care patients make up about 40 percent of the eight-location chain's clients.

In terms of upselling people: "A lot of the products speak for themselves, especially improvements in AR coatings. Three-piece mounts and PALs are tremendous. Seventy percent of our presbyopes are in PALs. We present the premium PALs first. We also have a middle line PAL that we think is better than the lower-line progressive. The newer technology, the more expensive the lens. The lower tier PAL is pretty good, too. We're also doing a lot of short-corridor work."

"We position short-corridor as a premium lens, in the upper tier. It's a specialty lens, which the pricing reflects," he said.

"We keep up with the latest technology. As a company, we have to look at the prices for identical new technology coming from multiple companies. We evaluate the products personally [by wearing them]." Union Eye Care Centers also use the recommendations of its opticians and optometrists.

Union has its own central lab and most of the work is done there. AR, which accounts for about 20 percent and growing, is sent to an outside lab.

"We do some tinting and edge coatings in the individual stores. Lens edge tinting is a great add-on, especially for three-piece mountings, which currently account for 15 to 20 percent of Union's sales. "Silhouette is our biggest seller in three-piece mounts."

Union recently got an automated drill, six months ago, which "made a world of difference in terms of speed and quality. We used to hand-drill everything, which we don't do anymore. One automated drill replaced several hand drills."

"With three-piece mounts, you have to have the right tools. If you don't have them, you might as well not sell them. If you have the tools made for proper adjusting, you're OK."

To facilitate the education process, he said, "we have samples of lens edge tinting on the dispensers' desks. Also, we're getting iPort screens in, which will help us more in terms of presenting premium products." iPort, he said, will be launched in three stores initially.

"The only thing we really send out [to an outside labs] would be super-high-index, where we cannot get the lenses and they have to do it for us."

Transitions photochromic lenses account for 10 percent of Union's sales. Sixty-five percent of lenses dispensed are polycarbonate, and they use polycarbonate primarily for three-piece.

"From five years ago, there's been growth in mid-and high-index," Koslowsky, director of retail operations, said.


[Click here to go to the second part of our cover story, showing examples of deluxe ophthalmic eyewear.]