Photo ©iStock.com/JobsonHealthcare; Screen Image Courtesy of VSP Optics Group

By Barry Santini

Welcome to the new world of intense competition for the consumer’s optical dollar. As vision care plans, optical chains, warehouse club opticals and even national department stores—featuring branded “store within a store” concepts like Sunglass Hut and Warby Parker—are all vying for the eyewear shopper’s dollar, it’s time that brick-and-mortar ECPs began to seriously step up their marketing game and learn how to play in the sandbox of today’s eyewear consumer. And while many offices are still comfortable taking a wait and see approach on the impact of these market changes, Apple, Amazon and Android are rapidly rewriting the rules of retailing in the 21st century.

As consumers are beginning to take the really deep dive into the world of shopping for both plano and prescription eyewear through the convenience of their phone or home, ECPs have to deal with the dawn of a new optical reality: Today’s consumer is thinking twice about having to drive any distance, battle whatever weather or killing time waiting their turn to access optical products and services. These three things by themselves are persuading more people to take their chances shopping “blind” for their eyewear needs—that is, without trying products on before purchasing.

The rapid evolution of the smartphone has consumers not only seeking the latest in technology—they expect it. A digital measuring and demonstration device for the dispensary and a digital finishing system for the shop will soon represent the absolute minimum ante needed to attract the digitally-savvy optical consumer. Let’s take a quick look at how they enhance your appeal and raise your profile in an increasingly crowded optical market.

THE DIGITAL DISPENSING TABLET
A jack-of-all-trades, the digital dispensing tablet offers both the optical shopper and the optical owner access to the latest technologies:

Precise and accurate PDs and heights—Tested to an accuracy of less than 0.35 mm, the latest dispensing tablets are extremely fast and easy to use for both patient and staff. This is important to keep in mind, as both operator skill and patient cooperation are essential to achieving measurements accurate to less than 0.50 mm.

The power of position of wear—Sure, it’s easier to use lab or design defaults for vertex distance, pantoscopic tilt and frame wrap angle. But beyond optimizing the lens design to the customer’s choice of frame, the act of taking and explaining these important measurements solidifies both your position as expert and your commitment to using the latest technology. Nothing says “added value” more than taking custom measurements.

The power of apps—Telling clients about differences in lens design or performance is important, but old hat. Being able to show them visually, using the latest apps, how their new progressive or polarized sunglass will improve their comfort and increase their visual utility is, well... priceless. Augmented reality apps, wherein the app superimposes a demo of the tablet’s real life camera feed, are a surefire way to create some “wow.” Photochromics, digital progressives, computer and task-specific lenses, color-enhancing lenses, and sunglasses and blue-stop lens coatings are easier to demonstrate and even easier to sell.

Tablets provide a tangible enhancement to all client contact points. But what about larger, floor-standing dispensing devices, like Zeiss iTerminal and Essilor’s Visioffice? Are they obsolete? Not at all. The imposing footprint of the larger, floor-standing instruments makes an even stronger impression about your commitment to employing the latest technologies.

DIGITAL IN-OFFICE FINISHING SYSTEMS
The latest tracers, blockers and edgers are the culmination of almost 30 years of digital technology applied to the craft of glazing eyewear frames. Fast, easy to use and ultra precise, these advanced machines offer you the ability to enhance and leverage your twin aces—convenience and customization—to even higher levels of personalization. All the accumulated knowledge of the glorious 700-plus-year tradition of spectacle making, wrapped up in a few microchips… amazing. Here’s an overview, highlighting some of the latest benefits that the latest digital finishing technology can offer:

Optimized bevel matching—When eyewear lenses were finished primarily by hand, only the most skilled opticians could correctly bevel lenses of different base curves to frames with non-matching eye wire curves. With digital 3D tracing and finishing, the operator can now specify the lens bevel curve to exactly match the frame’s eye wire curve. This results in prescription lenses that ideally fit the frame in a manner preserving the style’s off-the-shelf shape and fit. Frames require less bench alignment after lens insertion because of unwanted temple splay or inward tilt. Frame-matched beveling enables more tolerance in frame sizing, thereby allowing easier and more confident transfers in the event a frame has to be replaced.

Optimized wrap centration—With all the contemporary discussion about the importance of accurate PDs, most lab technicians remain unaware that conventional blockers and older frame tracers do not take into account or compensate for the need to modify the blocking PD value with eyewear having wrap angle greater than 6 degrees. This is because as frame wrap angles increase, the effective finished job PD decreases. Therefore, a wider PD must be entered when blocking wrap eyewear to compensate for the narrowing effect that moderate to severe wrap angles have on the finished eyewear PD. Today’s sophisticated digital tracers measure both the frame eye wire curve and overall wrap angle, and recalculate a new value optimized to compensate for the effect on the finished PD. One of the lesser-appreciated secrets to success with wrap progressives is accurately performing this compensatory calculation.

High curve beveling—The techniques needed to make rimless glasses used to be what distinguished a good lab tech from an average one. Today, it is the knowledge of how to properly edge steeply-curved, wrap-style lenses into plastic and metal frames that separates the men from the boys. Advanced digital CNC edgers now have dedicated high-curve and step-bevel modes that allow a less-experienced operator to look like a master. In addition to optimizing fit, these wrap beveling modes trim excess thickness from both the nasal and temporal areas of stronger Rx lenses, reducing notepad interference and temple misalignment.

Advanced interfacing with practice management systems—If you employ an advanced PMS, you can interface today’s finishing systems directly to them, allowing individual Rx, PD and height values to auto-populate the fields of the digital tracer blocker. This means that most lenses only have to be cleaned, placed on the blocking table, and at the push of a button, your system will correct PD, height and bevel placement already auto-calculated for optimal placement. An office therefore need not employ an experienced operator to create a pair of quality eyeglasses.

Advanced capabilities—Beyond those listed above, the ability to set jeweled crystals, add magnetic sunglass and powered prescription layers will further distinguish yourself from the competition, as well as add to your bottom line.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE
One of the most unrecognized advantages of using an advanced digital tracer is the ability to upload and attach a precise lens tracing to your electronic lens orders (ELO). The main benefits of this are as follows:

Optimized thickness—Especially for higher plus jobs, a lab can only properly optimize lens thickness when their lab management system precisely knows the lens’ shape, size and circumferential data. An uploaded tracing can be the difference between the delay caused by a lab call-back to say your job won’t cut out, and one received on time and with perfect thickness.

Optimized optics—Even if you’re currently supplying pantoscopic tilt, wrap angle and vertex distance, most sophisticated free-form, position of wear lens designs will not fully optimize the entire lens surface without the actual lens tracing. If you pride yourself on dispensing top-of-the-line optics, then uploading an individual lens tracing is essential in delivering everything you’ve promised and your customer is paying for.

Optimized convenience—In the latest digital finishing systems, a job memory makes prepping lenses for a COF an easy task. But wait, there’s more. You can further save custom shapes, modifications and even a client’s frame information in your equipment’s addressable memory, making it easy to process a telephoned lens change and even a replacement for a lost pair. Puppy and grandchildren damage? No worries. Now I call that convenience with a capital C!

Optical ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’
Like it or not, Amazon has changed the face of local retailing forever. Now a shopping channel unto itself, Amazon’s search, selection, pricing and fulfillment have drop-kicked the convenience bar for the entire consumer purchasing arena, which now includes optical frames, sunglasses, accessories and complete prescriptions. So Mr. Local Optical, the stores down the street no longer represent your only competition. Like it or not, your business has been moved to a new retail location, one that now includes everything available at the end of an Ethernet cable. To appeal to today’s shoppers will require your optical have more than the ability to take orders for glasses. Successful opticals need to have a special, almost undefinable je ne sais quoi quality... one that will distinguish you clearly from the rest of your competition. A complete digital measuring, demonstration and finishing system can be an important ingredient in the recipe creating that quality.

HEADS UP
Eyecare professionals often view the price of equipment upgrades as hard costs that drop to their bottom line rather than helping to keep their business at the top of its game. Particularly with tablet technology, both hardware and software evolve at breakneck speed, and there can be a tendency to wait for that next big upgrade. The problem with this approach is you’ll never end up pulling the trigger, relying on the ruler and pen until putting up the close sign is your only option. Even in tracer and edger technology, a five-year-old machine often suffers in comparison with the capabilities of the latest equipment, which just about every online optical is sure to have. So it is no longer an option to sit back and just look forward to the day your lease payment ends. Today, more than ever, keeping the latest tech in your practice is the only way to ensure you are ready, willing and able to compete in the most intense and cutthroat optical market ever: online. It’s time to decide. It’s time to go digital. ■

 Contributing editor Barry Santini is a New York State-licensed optician from Seaford, N.Y.