The Optical Vision Site

87 New Patients With $50 Coupon From Groupon

In May,  we did a post on Groupon, the new trend of consumer purchasing. We are always curious as to if eyecare is using Groupon and how and what they are offering. Below is an example of an eyecare office in Texas, who used Groupon to what I would consider some amazing results. 87 people bought a $50 discount certificate. ($4350) That certificate has to be used by October 20, 2010 giving the purchaser 6 months to use or gives the eyecare professional 14.5 potentially new patients a month. Not a bad gig.

Managing Progressive Lens Choices

Last week we did a post about Progressive Lens Comparisons and lens plots. We are continuing this theme as our optical blog readers have asked for more non-biased posts about lens technology and performance in layman’s terms.

I am not claiming to be an expert on the subject but I did work for a lens company for many years so  have  some knowledge and understanding about how confusing all the data can be. I have scoured many progressive lens articles and CE courses and have been reading as much as I can about this subject and will continue to make recommendations for good resources on the topic of lenses technology and education resources.

The late Michael DiSanto who was a master optician, an independent industry trainer, past president of the Opticians Association of Ohio sadly passed away last year of Cancer but his educational materials live on and provide a wonderful resource. One of his recommendations on managing progressive lens choices was to “start a toolbox/streamline design choices. It is not possible to pick one design and use if for everyone regardless of need but to work with the best products the industry has to offer within a manageable group of lenses. These lenses do not all have to be from one lens supplier unless you want them to be”

The specialization of today’s progressive lenses provides you with the opportunity to offer your patients many choices to meet their individual needs which can be overwhelming for them. The toolbox idea is goes like this – a good toolbox won’t have over 300 different types of screwdrivers, but it will have a selection of specialized choices to get the job done. But how do you use this analogy to  select the lenses in your toolbox?

Your tool box can’t hold all the options but it should have all the basics, if you need a “specific tool” not in the tool box, you order it! Here is a “Tool Box” Example from some the lenses and materials we know best:

Progressive Lens and Materials Tool Box

Michael’s recommendation on how to create a progressive lens tool box was basically this:

• Define up to three general-purpose lenses used. These are the standard progressives that form the basis of the progressives prescribed and are the foundation of the pricing charged
• Choosing a progressive is a functions of brand – yours not the manufacturer’s e.g. does the brand of lens support who you are as a brand – can you get the add-on treatments and materials that are needed in that design for the variety of patient in the practice
• Choose a manufacturer that supports and trains staff to help make the practice more successful
• Lab costs, pricing, service  that fit with your needs
• Create a  3x 3table with  Good, Better, Best columns with General Purpose, Short Corridor and Computer as the rows (see above)
• In the “good” column add two or three general purpose choice designs that you dispense.
• In the better column add in their improved or evolved designs, thin and light materials and treatments like Sunsensors, Transitions, Trivex, Polarized etc.
• In the best column go one step further than the better column e.g. super high-index like Hoya’s 1.70 material
• Choose a least two designs for each box but no more than four

Round Sunglasses are IN

According to Style.com’s weekly “Shop the Look’ , (a site that we follow for the fashion trends), round metal sunglasses are in fashion again. The New York Times reported on the same trend and a feature article titled “Why Round Sunglasses? A Style Investigation”.

Lulu Guinness Patience L485

Below are a few quotes from that article and plus a couple of round sunglass styles from Tura and OGI Frames for optical retailers who are ready for eyewear customers who want to shop this look.

“This is what fashion is,” said Simon Jablon, the English designer behind the Linda Farrow sunglasses label, which was founded by his mother in 1970. “It is a trend. You can just sense it. You have a feeling for where things are going to go.”

Designers are looking at the same things — art exhibitions, fashionable parties, rock stars — so their impulses are often surprisingly in step with one another. But sometimes it’s possible to trace where their ideas are coming from.

Round frames last appeared as a fashion trend about two decades ago. In 1989, when Alain Mikli introduced a thick-rimmed version, Woody Hochswender wrote in The New York Times that “a modified John Lennon look is the newest old thing.”

Seraphin Penn Sun 8519 by OGI

The NY Times sunglass article explains how designers get ideas and these similar ideas develop into a trend which over period of time eventually become the high street style. But this article features eyewear design in particular so click on the link if you would like to read it.

Here is a link back to a previous post about the History of Sunglasses.

Kapperman +White- 3 Day Summer SPECtacular Raises $565 For Optometry Giving Sight

Kapperman and White OD's

The office of Drs. Kapperman and White in Chattanooga, TN hosted a three-day Summer SPECtacular event in their practice July 27-29. The purpose of the event was to offer something new and unusual for patients and staff while also raising funds for Optometry Giving Sight. The practice pledged to donate $5 to Optometry Giving Sight for each frame sold during the promotion.

The office of Drs. Kapperman and White has three doctors on staff: Dr. Mark Kapperman, a Vision Source administrator, Dr. Troy White and Dr. Rob McGarvery. Doctors and staff members worked together to create this trunk show event. Each day was a different theme with the office fully decorated to match the theme. The first day was “EYEland Luau”; the festivities included tropical food and drinks for patients and staff; Maui Jim and Prodesign frames were the focus of the day. The second day was “Camp Wannaseeu”- the staff decorated the office with camping gear, including a tent, and showed patients frames from the iCarley, Moxie Girl and New Balance lines.

Day3- Black Tie

The last day was themed “Eleganza” whereby doctors and staff dressed in black tie and served patients elegant desserts and hordeuvres while viewing the Gucci frame line.

Over the course of the three days the practice saw 94 patients, sold 113 frames and provided 20 free screenings for children. Radio station J103 did a live remote from the office on July 27th and Jim Price with Optometry Giving Sight was there to kick off the event. The practice raised a total of $565 for Optometry Giving Sight.

“The mission of our practice has always been to help others in need. We hope we are able to reach out, in some small way, and help others as we have been so blessed ourselves,” said Dr. Mark Kapperman.

Due to the efforts of the doctors and staff at Drs. Kapperman and White sustainable vision care will be provided to many individuals in developing countries who need it most.

Help transform lives through the gift of vision by making a donation to Optometry Giving Sight®. Just $5 provides an eye exam and glasses for one person in a developing country. Learn more about Optometry Giving Sight® by visiting www.givingsight.org Optometry Giving Sight® guarantees that 85% of all donations go directly to programs

Hoya Sponsors Click Conference At Vision Expo West

If you haven’t already booked your CE’s at Expo, you might consider attending the Hoya sponsored Click Conference. The conference will be held on Thursday October 7 from 8-10 am, prior to the show opening. For those who are interested in learning more about social media, utilizing the web to enhance your practice, hear success stories we hope you will attend this valuable class.

eyeHow To Decorate Eyewear

Handpainted Sunglasses- Photo: www.shopcurious.com

That Madeleine over at Optique of Denver has more energy than most people! She decorates, she hikes, she does laughing yoga in her store, now she has become Eyecare Window Dresser! She went to Michaels and decorated some frames with eyeballs, put up a red wall- placed frames in window ‘Optique of Denver….. Just SEE It! and people are coming into the store.

You too can decorate your eyewear, in fact this could be a great to re-create and rejuvenate old frames that are gathering dust. You might even consider offering customized eyewear for your most discerning patients.

Helpful Hints:

• Plan what you are going to do, you might consider sketching out your design first on paper.

• Make sure your materials are together, paint, glitters, sequins, paintbrush, glue and patterns if you have made your own patterns. Your paints are mixed if using.
• Make sure you have plenty of rags for cleanup and Q-Tips are good for small areas.
• Go to Michaels or other craft shop to find paint. Scribbles has Fabric paint that should work. Available from Amazon Scribbles Dimensional Fabric Paint 1 Ounce 6/Pkg – Crystals

Optique of Denver- Handcrafted Eyewear

Step by Step Instructions:

1. Clean and dry eyewear thoroughly, take out lenses, use gloves so no dirt or oil from your hands touches the surface.
2. Start painting or applying decor items. Make sure you don’t get glue or paint in the eyewire.
3. Let sit for 24 hours.

If you have a lot of old eyewear hanging around, have an eyewear decorating party some evening. Have your patients bring in their old frames and or offer your new frames, maybe if they do their own custom hand painted look, you might just sell your old frame, get new lenses and get new patients and have a little fun! Even if you didn’t want to do that, paint  and decorate that old eyewear and use for merchandising! Why not and it’s an eco-friendly thing to do.

Handpainted Eyewear Resources

• Art 4 The Face
• Custom Painted Sunglasses

Progressive and Free Form Lens Comparisons

A couple of months ago we asked about what our optical industry readers would like to see more of and one of the requests was to see a non biased progressive lens review and another was to see posts about lens technology and performance in layman’s terms.

Progressive Lens Maps don't have to be confusing!

As there are so many different progressive lens brands and designs available it is really impossible to review them all independently. Those lens plots can be extremely confusing and usually only specific to a certain power and add. However, there are independent resources to look for data and figure out progressive and free form lens comparisons as needed.

The Lens Guru is an independent source and lists all available progressive lenses and I particularly like the ability to compare different lens maps, it is really easy to use this site. The Lens Guru is not affiliated with any lens company and the database currently lists over 1900 PAL’s but is designed to be easy to use, so you can find the information you need quickly.

LensGuru Lens Map Comparisons

OptiBoard’s progressive lens discussion forum is a great resource and easy to find information by doing a search on your subject and following the thread. You do not have to be a member to look for information although you do need to register to post.

Totally Optical has really addressed the issue of technical lens information in layman’s via First Vision’s “Handbook of Free-Form 2010″  – the hard copy is mailing with the August issue of VCPN, but you can see the digital edition here NEED TO BETTER UNDERSTAND FREE-FORM LENS TECHNOLOGY? It covers all the basics and many of the free form lens providers.

Nearly all the lens vendors all have very good consumer literature available at no charge and written in layman’s terms. ICoat has several for coatings, Zeiss has downloadable consumer brochures , Shamir’s Vision 101 is very consumer friendly and good info. Not every optical customer wants a lot of technical information but it is good to have it available for the ones that do and your lens vendors are the best source.

Eyecare Websites We Like- Bright Eyes Tampa

RSS Feeds with Patient Comments From All Over The World

One of the people we follow on Twitter is Bright Eyes Family Vision Care in Tampa, Florida. Nathan Bonilla-Warford OD is on it with his website, social media and customer services. He blogs, he Tweets, he Facebooks, he FourSquares, he YouTubes  and is really using the power of the Internet for new customers as well as customer satisfaction.

First his website is actually a blog. The platform he uses is WordPress (Free) which means he can update on a daily basis, keep his readers and followers informed on eye health, news and his marketing i.e. Foursquare.

What we like:

• The site loads very fast
• The Site is not too busy, where there is so much information on the page you can get lost.
• Love the picture of Bright Eyes Office on the home page
• Love the Follow Us on Facebook and Twitter on the home page and really love the Readers on the bottom of the right sidebar.

Top Bar Tabs

Home and About Us- Very simple and fast to read

• In The News- Validates and lets the consumer know these guys are legitimate
• Orthok and Vision Therapy- News and eye health
• Patient Spotlight- more testimonials.
• Reviews- More YELP Testimonials, so important today.

Categories (Right Sidebar with drop down menu)

• Interesting news and not only talk about product, but also about saving money, INFANTSee, patient education, preventative health, social media, sunglasses, contact lenses and tons of helpful information for patients and consumers.

Take a few minutes and run through his website/blog and he might kill me on this one, email him if you have any questions, I am sure he is more than willing to help eyecare professionals come into the world of social media and we think he has done an excellent job at it!