Kelly Shaffer of Shaffer's Eye Biz in Harrisburg, Pa. is in her dispensary filling out hand-addressed envelopes to men's stores in her area. "It's to introduce myself," she says. "You know, to let them know that I am available to do consultations for these men who are buying expensive suits but for some reason go to Wal-Mart for their eyewear."

Shaffer is performing just one of the many varied tasks that it takes these days to thrive as a high-end dispensary. Third-party has pushed many retailers to look in this direction to maintain margins and profits in their dispensaries.

"We are moving more and more toward high-end," says Valerie Barrett of Tom Barrett Optical in Dallas. "To stay in business you need to decide which side of the fence you are going to be on. The chains are on the fence and dispensers need to be either on the low end or the high end. We figure it's just as hard to sell a $39 pair of glasses as a $539 pair of glasses, so this is where we choose to be."

As more dispensers convert to this philosophy, the premium product field is becoming crowded. Before entering the arena, dispensers need to examine all the facets of this unique niche before investing in a high end assortment.

CREATING ATMOSPHERE

One of the most interesting points shared by high-end veterans is that size doesn't matter when it comes to a high-end dispensary. Most dispensers agree that it is not necessary to have a lot of space to sell high-end frames.

"Space is not important," says Barry Bamberger of Eyes on Broadway in New York. "The most important thing is the knowledge that you have and can impart to the customer. If there's too much space, then it's intimidating."

"Our shop is very small, but we pack a lot of merchandise in here," says Jerry Rand, manager and ABO-certified optician at For Your Eyes Only in San Francisco, which has an 800-square-foot office with a 500-square-foot dispensing area, featuring 15 frame lines. To best utilize the small space, Rand installed Victorian parlor-type shelves instead of frame boards. "We tripled the amount of merchandise we carry," he says. Rand also has about 200 frames on a large piece of antique-looking furniture with wide shelves.

Instead of size, what really matters, according to most, is the d�cor, merchandising, and the attitude presented in the dispensary. Some say a casual atmosphere works best.

At Au Courant optical shops in Michigan, Florida, and New Jersey, comfort is key. "We go for a large, open space," says Nancy di Cosmo, president,"and we use odds and ends like sculptures to decorate. We like for people to feel at home and comfortable. If they feel comfortable, then they feel OK spending money."

One of the best ways to make customers feel comfortable is to create an atmosphere of customer service and individual attention. "I find it extremely important to be here to help, to recommend, to listen, and to give individual attention," says Bamberger. "We make sure we have as much help on the floor as we need, even if it's busy. And we know our merchandise. The attention is critical to the right atmosphere."

One of the ways to assess the appropriate atmosphere is to understand your customer demographics. Know your neighborhood and the type of potential customers you may have. This will help determine not only your atmosphere but also your product mix.

Lois Broadwin of Kimbe Optic in New York explains that her store's product mix and atmosphere changed dramatically when they moved the dispensary from Fifth Avenue to Park Avenue in Manhattan. "We did a lot of plano sun because of the traffic walking by the store. In our location now on Park Avenue, the customers want real eyewear and are not as interested in fashion sunwear. So we incorporate fashion into our mix and atmosphere, but put the focus on serious prescription eyewear."

SUPERIOR STAFFING

Many high-end dispensers stress the importance of the staff's role. "Personnel is the most important thing and the only real asset you ever have," says Barrett. "You must have criteria for staff when you are looking for people and you really need to start with someone who is knowledgeable in the field. If you pay well and give good benefits and bonuses they will stay with you."

Most agree that a high-end optical staff should be well-compensated, but some dispensers employ different bonus structures. At Au Courant, di Cosmo says the staff is paid on an overall store goal on top of their salary. "This way, everybody helps make the sale together," she says.

Many dispensers say their staff members position themselves as "sales consultants" and that this personal attention to the customer's needs translates into increased sales and less resistance to price. "The staff has been trained to know what frames will fit people," says Rand. "As soon as the customer walks in the door, most of them have the right frame picked out immediately in their brain according to the customer's face shape and coloring."

Adequate training is key to a successful sales staff. Some dispensers choose to train the staff themselves, and some use training offered by manufacturers.

THE RIGHT PRODUCT

Obtaining exclusives on product lines, creating the right mix, beating price resistance to high-end merchandise, coordinating premium products with value-priced managed care product, and ensuring quality of work in the end product are all important parts of creating a strong high-end product story from beginning to end.

The first step is finding the right products for the dispensary. This takes a lot of research at trade shows and with vendors' representatives. Some choose to buy deep into a few key lines and invest in the image and positioning of a few brands in the store. "If I find a product that I love, then we go deep into that line," says Shaffer, who carries 15 lines in the price range of $85 to $325.

Others pick and choose from a variety of vendors to get the best from each one. "With a few companies, we choose to carry most of the line," says Barrett. "But with most lines, we like to pick the best products from different vendors. We try to pre-select based on our customers' tastes."

Most high-end dispensers say exclusives are important to have, especially in an area that has a lot of optical retail competition. However, exclusives are difficult to come by, and are even more difficult to keep once you have them. "We rely on the reputation of our store to get exclusives," says Rand. "They are nice to have, but they are usually short-lived. Today's exclusive is tomorrow's sharing of the wealth."

To try to work out an exclusive selling arrangement with a high-end frame company, dispensers recommend simply spending time with that company at trade shows, and learning about the company and its product. By building a relationship with the vendor, the exclusive may be easier to obtain.

Another challenge is beating price resistance from customers. This means dispensers need to realize that they cannot be all things to all people, di Cosmo says. "You have to let some people walk out the door."

Once dispensers adopt this mindset, price is not an issue because of the type of customer being targeted. "When the rep is in here showing me product, I think 'Will this sell?' and 'Does it look good?' Price is the second factor," says Rand.

Another challenge is merchandising managed care value product in the dispensary. There are two schools of thought on how to handle this. At Au Courant, di Cosmo says they separate the two types of product. At the Ann Arbor, Mich. location, they place the managed care product in the doctor's office and the high-end product in the boutique, which is only two blocks away.

"We have [the managed care] product mixed in with other frames," says Rand. "It actually tends to upgrade the high-end frames, and sometimes it's actually the $120 frame that looks the best, not the $300 frame, and the patients really appreciate that."

Finally, the last important aspect of selling high-end product is ensuring that the quality of the complete product--frames, lenses, edging, etc.--is up to the customer's expectations. "We put the job through three quality checks--when the lenses come in, when the job goes to the lab, and when it comes back," Broadwin says. "We have several people doing this checking and they are all very particular."

SPREADING THE WORD

Once all of the assets of a successful high-end business are in place--the product, the staff, the atmosphere--it is imperative to get your high-end message out to potential customers. That can be in the form of personalized information, like Shaffer's letters to local men's shops. Or it can be as visible as a billboard or newspaper ad. Some dispensers also get involved in local fashion shows, hold trunk shows, and give free or discounted eyewear makeovers.

Know your product and how to position it to the public, and you'll be on the path to profitable high-end dispensing. EB