Color Your World
Building business with cosmetic contact lenses
by Amy Spiezio

WildEyes Lenses by Wesley-Jessen, such as Icefire and Knockout create a dramatic costume for the eyes

Nail polish can be changed on a daily basis. So can eyeshadow. Even the conservative's tie selections can range from regimental stripes to paisley day-to-day. But a more subtle change that can add to your bottom line is the expanding world of colored contact lenses. The key for your practice is knowing what's available and presenting the rainbow of choices to your clientele.

"We stock diagnostics in all colors and brands to give our patients the widest range of choices," says Charles Wegman, OD, who practices with his wife, Kay Willis, OD, at the three-location The Contact Lens Centers of Dallas.

Colored contact lenses run the gamut, from subtle tints for easy handling to theatrical contact lenses that push the borders of reality. Here's a rundown of colored contact lens options.

Visibility tints: Lenses are tinted light blue or green to help users keep track of them during insertion and removal. Theses contact lenses do not effect eye color.

Enhancement tints: A subtle color boost, these translucent contact lenses make light eyes stand out with color highlights.

Color tints: Well suited for dark or light eyes, these opaque contacts lenses in colors such as green, brown, gray, blue, and amethyst, can make your patients' brown eyes blue.

Costume/Theatrical lenses: Make the world do a double take. These lenses--usually chosen for costume parties and club wear--allow wearers to transform themselves into the ultimate sports fan, patriot, or maybe even an E.T.

Light filtering lenses: For sports fans and competitors, these lenses offer tints that will help users keep their eyes on the ball.

Regardless of the reason for using color contact lenses, this niche represents an opportunity to boost your sales and make your patients feel hip and happy.

	Crazy Lenses by CooperVision's flag theatrical contact lenses

SILENCE ISN'T GOLDEN

Almost every patient--current contact lens wearers, eyeglass wears, and even those who have had an exam and need no correction--is a potential color contact lens wearer.

While your green-eyed patients flip through the latest issues of fashion magazines, deep inside they could be yearning for a few days, months, or years of taking after Elizabeth Taylor with amethyst eyes. But asking may be a bit embarrassing for consumers who don't want to appear vain or slaves to style. Your inquiries can make the difference, convincing them to take the step they're longing to make.

On your patient information sheet, include a line indicating interest in color contact lenses. And don't forget the personal approach: When sitting down with a new or established contact lens wearer, ask if they have any interest in trying something different.

"It can all start with a simple question like 'Are you happy with or want to change your eye-color?,'" Wegman says.

CooperVision's Expressions line is offered in colors including blue, aqua, gray, hazel, and green

WHO'S GAME?

You might be surprised at the results of your chats. Come prom time, teenage girls visiting their eyecare practitioners can discover the just right baby blues or greens to match the dream dress. Theatrical contacts with designs from the subtle to the scary can finish the perfect outfit for those in the throes of costume mania.

But there's also a healthy market for day-to-day wearers of translucent or opaque colored contact lenses. While young women ages 14 to 21 are the typical color contact lens consumer, practitioners say adults looking to add a serious or sexy touch to their looks are exploring this option.

"Requests for tints are at least two to one female, but we have seen a small increase in men asking about tints. We have mostly teens and twenty-somethings for tinted fits, but more mature business men and women are asking for tints to change or improve their appearance for a business edge or just for fun," says Robert C. Hayes, OD, proprietor of Hayes Eye Center in Chelsea, Ala.

And it's not just light-eyed Anglos turning to this fashion option. Hispanics tend to choose amethyst and African Americans who opt for color contact lenses often enhance brown eyes with warming tints.

"We get a lot of African Americans at this dispensary, probably about 60 percent to 70 percent of our business. Hazel and honey tints are their number-one choices," says Tom Wehr, owner of Wehr Contact Lenses in Indianapolis, Ind.

Thanks to technical developments, color contact lenses can be worn on a strictly cosmetic basis or for vision correction with a fashionable flair. "With the wide variety of colors, sizes, materials, and prescriptions available, almost any patient is a candidate. We see a lot of high-astigmatic patients who now enjoy frequent-replacement opaque torics," Wegman says.

Eyecare professionals also are seeing a whole new category of prospective wearers emerge--consumers interested in Lasik. One large Lasik center recently told EB that 80 percent of patients who inquire at their facility about Lasik turn out not to be candidates for the procedure.

Yet most of those people have one thing and one thing only in mind: Getting rid of eyeglasses. That's where color contacts come in. They solve the problem. And they're fun.

Three colors are blended together to create a natural-looking CIBA Vision FreshLook ColorBlends Amethyst lens

TECH OPS

Facing so many options, helping patients select color contact lenses can be a time-consuming prospect, if you don't have a plan of action. For the greatest efficiency, turn to your practice's technicians.

"Our techs usually determine the patient's choice of color with diagnostics. The front lobby brochures instigate interest, as do our posters, but patients really want to see their new appearance in the mirror," Wegman says.

And patients want a second opinion, a prime opportunity for techs to provide customer assistance while making a sale.

"Narrowing the choices can be a problem for some patients, but our techs seem to give gentle guidance to help them select just the right color. We try to make it fun and have all our techs give their informed opinions," Wegman adds.

This doesn't mean being a "yes man," eyecare practitioners note. By giving honest opinions from several points of view--such as telling a client that electric blue may not be the perfect look for a job interview, but it's a fantastic choice for a night on the town--the clients appreciate your assistance and can reach their own conclusions.

"The patients want our help in color selection and we should professionally give our advice to benefit both the patient and the office's time management," Hayes says.

The doctors, of course, also have a role in the selection of color contact lenses. Before reaching the tech, patients can be given some direction by the doctor to narrow down their choices.

"To keep the time reasonable, it's important for the doctor to act as a knowledgeable color consultant. The doctor should have a good feel for what colors will work and which not and give advice to patients just as we do for disease treatment. I can usually get a patient down to two colors before opening any trials," Hayes says.

	Acuvue 2 Colours contact lenses from Johnson & Johnson feature a wide variety of color options

TIME FOR TRY-ONS

Even using a team approach to color selection, developing this niche means allowing time for patients. This process can take anywhere from 10 minutes for experienced color contact lens wearers to 40 minutes for a new patient.

"If my patients have never worn contacts, I show them a five-minute video and provide training for 20 to 30 minutes," says Wehr.

By setting up your dispensary to let clients know what is available--POP materials, literature, and informational videos set up in waiting areas--you can cut down on selection time.

Allowing patients plenty of time creates openings for sales in a stress-free atmosphere. "We don't make time an issue. Some patients take longer choosing a color, but our staff is happy to offer an opinion and patients seem encouraged when they can select colors after trying on six pairs if they want," Wegman says.

FOLLOWING THE RAINBOW

The spectrum of colors and prescription availability for color contact lenses is expanding to fit a larger portion of customers. Media campaigns promoting this growing market provide a ready-made audience of potential users waiting to explore new looks in prescription and non-prescription color contact lenses.

In the immediate future, Hayes says that he is thinking about high school and college students heading back to the classroom with a whole new look. "I expect the increase in enhancer tints to continue through the summer and into the new school year," says Hayes. For the big picture, he says that he anticipates seeing more color options and more iridescent enhancer options.

On eyecare practitioners' wish list: A rebirth of rainbow packs--clear and color contact lens combination packages that allow users to pick a different color every day. "I think the first manufacturer that can come out with a usable clear and color or multicolor packaging option will grab the market," Hayes says.

Until then, patients can be encouraged to take advantage of multiple separate color contact lens purchases to indulge their fashion dreams.