Simple Steps
Adding to your bottom line can be a snap when you take action to promote anti-reflective coatings for increased business
By Erinn Morgan

What's not to like? Anti-reflective (AR) coatings help reduce visual glare and better the wearers' appearance by minimizing reflections off the front of their lenses. Because of AR's helpful features and benefits, many optical dispensaries have been successful at growing this profitable lens add-on category--and their bottom line.

Consumers and ECPs are increasingly familiar with AR. Above, an AR coating chamber and, below, an example of glare cutting with anti-reflective coatings PHOTOS COURTESY OF VISION-EASE

"About 75 to 80 percent of our glasses go out the door with AR," says Sarah Bergevain, an optician with Savin & Associates, an optometric practice in Racine, Wis. "It has really grown over the past few years for us. Over the last year-and-a-half it has more than doubled."

AR coatings can cut down on glare from computer screens PHOTO COURTESY OF RODENSTOCK

This recent growth, which is echoed by dispensaries across the country, can be attributed to two factors. First, there is increased consumer awareness thanks to advertising by chains and vendors like Essilor, as well as the recognizable brand names like SOLA's Teflon. Secondly, dispensers are becoming increasingly savvy about AR and promoting it more.

Marketing AR to your clientele is a boon both to their vision and your balance sheet. And the reality is that virtually everyone can benefit from it. "Everybody likes AR," says Bergevain. "Parents love it for their kids because it is very durable and more scratch resistant and they don't have to come back in every month for new lenses. Older patients like it because it is much better for night driving. It really works for everyone."

A few simple steps can get you on your way to increasing your dispensary's AR sales.

STEP ONE: DISCUSS WITH EVERYONE

Perhaps the most important strategy in increasing AR business is to present it to every customer. "It is pretty hard to get out of here without it," says Al Shook, an optician with Hurst Opticians in Hurst, Texas, who boasts AR sales to 97 percent of customers. Shook reports that their AR sales used to be at 75 percent, but now, with improved scratch resistance and durability, as well as a warranty, it's hard for consumers to say no.

The presentation of AR will often begin in the exam room, especially if the patient is complaining about glare or problems driving at night. The real education of AR's benefits, however, will ensue in the dispensary, where opticians can both show and tell how this lens add-on can be of help.

"If a patient says he has problems with glare or nighttime driving they suggest it in the exam room," says Bergevain. "We then fully explain it in the dispensary."

	AR coatings can appeal to a wide demographic PHOTO COURTESY OF RODENSTOCK

STEP TWO: DEMONSTRATE THE BENEFITS

Some of the best promotional tools for AR are various displays and point-of-purchase materials. "We have brochures and tabletop displays. We use a pair of glasses that have one lens coated with AR and one without," says Bergevain. "But we more often use each other's glasses to demonstrate AR--in our office some people have glasses with AR and some do not, so we show the difference to patients. This is the best method."

Demonstrating the benefits of AR takes on a high-tech nature at Hurst Opticians. The dispensary features a computerized try-on system that takes a digital photo of the customer to illustrate how various eyewear styles will look on their face. The system also shows how AR coating will reduce reflections off the lenses of the eyewear they are considering. "It demonstrates the features of AR, and this really helps us out a lot," says Shook.

At Med Optics in Towson, Md., owner Krishan Patel shows customers how AR will work for their particular prescription. "We have a few pairs of glasses made up with one clear and one AR coated lens in different strengths," he says. "This way we can show a myope, for example, what it will look like for them. An AR-coated lens lets in more light so it is very beneficial to the higher prescriptions."

STEP THREE: PRICE IT RIGHT

While the features of AR may be highly appealing to your customers, the price may not. This is why many dispensers believe in package pricing for this lens add-on.

The future of anti-reflective coatings depends on ECPs' ability present it to patients PHOTO COURTESY OF VISION-EASE

This method will relieve some of the sticker shock and put the patient focus back on the benefits.

"We don't have one price for AR," says Shook. "It depends on the lens and the package we are creating for them. We sell everything as a package and believe in top-down selling. We say 'This is what it costs.' Then people aren't really likely to say, 'Do I want to spend this for this feature?' We do the whole package price together. There are lots of variables, but we don't want it to look like a new car window sticker when we are done."

STEP FOUR: FOCUS ON FUTURE GROWTH

The final step in building AR business is to keep an eye to future growth. "I think that with more promotion, and getting a whole office involved, we will continue to see it grow," says Bergevain. "And if our doctors continue to do more discussion in the exam room, that would help increase the percentage of patients dispensed with AR."

One of the best policies dispensers can enact to ensure smooth sailing with AR sales is to build repeat business in their optical shop. Customers who keep coming back become used to ordering AR coatings with their new glasses, so what was once only a potential add-on becomes a given.

"Now it is so easy," says Shook. "We have about an 85 percent repeat business and we have been doing AR for 25 years. In that time it is almost an assumed thing that people will get it. Maybe once a month somebody might say, 'I don't want AR anymore because I have to work too hard to keep it clean.' Sometimes you have to do just a short resell, but I really don't know what it would be like to start from scratch with someone who has never worn it."