LOSE THE JARGON

Lose the Jargon

When it comes to presenting free-form technology to patients, cut the tech talk and focus on what these designs mean for their vision

BY SUSAN TARRANT

iN A RECENT SURVEY BY EYECARE BUSINESS, MORE THAN TWO-THIRDS OF ECPS SAID THEY EXPECT THEIR SALES OF FREE-FORM LENSES TO INCREASE over the next year or so. And nearly half of them expect that increase to be between 11 to 25 percent. Those are great numbers, and are indicative of practitioners’ desire to serve their patients with the best that technology has to offer.

But in order to get in the free-form lens game, you’ve got to get patients on board. How?

✓ TALK BENEFITS. Talk to patients (particularly those who will benefit most, see sidebar, p. 56) about how free-form lenses can help them see with more clarity than conventional lenses.

✓ DON’T OVERDO. Don’t get into the technical design of the multi-angled, diamond-tipped stylus that can cut hundreds of curves and surface the lens to within a hundredth of a diopter of accuracy and the software that can plot out backside or dual-side designs that compensate an Rx for base curve and position-of-wear. (If you got lost on that sentence, imagine how a patient would feel!).

WHAT TO SAY

“Backside surfacing technology, digital design, and free-form processing all mean nothing to the patient. That patient only understands how it will benefit him,” says Jen Cofield, ABOC, training and development coordinator for Signet Armorlite, Inc.

So that’s what you focus on. Need actual language to help you translate the technical into benefits? Here are some suggestions:

✓ USE ANALOGIES. Start with, “Just like televisions and cell phones have advanced, so, too, has the technology behind the lens design” or a similar analogy.

✓ STRESS MEANING. Don’t explain what the technology is, but rather what it means for the patient in front of you. For example:

“From left to right across the lens, you’ll see sharply. You’ll have much less of that squiggly distortion. You won’t have to point your nose to where you’re looking as much. You’ll have more comfortable vision throughout the day. And, it will be completely customized for your prescription and your frame.”

✓ OVERCOME PRICE. Stressing the visual benefits also helps patients overcome any reluctance to paying more for their lenses.

“When people ask, ‘How much?’, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are price-sensitive,” says Greg Hicks, O.D., of Family Eye Care Centers, with three locations in northern Ohio. “It is often because they are looking for information to help them make a decision. If we aren’t educating them about the difference in the lens, or that there even is a difference in lenses, then why shouldn’t they just go for the best price?”

USE THE ROOM

Doctor-driven dispensing is not a new concept in optical, and it continues to be the most effective way to deliver the message to patients that a particular product is best for their visual needs. Yet the biggest stumbling block to getting patients into free-form lenses is a failure to discuss the advantages of the designs in the exam room.

✓ START IN THE CHAIR. “That’s the thing that we should be doing, but aren’t doing enough of, and that’s talking about the new technology from the chair,” says Anne-Marie Lahr, O.D., director of education, HOYA Vision Care. “There’s a big difference between educating and selling,” she notes. “When we prescribe a medicine, we talk about what it does for the patient. But so many people just write the [lens] Rx numbers on a piece of paper, and they don’t talk about it any further with patients.”

✓ KEEP TALKING. “The days of just talking sphere, cylinder, and axis are over,” adds Dr. Hicks. “If you stop there, and don’t take the time to talk to patients about what they can do within their lens package to best serve their needs, why shouldn’t they go out looking for just the best price? Because that’s what we do with any other commodity.”

✓ ELICIT TRUST. Dr. Hicks’ advice for fellow doctors? “Say to patients: ‘My patients tell me they simply see better with this design, that it was easier for them to get used to, and that it’s the best lens they’ve ever had.’ That’s what patients really want to hear, and they want to hear it from their trusted doctor. It drives me crazy that so many ECPs aren’t taking the time to tell their patients what’s new and different.”

USE THE TOOLS

Sometimes, a picture (or a high-definition virtual reality experience) is worth a thousand words. Tablet- or kiosk-based devices not only take the additional point-of-wear measurements needed to personalize free-form lenses, but the educational software can provide patients with an accurate representation of what their prescription will “look” like in a free-form lens versus conventional PAL.

✓ WALK THE WALK. These digital dispensing aids are designed to help O.D.s and opticians walk the patient through and present the concept of free-form digital lenses to patients.

✓ TALK THE TALK. “You’re using technology to educate your patient about the technology that’s available now,” says Dr. Lahr. “Not only does it help you deliver a better product, a product that’s personalized to your patient, but it demonstrates to your patient that you take technology seriously—and that you understand technology.”

USE THE STAFF

The lesson is the same for any lens or add-on: if your goal is to increase sales of a certain item, get your entire staff on the same message. You want to sell more AR or photochromics? Get your staff wearing it and talking about it to every patient.

✓ COMMIT TO STAFF. The advice from educators who travel the country leading O.D. seminars on increasing free-form sales is to commit to staff education and talk to the opticians about what the practice wants to gain out of that interaction with patients.

✓ GO FULL CIRCLE. “It starts in the exam room, but it’s not going to work unless everyone is giving the same message and talking about the same benefits,” explains Cofield.

“Doctors are doing themselves a disservice when they don’t get involved in what’s going on in the dispensary,” Cofield adds. “If they care enough about patients to make sure they’ve got the right correction for their eyes, they have to care enough about what happens all the way down the chain. It starts in the exam room, but it’s not going to work unless the lenses that end up on their patients’ faces are working properly, are of the best quality, and that patients have a great experience with them. That’s what makes patients want to come back.”

ON THE RISE

The 2013 Eyecare Business Market Trend report found that:

of ECPs expect an increase in free-form sales over next two years

expect sales to grow 11 to 25 percent in the near future

expect sales to grow more than 25 percent in the near future

WHERE DO YOU FALL?

of ECPs ALWAYS discuss the benefits of free-form with patients

SOMETIMES discuss free-form lenses

NEVER discuss free-form lenses with patients