Contact Lens Practice Pearls

The Contact Lens Test Drive

BY JASON R. MILLER, OD, MBA, FAAO

With 2015 coming to an end, take a look at your numbers—specifically, your daily disposable number. Many of us would agree that daily disposable wearers create a win-win for many eyecare practices. Our patients are wearing a lens that is a convenient, high-compliance option; there are many new options for this modality; and this modality has demonstrated a trend for the strongest growth in the years to come.

Daily disposables have become a focus within our practice. This is because convenience is critical to success for many patients.

Daily disposable wearers are the most compliant lens wearers. In fact, a number of studies have demonstrated that daily disposable wearers are more compliant with lens replacement compared to their two-week or monthly replacement-wearing counterparts (Dumbleton et al, 2013).

Additionally, patients who were compliant with their eye-care professionals’ recommended replacement frequency reported fewer contact lens-related problems (Dumbleton et al, 2011).

The Daily Drive

If you have not yet hit your goals for the year, make that final push. Start a daily drive!

You are probably wondering: What is a daily drive? Most of us love to test drive the newest, most innovative cars on the market. You can do the same thing with daily disposables.

See how many patients you can get to test drive the newest daily disposable lenses. After that, the lenses will sell themselves.

With so many new contact lens options in the daily disposable category, including single-vision, toric, and multifocal, there are very few patients who won’t qualify for daily disposable lenses.

Determine how many patients you want to convert into daily disposables, and make it a mini-game. You can create a fun office competition around it.

Track how many new daily disposable wearers you can develop over the next few months, and make increasing that number a team goal. If you hit your goals, celebrate together.

Market the Daily Drive

1. Social Media New, innovative products can be powerful marketing pieces for your practice. The social media opportunities are very high. It could include marketing everywhere, including your practice’s website, Facebook page, Twitter feed, and Pinterest page. Make it known everywhere that you are offering the daily disposable modality.

2. Internal Marketing This is where your staff enters the picture. Not only do you need to have point-of-purchase (POP) materials within your office, but you should be discussing the modality with every current lens wearer or potential new contact lens patient. Patients will perceive these products as innovative.

Make the Drive Easy

Encourage interested patients to take a sample pack home and try it. This can happen even if they are happy with their current contact lenses.

Many of these patients may be “silent sufferers.” They may not be complaining because they don’t know that something better is out there. The whole process needs to be easy on the office and the patients.

We are fortunate to practice in a time when much contact lens innovation is available. We have many options to consider when fitting our contact lens-wearing population. From a variety of materials, modalities, and cosmetic lens options, make sure to discuss these choices with your patients.

The newest lens options will generate excitement from your patients and help keep your contact lens practice healthy and growing. Consider making that daily drive a focus within your practice. CLS

For references, please visit www.clspectrum.com/references and click on document #241.

Dr. Miller is in a partnership private practice in Powell, Ohio, and is an adjunct faculty member for The Ohio State University College of Optometry. He has received honoraria for writing, speaking, acting in an advisory capacity, or research from Alcon, Allergan, CooperVision, and Visioneering Technologies. You can reach him at drmiller@eyecarepowell.com.