Building on a Niche
Rx safety eyewear helps ECPs grow their
practices
RETAIL
DISPENSARYSPECIAL
SAFETY SECTIONBuilding on a
Niche Rx safety eyewear
helps ECPs grow their practices By
Seth J. BookeyContributing
EditorNEW YORK--For some eyecare
professionals, growing a practice has meant developing a prescription safety
eyewear segment. While some ECPs don't want to be bothered with the extra work
of contacting companies and setting up safety programs, those who do have
persevered and have discovered several added benefits.
First and foremost, seeing safety
eyewear clients on the ECPs' premises has led to those clients also patronizing
the same ECP for non-work eyewear, and referring family members and others to
the same ECP for comprehensive
eyecare.An
optician at one of Lafreniere's two locations in New Hampshire fits a Rx safety
eyewear
patient.VM
recently spoke with ECPs for whom Rx safety eyecare represented anywhere from
less than 1 percent to 20 percent of their total business, and for them, the
benefits of this niche have outweighed the initial start-up pains, pursuing
clients, and then only receiving a dispensing
fee.Something
ExtraEven when a safety eyewear client
comes in with a set spending limit and no one additional to refer, ECPs have
found that patients are willing to pay for add-ons. Today, polycarbonate is the
standard safety lens material covered by most safety programs, but cli?ents
today are willing to pay for progressive lenses, photochromics, or AR lenses out
of pocket, especially if they are already using these premium products in their
non-work eyewear.Charles Lafreniere of
New Hampshire's two-location Lafreniere Eyecare said that "patients appreciate
looking better" and that during the past five years, a trend toward nicer
styling has safety clients saying 'I wouldn't mind wearing them [safety glasses]
outside of work.'" He also noted that today's safety eyewear styles have moved
from mostly zyl to metals (including titanium) and even
rimless.Also, "flat-tops have dropped
from 70 percent [five years ago] to 30 or 40 percent today," Lafreniere told
VM. "They
have to pay extra for PALs, but people generally think the out-of-pocket cost
[about $50] is worth it."Steve Baker of
Korrect Optical, with two locations in Louisville, Ky., and one in Clarkson,
Ind., also noted how safety frames styles have caught up with dress eyewear
designs. "The frames have come a long way and the safety eyewear manufacturers
have improved their designs. They realize that if they have frames that look
like the best-selling retail styles, their safety eyewear will sell better. This
has produced more business for them, and for us, and helped create more
acceptance for the end-users as
well."Baker has also noticed that most
companies are covering the additional cost of progressive lenses for their
employees. "More and more people are wearing PALs, and employers are realizing
they need to provide them," Baker said. He also noted the predominance of
polycarbonate as the lens material of choice. "We've trained our customers to
use polycarbonate. The clients are better trained in these issues as well, and
safety advisors are telling them to order polycarbonate
also."
Ease of
OperationAnother benefit of working with
corporate clients on prescription safety eyewear is reduced paperwork, along
with guaranteed recalls. Most companies complying with OSHA standards pay for
initial and replacement products directly to labs, so managed-care plans are no
longer involved. While some companies only replace lenses every year and frames
every other year, most won't wait longer on frames. As Casey Conrad of Heartland
Optical, Lincoln, Neb., noted, it simply isn't safe to put a new compliant lens
in a five-year-old frame.Additionally,
no matter which lab an ECP works with, the compliance issues (e.g., changing
ANSI and OSHA standards and COLTS certification) are taken care of by the labs.
This allows ECPs to concentrate on the dispensing, upselling to products not
covered by the safety program, and cultivating referrals. Working with corporate
clients' safety directors and human-resource directors helps simplify dispensing
choices, and for ECPs who limit safety brands and work with just one lab,
in-store displays and dispensing gets that much simpler as
well.'Reversing' the
Road to
SuccessCasey
ConradCasey Conrad, CEO and
president of Heartland Optical, is ready to take the prescription safety optical
marketplace in Lincoln, Neb., by storm. This retail optical lab started to
pursue the safety niche seriously in 1990, when Conrad's father, Ronald, took
over majority interest in what was then a decades-old, wholesale-only optical
lab.With about 60 safety eyewear
accounts under its belt, Heartland Optical is planning to open a larger retail
dispensary in December, with a grand opening in January 2006. Conrad told
VM that the
new 1,000-square foot space will start with one OD lane but will have room to
expand to a total of four exam rooms. Currently, Heartland Optical sees patients
in a small safety dispensary carved out of part of the company's warehouse-like
space in a part of town that's slated for
redevelopment."It's like a cave! We have
no windows!" Conrad joked. The new location will be three blocks away from the
current dispensary, on a piece of land near an MD, a dentist and a federally
funded health-care facility.While other
competing ECPs saw this niche as a hassle, "We are expanding," Conrad told
VM. "We have
a total reverse problem. We have the people, but not the services. We want to
create a larger dispensary, have ODs who give eye exam, and to handle
managed-care plants. We've never been able to have major insurance
carriers."Despite its
less-than-traditional dispensing environment, Heartland has managed to grow its
safety prescription eyewear business by focusing its efforts in a personal way.
When Conrad joined his father's business in 1993, he set about bringing in local
accounts for safety dispensing. The safety accounts are a mix of large companies
with thousands of employees to small mom-and-pop companies. Conrad and his
brother Thomas have been the main sales reps for these
accounts.While a mixture of accounts has
worked for Heartland, Conrad said that "we try to pick up the smaller companies
because we think they're the most loyal." Conrad reads the local papers and
talks with current customers. "It's a really grassroots way of growing business.
It's created a tight group of consumers we can count on for the foreseeable
future. It's mostly calling and drumming up
interest."While Heartland still relies
on patients coming in with an Rx, and tends not to do on-site exams, the company
does call on clients to meet with safety directors and human resource managers
to discuss compliance with OSHA regulations, as well as bring in price lists and
information brochures from Prevent Blindness America and the American Optometric
Association."They can take our
information and change policy pretty quickly. When you work closely with so many
companies, your personal relationships forge nice communication over the
years."Being an independent retail
optical lab in a territory surrounded by VSP labs and Varilux distributors,
Heartland has had to become a "company built on niches." Conrad said the "two
Vs" considered Heartland too small to work
with."Through the 90s we came to the
realization that we had to work with safety. Insurance was a staple for Nebraska
practices. They wanted to work with labs that would work with insurance."
Heartland also found that once patients liked Varilux PALs, it was hard to get
them to switch.Consequently, Conrad
pursued personal safety Rx patients in addition to corporate accounts. He has
set up a booth at motorcycle shows to promote Rx sunwear, since motorcycle shops
tend to only sell plano sunwear. "Lincoln is a big bicycling city and we're
going to target that niche with sports and sunwear
lines."Conrad counts U.S. Safety and
Essilor his safety Rx competitors, but points out that they "sell mass
quantities but don't see the faces. They don't have a shop or interact with the
customers."While Heartland has gone
through some "growing pains"--some ODs have dropped using their wholesale lab
services--Conrad said it's been years since they've lost a safety client, and
that getting a flow of patients coming to them helps sell dress, sport and
sunwear as well. "At the heart of it, we're a wholesaler. These outer niches
pretty much funnel people into the heart of our business, which is a
lab."Finding Success
LocallyCharles
LafreniereCharles Lafreniere, OD,
who has offices in Sommersworth and Durham, N.H., has been working with
prescription safety eyewear for 12 of the 14 years he has been in practice.
Early on, he went to major industrial companies in his immediate area, like
General Electric. "We heard through the grapevine that they were looking [for
someone to provide] safety eyewear [services], and we were within a third of a
mile from their plant."In the early
1990s, almost half of Lafreniere's business came from his account with General
Electric. "Our plan was set up for both safety and personal eyewear benefits, as
well as exam benefits. That drove patients to us in a big way. It was easy to
offer them personal eyewear--this meant less wear and tear for the safety
glasses outside the work environment," he said."Before we started this, I never
held safety eyeglasses. During the first few months, we learned as much as
possible about the different types of jobs people were performing," Lafreniere
said.Today, Lafreniere Eyecare has about
half a dozen safety eyewear client companies of differing sizes. All exams are
done at Lafreniere's two offices rather than on site, since his clients are
close enough to reach either office. For one client, Lafreniere is one of
several ECPs the client company uses to dispensing safety eyewear over a wider
geographic area.Lafreniere's office
manager sets up safety eyewear packages and a customized safety eyewear plans
for each company. Two opticians are schooled in the nuances of safety eyewear,
so Lafreniere himself doesn't have to get too involved with the administrative
aspects.Lafreniere has safety eyewear
displays set up in both offices, showing dozens of styles. He deals mainly with
AOSafety, but also with Hoya for individual, noncorporate clients, who
include, for example, people who do woodworking, auto repairs or landscaping. He
also keeps sports safety eyewear on display as
well.
Forging Closer
RelationshipsDon Sealock, OD, owner of the
nine-location Four Seasons Eyecare based in Minneapolis, has been in practice
since 1986 and has always been in?volved in prescription safety
eyecare."It's a valuable tool for those
beginning in practice, and it's a good opportunity to solicit more business from
[the safety Rx patient's] family and
co-workers."Sealock told
VM that his
nine offices work with about 75 to 100 prescription safety clients, which
accounts for about 5 to 6 percent of his business. Four Seasons has three
offices in metropolitan Minneapolis and the remaining offices are located in
well-established commuting cities nearby. All the clients are within a 90-mile
radius of Four Season's nine locations, each of which feature a safety
section.Don
SealockSealock first developed his
safety eyewear practice by personally soliciting companies with fewer than 50
employees and proposing comprehensive eyecare that included meeting Rx safety
needs. Currently, Sealock has a mixture of corporate clients, from the smaller
companies he initially approached--like cabinet makers--to larger outfits such
as the statewide Excel Energies, among others. In addition to dispensing routine
safety eyewear annually or every other year, Sealock's offices also treats
emergency ophthalmic cases as well. "That's where the downstream revenue comes
in."Sealock notes that because safety
eyewear has a longer turnaround time, "you need an excellent working
relationship with the lab so you can meet the goals and expectations of the
patients." Ninety percent of Four Season's safety eyewear jobs go to Twin City
Lab. To speed up total turnaround time, all nine Four Seasons locations transmit
prescriptions to the lab electronically, and all offices use electronic billing
as well.Making a Niche
ProfitableLike many other independents,
Drs. Little and Schmidt Vision Source of Mandan, N.D., sought out the
prescription safety eyewear niche to grow their practice. Dan Little, OD, has
been in practice since 1979 and he has made safety part of his practice since
1985.Little's practice includes mostly
larger corporate clients, including Montana Dakota Utilities, Minnkota Power,
Burlington Northern, Baukal Noonan, and Tesoro. Because they are situated in a
more heavily industrial area, Little faces some competition from other ODs also
looking to grow this niche. "You don't make a lot [of money] on safety, but you
hope for side business," Little told
VM.Dan
LittleLuckily, at Minnkota Power, a
coal-fired electric generating plant, and Baukal Noonan, a coal mining company,
there are 300 employees at each company to be fitted with prescription safety
eyewear.As a way of making the
dispensing as easy as possible for its corporate clients, Little and Schmidt
have a satellite office in Center, N.D., where many of the plants are located. A
selection of safety eyewear is displayed at both locations, as is some Wiley X
sunwear for sports safety
consumers.Little has noticed a lot of
changes in safety eyewear, as polycarbonate lenses now make up 95 percent of the
Rx safety eyewear he dispenses. "There is very little glass safety eyewear now,
and fewer plastic lenses also. Almost every prescription is available in
polycarbonate now."Making Safety
'Individual'While fitting prescription
safety eyewear does differ somewhat from everyday eyewear, the dispensing basics
still apply. At Family Vision Clinic in Houma, La., optician Joyce Dayton, who
works for owner Lawrence Breaux, OD, noted that "regardless of who's paying, we
treat them as individuals." During her 18 years at this 25-year-old practice,
she has seen new patients referred "as individuals grow within the [safety
client] company."Dayton has seen safety
dispensing at Family Vision Clinic grow tremendously, with 15 percent of the
dispensary's business coming from safety clients. While some safety eyewear is
for individuals, she said 95 percent of it comes from corporate clients, which
include Haliburton, Bell South, Barker BJU, Baker Atlas, and Gemmeco. Most of
the companies are in the oil business, but Dayton also sees a lot of patients in
the boating industry and she noted, "safety eyewear is becoming mandatory for
machnists."The practice has about 400
safety patients--half of whom come from Haliburton--and does 25 to 40 safety Rx
jobs a month.Family Vision provides
companies with a wall chart of available frames, and does onsite vision
screenings for visual acuity, depth perception, and color blindness--with
follow-up care at the office. Dr. Breaux often does safety presentations on site
as well. One employee at Family Vision is now responsible for liaison work with
smaller safety clients (10 to 100 employees), while larger clients have safety
department managers detailing coverage plan
limits.While Family Vision does have a
separate safety area, all patients are shown all available products, regardless
of whether the safety plan covers them. "We want them to have whatever is best,
optically," Dayton said.While the
practice has worked with several safety eyewear suppliers over the years, it
currently works with AOSafety because "they were easy to deal with and
efficient" and because it was more efficient to work with just one company.
Dayton also said that when the ANSI standard for safety eyewear changed, "they
made it easy."Cornering the
MarketBeing in a heavily industrial area
can make developing a successful safety eyewear niche easier for an ECP.
According to Sandy Pustejovsky, office manager for R. Paul Dickey, OD, in Port
Lavaca, Texas, safety eyewear, which has always been part of the 20-year-old
practice, accounts for 20 percent of its
business.The dispenser does about 20 to
30 safety eyewear jobs per month with just three large chemical company clients,
which include Dow and Formosa. "Business has bee stable," Pustejovsky told
VM, "We have
all the plants in this area." During the past five years, she has seen the
companies grow, which has resulted in the practice seeing even more
patients.By only doing eye exams in the
office, the practice has also been able to bring in the residual business from
the safety clients' families. The practice works with the safety departments at
the companies, which set the standards and payment limits with which Dickey's
practice must operate.Dickey's practice
works with two labs when it comes to safety eyewear jobs--Orco in Dallas, and
Aero Safety. Unlike managed-care clients, working with safety patients has meant
less paperwork and administration. "We do the dispensing and ordering, the labs
bill the companies," Pustejovsky said. "We get the dispensing fee when the
employees come in with the proper ID numbers and authorizations from their
companies." Because working in chemical companies causes a lot of wear,
employees typically get new glasses annually, and despite spending limits, some
employees are willing to pay out of pocket for photochromic or progressive
lenses.=======Published
20 June 2005 in Vision Monday
Posted: Mon - June 20, 2005 at 03:34 PM
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Published On: Jun 20, 2009 07:04 PM
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