I know from my conversations with opticians that talking about and selling coatings is sometimes limited by time and often happens at the very end of the patient journey.
As a result of these conversations, I've put together this article to give you a bit more information about coatings and how to successfully sell them to every patient.
The Best Glasses for Your Patients
I'm quite sure one of the main reasons you enjoy and excel at your job is because you want to make sure that you give each patient the best glasses solution. To do this, it’s important to consider all key eyeglass components together, to create the ultimate eyeglasses solution for your patient. What do I mean by this? The sales process for frames, lenses and coatings must be seen holistically to best answer your patients eye care needs. Only when you consider and personalise each element can your patients live their best glasses life.
How Coatings Improve Quality of Vision
Do your patients know coatings can help improve their vision? How many patients did you tell today that with a coating they can reduce the light reflected by their lenses from 10% to 1%? Did you also explain how less light reflection improves their vision? Did your patients walk out of your store knowing that by adding a coating to their new eye wear they would get exceptionally clear vision, comparable to a naked eye and that their eyes would take in more than 99% of light?
You need to discuss the advantages of coatings and how they improve the quality of vision with every customer. If you have not been discussing this with patients, put together a plan with your staff to ensure there is a process. If you need a place to start, you can follow the tips in our guide. Most of your patients will expect a better screen performance when they buy a new TV, laptop, tablet or mobile phone. But many spectacle wearers are not enjoying the most natural light they can or protecting their stylish new glasses.
How Patients Benefit From Coatings
To give all your patients the best glasses, explain the differences in the quality of coatings and talk about the daily benefits they will experience. Your patients can benefit daily from coatings in the following ways:
- More relaxed vision
- Less glare from light reflecting off your lenses
- Improved vision when driving at night
- Increased comfort when reading
- Lowered strain when working on digital devices
- High resistance to scratching
- Better cleanability
How to Sell Coatings
One way you can sell a coating is to ask your patients what annoys them about their current glasses. You can talk about some recent research that shows:
- 70% of people are irritated by reflections on their lenses*
- 60% of people are annoyed by constant lens cleaning*
- 70% of people swear when their lenses get scratched*
To give your patients the very best glasses, think about how to sell coatings as part of a complete eyeglass package. If you are interested to know more, download our guide ‘When and how to sell coatings’, which includes:
- The best times to talk to patients about coatings
- How you can talk to patients about coatings
- Matching the patients lifestyle to coatings
- And much more
*Independent research study amongst ECP & consumers from seven countries. Data on file Hoya Vision Care 2019.