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Try-on systems are bursting on the scene and giving patients just what they've always wanted: A new way of selecting eyewear and lenses
By Susan P. Tarrant

American Bright Sign's Smart Look is a freestanding, user-friendly unit

Eyecare practitioners are usually quick to invest in new technology that will increase their diagnostic power and add some "wow" factor to the exam room. And now many are realizing the benefits of extending that "wow" reaction into the dispensary.

Optical try-on technology has burst onto the optical landscape and into dispensaries of all sizes. With several variations, the technology takes digital pictures of the patient wearing one or more frames, then allows the patient to compare the photos side-by-side. Some systems can alter the photos to show what various lens options are available (AR, photochromics, high-index, PAL) or to show what the patients would look like in color contact lenses. Still others employ technology that also takes the patients' eye measurements and sends them to the lab or allows the optician to custom-design eyewear or lens tints right on screen.

A few of the systems can store the patients' photos on the dispensary's Website, and allows them to "try on" eyewear from a virtual catalog of frames at their home computer. No matter the add-ons, the same basic truth is revealed when speaking with ECPs who have embraced this technology: It allows patients to see themselves in eyewear like never before, and it creates customer satisfaction.

"It's the single most valuable tool I have in the dispensary," says Michele Miele, owner/optician of Consumer Optical in Schenectady, N.Y. "Patients need to see what they're buying, It gives them a chance to make their own final decision."

	Try-on systems at work. Shown above: Optical Innovation's iPoint Kiosk, below, Interactive Visual Systems' Swing unit

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

The optical industry has a unique problem: Sometimes customers can't see what they're buying. Enter try-on technology, and those patients can wear their eyewear while viewing pictures of themselves wearing frames they're trying to decide upon.

"People love it. The first thing they says is, 'It's about time there's something like this,'" says Mila Alarcon, manager at the practice of Paul Holland, OD, in Daly City, Calif.

"There's no question there is more comparative power," agrees Donna McGann, an optician at Saratoga Vision Associates in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. "We're able to convey more confidence to the patient. We can say, 'This one is better on you, and here's why.' And we can point things out to them right on the picture."

This technology gives patients more confidence in their choices and takes the pressure off of the dispensary staff. "I was skittish about high-plus or high-minus patients trusting my opinion of their eyewear selections," says Julia Way, a paraoptometric in the office of Eddie Alan Smith, OD, in Stillwater, Ok. "When their glasses come in now, there are no surprises."

All try-on products we researched are able to compare frame choices. Many products also allow ECPs to demonstrate various lens options, manipulating photos to show patients AR versus non-AR lenses, for example, or a bifocal versus a PAL.

"We can demonstrate exactly how thick the lenses will actually look on their face," says Kathy Draun, manager of Optix on Downer in Milwaukee, Wisc., "or how they'll look in a fashion tint or sunlens."

Above: Frame Power's Extreme Virtual Eyewear (XVEW) system; below: Camirror North America's Camirror screen

Donna George, an optician at Fossil Creek Vision Clinic in Fort Worth, Texas, says her office uses its try-on system to introduce patients to the full spectrum of lens options available.

"It's great for showing AR and photochromics," she says. "That's the biggest reason we bring patients over there. It's very rare that we show patients lens options and they don't buy at least one of them."

George says she shows patients their photograph wearing non-AR lenses, and then with the push of a button shows the same photo with AR lenses.

"I can tell people, 'Not only do you look that way, but you see that way as well.' We don't use [the try-on system] to illustrate cosmetics as much as we use it as a vision education tool," she says, adding that the product's videos about lens options also help patient awareness.

SET SALES

Quantifying how many sales are made solely based on the try-on system experience is difficult, but all dispensers using them are sure of one thing: They're better of with the system than without it.

"It's done quite a bit for our AR sales," says Way, "but more importantly, our patients are more satisfied with their experience here." In a one-doctor office, she says the technology helps her get on the same playing field as a larger chain.

The try-on systems can also help make a frame sale that otherwise would just be a lens sale. "Sometimes [patients] have their minds set on keeping their existing frames. But when we can show them side-by-side photos of them in their old frames and in an updated look, they always buy the new frames," says Alarcon. "Always."

"Every time we use it, we make a sale," agrees Draun. "The customers will always buy at least one of the looks."

	EyeWeb's EyeWeb Imager works in the dispensary or online

The system is largely responsible for the high percentage of AR sales at McLean County Eye Center in Normal, Ill., says Lonnie Landess, center director. A whopping 62 percent of his patients opt for AR once they've seen it on themselves through the try-on system. The center is also successful in selling multiple pairs because, he says, once a patient narrows it down to two or three photos of frames they like, "that's a perfect set-up to begin a multiple-pair discussion."

In addition to increasing sales, or at least creating satisfied customers, another financial benefit to try-on technology is a lack of returns.

"There was a time when people would come back and say, 'It's not what I expected,' or 'I thought it would look different on me,'" says Miele. "Now they know what they're getting. I don't get returns, which saves me money and frustration."

PROMO POINTERS

Such high-tech systems require high-tech promotions, right? According to those who use them, try-on systems are best advertised by word of mouth.

Most ECPs spoken to here say the patients who use the try-on system usually tell people of their unique eyewear-shopping experience, thereby spreading the good word.

Some do turn to more conventional advertising, including the try-on system in their phone book and newspaper ads, and promoting it on their patient recall notices.

The iCAM Patient Viewing System from VisCorp is an affordable try-on system

Draun says Optix on Downer has its system located near the window. "People walking by can see it being used. That generates interest."

Sometimes, however, dispensers are so taken with their try-on systems that they take the path of Landess at McLean County Eye Center. "Frankly, I don't want my competitors to know I have this, it's so great," he jokes. His system allows for the patient photos to be loaded to his Website so they can view them later.

"The first thing most people do when they leave here is go to their computer to show people," he says. "So when they get back to work, they've got three colleagues looking over their shoulder at our Website, all saying, 'Wow.' "