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LAB: Hoya Vision Care
San Diego
Lisa Lingard, sales manager

 

“When I started introducing free-form to our accounts a few years ago, the average optician would retreat a bit. The word free-form was thrown around loosely. Accounts knew it was a better process, but didn’t understand why or how. Initially they were intimated and fearful of discussing it with patients. But lately we’ve noticed they are making the transition from being afraid of free-form technology to wanting to become educated about it. That makes our role as reps even more important. We’re demystifying the technology, giving them tools to make it simpler for them to dispense the lenses to patients.

“We have a very good library of training materials available to our sales team. We can offer our accounts a ‘lunch and learn’ with our education director, Brad Main and his team. We have PowerPoints and single sheet leave-behinds they can stick on the lab wall, plus we have a webinar and the Professor Murray website, too.

“When the free-form revolution started, we had a much smaller product offering. But now Hoya has an entire family of free-form lenses, including single vision, flattop 28, entry level free-form and a highly personalized lens, iD MyStyle. Because availability has increased, we can customize our product offering for our customers.”



Customer Comment:

Joe Senall, OD
Simon Eye Associates, an optometric practice with six
offices located throughout Delaware.

 

“There was a time before all this technology emerged when private practices were moving toward getting the least expensive progressives they could. But digital has changed that.

“We use Hoya’s most advanced free-form. It features a double integrated surface design. You can’t just go buy a box of them, throw them in the back of your finishing lab and cut them down. They’re personalized.

“We have a real partnership with Hoya. Their local rep is like part of our team. They teach our opticians. There’s a learning curve for opticians. They require more training because they need to take a lifestyle history and patient measurements. We’ve even travelled up to the Hoya lab in Hartford, Conn. and met the lab people face to face. There’s a payoff for us. We’re independent, and there’s a lot of competition from chains and big box stores. Because of the type of lenses we offer, we’re developing a more loyal patient base. The patients become promoters of our practice. For the first time, we’re actually getting patients because we can get Hoya lenses. That never happened five years ago.”



Customer Comment:

Thomas A. Lucas, Jr., OD
First Eye Care Killeen, Killeen, Texas.

 

“I graduated optometry school five years ago. One of my goals is to always differentiate my optical from commercial entities, and free-form and digital lenses is obviously one way to do that. That creates a need to develop a good relationship with your lab. Distribution of digital products is limited, so getting that relationship with a lab you trust and has the capability to do these things is crucial.

“When I first started in practice we used a lot of molded lenses. Now I’m spending more time with our lab [Hoya Dallas], talking through jobs. Not a day goes by when I don’t talk to the lab. I have a lot of respect for them. We’re assigned a special customer service person, and we can have access to them 24/7.

“We only offer three digital lenses: Hoya iD Lifestyle, inStyle and MyStyle. About 70 percent of our progressive lens wearers are wearing Lifestyle. Patient satisfaction is high.

“We take Hoya’s marketing and extend that in our practice. We actually try to brand Hoya product in our practice. The doctors talk to the patients about Hoya products. It’s doctor driven.” ■