She continued, “Fortunately, our practice purchased a FastGrind system just a few months after I started here, and it has proven to be a cornerstone in our strategy. We were looking for a way to continue to provide our patients with a variety of lens types, features and price-points. While simultaneously simplifying the lens-selection process in an effort to remove potential aggravation for our patients, FastGrind provided us the opportunity to accomplish these goals.

Sherri explains the subtle, but impactful change they made when speaking with patients about lenses; “Simply put, we just dropped all the brands from the conversation. Brands tend to matter a lot when it comes to frames. They like the design, but they really like seeing the brand logo or name on the frame. The same can’t be said about lenses. With lenses, they care about “Can I see?” or “Will these look too thick in my frames?” Patients who come in requesting a brand-name lens and actually know the difference are extremely rare. In the past, we educated patients about brands of lenses and coatings, only to have the patient forget the brand name by the time they came back to pick up their glasses. What was the point? So we dropped all the brand names and instead we educate them about the difference between single vision, bifocal, and progressive lenses. We explain the difference between clear and AR lenses, also between photochromic and traditional sunglasses.”