Building Momentum in Your Contact Lens Business

Darryl Glover: Welcome to a special edition episode of the MOD Pod. My name is Dr. Darryl Glover. Some of you may know me as everyone's favorite optometrist. I practice with MyEyeDr. in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and today I'm very excited because I get to hang out with two rock star ODs, Dr. Britt Gustafson and also Dr. Selina McGee. How are you two ladies doing today?

Britt Gustafson: Great, Darryl. How about you?

Darryl Glover: Doing fantastic. Doing fantastic. If you don't mind, maybe sharing a little bit about your background and where you currently practice. Britt, let's start off with you, if you don't mind, my friend.

Britt Gustafson: Absolutely. So I'm Dr. Britt Gustafson. I have a Walmart sublease in the suburbs of Minneapolis, and I've been there for 23 years. It was the clinic that I started out when I finished Optometry School in 2001.

Darryl Glover: Nice. And what about yourself, Selina?

Selina McGee: Hi everybody. Great to be here. So I practice in Edmond, Oklahoma at BeSpoke Vision, and I wear a lot of hats in optometry outside of that. But one of my favorite things to talk about is contact lenses, and I'm so happy to be here with you guys today because I learn something new every time I talk to you guys. So I know you guys as an audience are going to be in for a special treat.

Darryl Glover: I love it. I love it. And today, we're really going to talk about how to build momentum in your contact lens business. And what I would love to get started with is really talking about what part do contact lenses play in your practice business. I want to really touch on do you see growth opportunity, but let's really start with the foundation. What part does it play in your business? Let's start off with you, Selina.

Selina McGee: Sure. So I think of this as a pillar inside my practice. And so when I think about my practice, I want to have multiple pillars holding up my practice because if something changes that's beyond our control, that's one of my pillars gets taken away, I don't want all of my practice riding on that one pillar. And so contact lenses have been integral to our practice and building our practice to where it is today.

And a little bit about my backstory. I was in ophthalmology for 17 years, and honestly, I didn't really do contact lenses in that practice. And so I hadn't touched a contact lens other than a bandage contact lens for a really long time, and I really missed it. And there's just amazing technology available. Patients want this. This is something that you can absolutely build your practice around. And ours has grown into not only our everyday contact lens wear but also specialty lenses, whether it's myopia management or irregular corneas and scleral lenses, and then, of course, our GP lenses.

And so there's so much growth opportunity here because our companies and Alcon, in particular, has really invested in their research and development to help us build this pillar inside of our practice. And so it's really exciting to talk about, and it's exciting to offer new technology to our patients, and that's kind of what my patients expect from us. That's part of our brand. It's high touch, and high technology, and that's what we give them with contact lenses.

Darryl Glover: I love that. And that fits perfectly with the name BeSpoke, right. So you got that touch, that experience that you create. I love every piece of that. Britt, we got to learn a little bit more about how contact lens has really driven your business. If you don't mind sharing your story and how that's helped to elevate and take it to the next level, my friend.

Britt Gustafson: Absolutely. And I loved what Selina said about contact lenses being a pillar of her practice. And I would say it's really a large pillar in my practice. We're a primary care practice, and being located within a corporate sublease, I think sometimes patients might come in with a certain perception of what they're going to experience or what I'm going to prescribe. And contact lenses have really been a conduit for me to elevate that expectation, and my patients know to expect more.

They know that I'm going to fit them in premium technology. Ultimately, I think the product that my patient walks out the door with serves as a reflection on me. And so I want that patient to experience contact lens wear, and vision like they should. And like I said, that reflects on me. So that's helped build my practice by giving my patients the best. They know I'm a resource for that. They know I'll keep them up to date on new technologies and keep them in contact lenses wearing them successfully.

Darryl Glover: I feel like there's a huge opportunity when it comes to driving your contact lens business, driving your practice to the next level, and it revolves around contacts. And I'm curious to know when it comes to patient selection, you got patients that have astigmatism, presbyopia, they like glasses only.                    

There's the whole concept of contact lens dropouts. What role do all these different conditions and patients play when it comes to you to decide which contact lens or if you're going to fit a patient with contact lenses?

Selina McGee: I think one of the biggest things, and Britt touched on this is what will differentiate you from your competitor down the street. Because when you have a patient who's been told, "No, you can't wear a contact lens " Or one of my favorites is they've always been an aspherical lens, but they've got three-quarters of a diopter of astigmatism, and you put them in a toric lens, and you get that clarity, and the patient's like, "Why wasn't I fit in this before?"

And so that's where I see the approach is differentiating yourself. And because we have this technology, it is not an age thing. It's not a prescription thing. It's do you have the motivation to fit this patient? And we do, and we have this technology that makes it much easier for us to do that without spending a lot of chair time, which I know a lot of doctors are concerned about when they get into maybe what they would consider a specialty lens, which I'm shocked at how low our toric patients are.

Like when you look at the whole as a profession, when you look at how many patients are in toric lenses and then single-use toric lenses, and then we all have seen those dropouts that happen with presbyopias too. And so I think there's just a real opportunity to differentiate yourself and lean into this technology and give your patients something different.

Darryl Glover: I love that. And what I'm hearing is you see opportunity at your fingertips, and you're practicing an inclusive way to incorporate all your patients and give them the opportunity to fit them with contacts because, to your point, the technology, the innovation, there's no learning curve to this. This is pretty easy.

Alcon has done a fantastic job with their technology to be able to place that lens on that patient's eye and have them see sharply and acutely, but most importantly, have that comfort that they're looking for. Britt, I'm curious to know, what do you doing in your practice when it comes to selecting patients. Do you have a certain patient base that you're looking at or do you offer this to every patient that walks through the door?

Britt Gustafson: Any patient that is a contact lens candidate, it's my goal to introduce them to contact lenses. Not every patient's going to accept that every year, but I always want to plant that seed because we never know that patient might be training for a marathon in a few months and having their glasses slide down their nose and think, "You know what? Dr. Gustafson told me there's a different way." And so I want to be that resource.

And one of the things that's shocked me throughout my years of practice is that patients don't ask. So if patients who have astigmatism or presbyopia have been told at any point in their life by an eye care practitioner that they're not a great candidate for contact lenses, they will almost never bring it up again. So it's so incumbent upon us as eye care providers to give patients that opportunity. And Selina mentioned differentiating yourself from competitors, and that's something contact lenses have done from my office as well.

My practice in a heavily saturated suburb. I think I have six practices within a one-mile radius of my office, all fantastic doctors. So I really want to provide a resource for my patients that they know they can come see me for a presbyopic correction or astigmatic correction, or if they're just not getting the right answers on contact lenses that I can be that resource for them.

Darryl Glover: I love that. And I love that both of you, as optometrists, are taking that stance of offering it to every patient that has a healthy eye to be able to fit them with contact lens. But I think also when it comes to this conversation, we have to include our team members.

So I'm curious to know when it comes to presenting new technology and new opportunities in the contact lens space, how do you communicate with your team to be able to have this conversation and plant that seed before they even walk into that exam room?

Selina McGee: So, for me, this is something that should be introduced, and as Britt said, you plant a seed, and the more you plant that seed, the bigger that's going to grow. And so we are very intentional about how we train, and it actually starts on the website and then followed quickly by that first phone call and that first touch point, we ask every single patient, "Do you wear contact lenses? Would you like to wear contact lenses" when they make their exam because we tailor their scheduling appointment based on that information.

And then when the patient comes in, they're asked again by our director of first impressions, and then when the technician takes them back, they're asked a third time. So, to Britt's point, the more that you plant this seed, the more the patient is apt to lean into that. And we're all really busy. We have seven to 10 minutes of face time to do all the things in the exam room. And so it really behooves us to surround ourselves with people that can have these conversations, that can lob the softball, if you will, so that we can then hit it out of the park for the patient.

And so I think it is so important to have a system in place, and I encourage docs not to just rely on people, but your system that the people can run and manage because maybe your people change, but maybe your system doesn't change, you just adapt. I think that's really important in a time where I know a lot of practices across the country struggle with maintaining staff consistently, so I think you really should go to the drawing board and look at your systems and put things in place like Britt talked about too. And so I'm curious what she's doing, but that's some of the things that we have done.

Darryl Glover: Yeah, I mean, I love that. And the thing that I really love is that you have really studied and mastered that patient journey, and I love that the patient journey for you does not start when they walk into that office or your exam room. There's a lot of our colleagues that that's where they really start getting all the details about what's going on with the patient. But you're taking a different approach. You're starting with a phone call. You're starting with online.

They're getting access to opportunities by just going to your website. And I think that's key, especially in today's society, because think about yourself like a patient. What do you do whenever you want some information? You go to a website, you go to a social media platform, so you got to figure out how to communicate with these patients, but most importantly, you got to start before they even walk into the office. Britt, how are you getting started with patients when it comes to this?

Britt Gustafson: Right. I think I would build on what Selina said so well. What I heard her talking about was continuity and having a consistent patient experience and exposure. And I love that she has a director of first impressions. That's so great. And that's something I try to do in my office is if patients call in to schedule, we'll say, "Do you wear glasses or glasses and contact lenses?" Like Selina, we ask, "Are you interested in trying contact lenses?"

My technicians know when they're working up a patient, if that patient is a glasses-only patient, to mention something about a contact lens technology that they would be eligible for to again plant that seed. Or in my patients that are in a reusable technology to mention, "Ask Dr. Gustafson about trying a daily disposable single-use lens." So to get that patient thinking about it.

And that really plants the foundation so that when I come in and talk to the patient, they've already had a little time to consider that and mull it over, and then I can make my recommendation from there. The opticians in the optical what I like them to do is reinforce when the patients are purchasing their contact lenses saying, "Hey, Dr. Gustafson wears Dailies Total1 Multifocal as well and that's a great lens." And just kind of wrapping up that experience so that the patients are hearing about that at every point in their journey.

Darryl Glover: That is fantastic. I mean, what I'm hearing is teamwork makes the dream work. It's no doubt about that, right. But also the importance of having communication, but most importantly, making it more personable when you can say that you as a doctor or one of your team members can say themselves wear a certain contact lens, it just hits differently with the patient. They now want what you have because they know that you're the expert, and they want to have the exact thing that the expert has.

And with Alcon's products, it has really created an amazing portfolio that allows us to really give patients something that's very special, but that's going to really help out with comfort and also vision. Now, I'm curious to know, when it comes to your patients that walk through your practice, what are the most common reasons you're seeing patients come in and asking for contact lens? I know for myself, I have a lot of patients that are in that 40 to about 48-year mark or range that are primarily women.

And I feel like it's that change in life to going for that new look. So they may want to ditch the glasses and jump into contact lens. So that's what I'm seeing in regards to new opportunities that may walk through my door. But then also, of course, young kids that may play sports or teenagers that want to do away with glasses or bounce back and forth between the two. But I'm curious, Britt, what are you seeing in your practice when it comes to common reasons that patients are looking to try new contact lenses?

Britt Gustafson: I agree exactly with what you said, Darryl. A lot of people making that transition, as you said, into presbyopia and who are tired of reading glasses and hauling cheaters with them everywhere. And we have a ton of kids getting into sports. I practice in Minnesota, and hockey is a big sport here. Basically, once kids can walk, they're out on the ice playing hockey. So if you have glasses, of course, playing any sort of sport where there's temperature changes, I mean the glasses are fogging up. That's not ideal.

So those are probably my youngest contact lens wearers. I think I saw my oldest contact lens wearer last week. He's 87 and still wearing contact lenses. So the common thread between all of those patients is they just want freedom from glasses. There's different reasons that they want that freedom, but at the end of the day, sometimes that's self-image, sometimes it's occupation or hobbies, but just that flexibility to live their life without the restriction of glasses.

Darryl Glover: This special edition episode of Mod Pod is sponsored by Alcon. Thank you Alcon for partnering with us on this episode.

I love that you touched on all those different age demographics, right. I know sometimes we get a little lost in the sauce that we want focus primarily on that middle-aged group. We want to give them all these different solutions for all the different things, but let's be real. Kids have a lot of things that they do. They're playing sports. They're in school. They're traveling with their family. So what can we do to create the right option for them when it comes to fitting contacts?

And to your point, you may have some more seasoned folks that may need a daily lens for a certain activity and may want a reusable lens for something else. So it's a great opportunity to really sit down and analyze that patient that's in front of you regardless of their age and make sure they have the right solution. Selina, what are you doing in your practice in regards to the most common reasons that patients are interested in trying new lenses?

Selina McGee: I see a lot of what you guys see too. There's a third pillar here that patients are a lot of times looking for something to improve that's situational. And we've kind of talked about it with younger kids. If they play sports, they may want contact lenses. To Britt's point, nobody's going to play hockey with their glasses all fogged up. But there's also a lot of my patients that want something situational, whether it's, we talked about earlier, you're training for a marathon, or they're going to a sporting event, I had a lady today that bought a new road bike.

And so there's these opportunities also for these situational places. And I think the key word that I hear from people is whatever their motivation is, it's, typically, because they're frustrated with what they're currently doing. And that's where I see such a big opportunity because, for whatever reason, patients believe they only get one choice in the way that they see, you know, one pair of glasses or contact lenses. And that's the biggest place that I talk to patients about is, "Yes, you get to have more than one spectacle lens." I mean, we write three. We write an everyday spectacle lens, a workspace pair, and sun lenses. "And then also, what would you think about having contact lenses that you use for this activity?

Or maybe we do a contact lens for this activity, and you wear a multifocal for this one." And so that's where I really tried to move towards is offering patients this situational, and Britt said it really well, flexibility in how we achieve their best vision. None of us own one pair of shoes. I mean, at this point in time, none of us even own one device. We have a laptop, we have a phone, we have 42-inch monitors that we're looking at with a desktop, typically two or three screens. And so that's where I'm really trying to give patients something different, like we talked about, in the flexibility to handle whatever situation that they're in.

Darryl Glover: Oh, man. You two are preaching in here. I mean, we're talking about situational ability, we're talking about flexibility, we're talking about freedom, we're talking about things to really enhance that patient experience. You got to think about all of this. Another piece that I love is when a patient comes in and they say they don't want to have anything to do with contact lens. I think those patients are actually great candidates to have this conversation with because they may not be as knowledgeable. So it's great to go back to planting that seed but also educate them more.

And a lot of times, I'll see some patients actually say, "Hey, I want to make that jump. Let me try it out, Dr. Glover." And I'll put the lens on their eyes. And before you know it, they're doing the insertion and removal training, and they're out of the office, right. So even those patients that say no, kind of probe a little bit more, dig a little bit more, and see what those patients say because you'll be surprised if you give them a little knowledge and when you educate them about some of the amazing technology like Alcon's WaterInnovations contact lenses, it'll be a game changer for you. Have you ladies seen that in your practice as well?

Selina McGee: I mean, Darryl, you know me. I love to prove people wrong. So yes, I love that. And we try to create wows in our practice. I mean, that's what makes it so fun to practice and give people the gift of sight. And I will never forget, I had a minus nine myope, and I really took it for granted. And he was in a single-use lens. He'd been in it for a long time, and he wrote me this thank you note, and it literally said, "Thank you for giving me the gift of sight."

And it's something I think that we take for granted because we do it all day, every day. But I think if we just are intentional about how we spend the time, and where are those moments that you can create a wow, and where are those moments that you can do something different for that patient and prove them wrong because they have a preconceived notion coming in? I love that. That's the magic of what we do. And so I look for places to do that, and you can do that with a contact lens all day, every day.

Darryl Glover: I love that. And I want to spend some time on this because I like to create that wow factor. I like to create an experience. I like to make movies in my office. I want everyone to be the star, and I want to help them become that star, right.

But whenever you have a patient that is truly receptive to trying contact lens either for the first time or for a new reason, what are your leading decision drivers to choose a contact lens? What role of innovation and Alcon's WaterInnovations lenses does that play in your decision? I love to know what your thought and what your mindset is when it comes to this, Britt.

Britt Gustafson: I just feel so confident in the WaterInnovations portfolio that my patients will succeed. We all know comfort is king. If a patient can see razor sharp, but the lens isn't comfortable, that's not a successful fit.

Darryl Glover: Right.

Britt Gustafson: So we've got to get patients into something that's comfortable. And that's why the WaterInnovations portfolio is my go-to in my practice. I have such a huge range of parameters. I have reusable lenses, Dailies lenses, so I really have a ton of flexibility to tailor my prescription to what patient's needs are. And the transformation in how I practice within my contact lens practice since WaterInnovations technology came out is huge.

I talk to my patients differently. I have different expectations, and I get different reactions from my patients. Like Selina was saying, that we really do take it for granted. We can really do a lot of amazing things and change people's lives with contact lenses. And I think we've all kind of maybe become a little bit numb to just how incredible the technology is that we have access to and how that can impact our patient's lives.

Darryl Glover: Oh man, I love that. How about yourself, Selina?

Selina McGee: Well, I was going to say, and Britt said it earlier just in a different context, is continuity. And so for me, I mean, we're busy. We're trying to learn all of these things. I can't keep up with technology. I can't keep up with how many studies I need to read. I just can't keep up, period. And so the WaterInnovations portfolio helps me because I understand how it works with one lens, and then it's all across the board whether I am pulling a daily lens, a reusable lens, a toric lens, a multifocal lens, I don't have to relearn the technology behind each lens because I have that in the entire portfolio.

And then one of the things that I often have patients that maybe they're a little bit difficult fit with a typical just off-the-shelf lens, but I fit a lot of Dailies Total1, and I actually wear this lens myself. We measure HBID on everyone. If you've got somebody that's got a large HBID and you have somebody with a flat cornea, they're typically not going to do well with a lens that's just off the shelf. But what I love about Dailies Total1 is the sagittal depth on that lens is one of the largest in the market.

And so for those fits where things just maybe don't quite make sense, but if you look at HBID and if you look at a flat K, that lens works really well. And I know this because I am that patient. And I remember the very first time that I put on a Dailies Total1, and I was like, "Whoa, this is different." And this is the lens that I've worn all through my journey. So when I switched from a reusable lens, it went to a Dailies Total1.

And now I have moved into the Dailies Total1 multifocal. Wink, wink. Don't tell anyone. But I've moved into that. And so my patients are aging with me. And so, to Britt's point, that gives us such confidence because when you know the technology and you know the lens when the patient needs a different level or a different power or a different modality, you have that confidence to fit it because you have that whole technology in this portfolio.

Darryl Glover: Something that you touched on, both of you, is comfort. Someone mentioned earlier, comfort is king, right. And we live in a world where it's very dynamic. We're not just sitting still. Our eyes are doing all types of things.

It's an aging population. We're traveling. We're scrolling social media. We're not blinking enough. And that can sometimes lead to discomfort with the eyes and cause some discomfort when it comes to contact lenses. I'm curious, what percentage of your patients do you find that tend to have contact lens discomfort in your practice?

Britt Gustafson: In my practice, I would say at least 40% of patients, and we specifically ask each patient because I've found patients don't necessarily view what they're experiencing as discomfort. They view that as a necessary trade-off in order to continue wearing contact lenses. And so, we ask patients, "What time of day do your contact lenses dry out" to really pinpoint what their wearing reality is.

And sometimes patients say one o'clock in the afternoon, sometimes they say 11 o'clock at night. I know that 11 o'clock at night patient is successful. I know that one o'clock patient in the afternoon that's somebody who needs a different technology. And then I can make that prescription and tie that to what the patient told me and make it personal for them.

Selina McGee: I love that. And I learned this from Britt last week, and I used it this week in clinic. And the way that she phrases that question, "What time do your lenses dry out?" The reason that's so powerful is because, A, the patient is sitting in the chair thinks, "Well, everybody's lenses dry out. This is normal. I'm going to be honest." And it's a forced choice.

They can't just say, "Oh, they're fine or they're good. No, my lenses are great." The things that we sometimes typically hear. And so I've changed how I asked this question, what time do your lenses dry out? Because it does give us so much information, and then we can adjust accordingly. But Darryl, you asked the question what percentage?

It's really high. And our visual demands are so incredible between device use and just people don't get enough sleep. We don't drink enough water. There's multitudes of reasons. People are on a lot of medications that we need technology that has this WaterInnovations technology inside it.

Darryl Glover: These patients can actually go the entire day for my patient base and be successful whenever they're out there wearing contacts with this high visual demand that you mentioned, Selina. Selina and Britt, this has been fantastic. You have really given me some major game, and I know all my colleagues out there are going to be able to go into their practice tomorrow and change the game.

But I would love to know what last piece of advice would you love to give to our optometry community out there about how they can truly build more momentum in their contact lens segment of their practices. If you could leave one pearl or one gem, what would it be, Britt?

Britt Gustafson: I go back to something that you said, Darryl. You said we're the experts. And that's so true, and I don't think all of our colleagues embrace that. I know I didn't when I was a new practitioner. So I would say really embrace your role as the expert and make that strong recommendation. Don't shy away, and don't worry about what the patient's concerns on price may or may not be. Just recommend what you feel is best and take it from there.

Darryl Glover: Yes, give them the solution. Let them figure all that other part out upfront, but always provide solutions for the patients. Selina, bring us home, my friend.

Selina McGee: Love it. So I would tell doctors be very intentional about your contact lens practice. That doesn't mean leaving it up to your contact lens technician, your front desk manager, your office manager, your optician, or anywhere else in the office. You be intentional about what you want to provide to your patients. And take that, that Britt just said, become a subject matter expert and start with a toric lens. Then go to a multifocal.

You don't have to do it all overnight, but I think if you're very intentional and just ask one question differently, and I would start with Britt's question, what time do your lenses dry out? Just start with that. But do something intentional about building your contact lens practice, and then see where it takes you.

Darryl Glover: I love it. Be the expert. Be intentional. Communicate. Teamwork makes the dream work. Involve everyone in that practice and take it to the next level. This has been fantastic. I want to thank the audience for hanging out with us on the MOD Pod. Stay tuned for the next episode.

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