SMUDGE SOLUTIONS
Quality cleaning cloths can add value to the customer experience
This article originally appeared in the November-December 2015 edition of INVISION.
Picture this: A man is pushing his grocery cart down the soup aisle when, suddenly, he stops, pulls off his glasses and wipes them with the end of his shirt.
The average Joe may not see the harm in this commonly used method for cleaning glasses. But if you’re an eyewear pro, you cringe at the thought of someone grinding dust and debris into an innocent lens with whatever they happen to be wearing at the time. Such guerrilla eyewear maintenance can be stopped, but only if your customer is equipped with a high-quality, microfiber cleaning cloth or another equally effective cleaning product.
Some ECPs offer their own cleaning cloths when they aren’t satisfied with the ones provided by the eyewear manufacturer. Many vendors can supply quality cloths branded with an ECP’s logo that not only do a good job of keeping lenses clean and clear, but also remind people where they bought their glasses.
The right cloth should add value for your customer while enhancing your image. If you provide your clients a cloth that’s worth keeping, you may just keep your clients for life. — JESSE BURKHART
POINTS TO CONSIDER
➤ ECPs should look for a high-quality, microfiber cloth that has a high thread count. They should be able to feel that it’s lint-free, resilient and smooth. — Julian Pabon, OptiSource International
➤ Not all microfiber is the same. Depending on the fibers you choose, that’s going to determine the quality of the cloth. A lot of people want the cloth as a promotional tool, but in the optical business, it also has to clean lenses. We created this cloth (No. 2, at right) for ourselves. When we recreated our trade show booth, we wanted our handout cloth to match the graphics used in the booth. — Liza Fluke, Stormin’ Norman’s Optical Supplies
➤ ECPs should look at the quality of the imprint and make sure it’s clear, crisp and has the right information for them to market their practice or their store. — Eric Freudenheim, KleerSpex
➤ Safety of the lens is paramount. Patients are spending hundreds of dollars on lenses, so opticians have to be advocates for the patients and recommend the safest thing to use. — Daniel Patton, LensPen
WHAT ECPs SAY
Dorothy Reynolds
Optical Alternatives, Fairfield, CT
➤ The cloths we offer have our logo on them. It makes people remember our name because they see it every time they clean their glasses.
➤ Quality — or how long I think the cloth is going to last — is most important to me. I want customers to come back into the store, but not because (the cloth) wore out.
➤ Cloths have to be the right size: big enough to clean the whole lens in one wipe.
➤ Cloths that come with some frames disintegrate when you wash them. Not only does the cloth have to be washable, but how long you can use it before you have to wash it is important, too.