Managing contact lens stock has always been a bit of a faff. Then there’s the added complication of solutions. How many do you stock, do you prescribe them with lenses and how much stock should you carry?
One company offering a service promising to remove such headaches is Adaro. Using experience from other markets it has started offering a contact lens fulfilment service which it claims can free up time, save money and allow practices to open up new avenues of business.
From the Adaro head office set in a charming town in deepest Kent, Tim Ralph, managing director, explains how it all works. The practice simply signs up to Adaro’s online systems and tells us what it requires, he says. It can choose solutions, or lenses from any manufacturer. Adaro orders the various products on behalf of the practice and bundles them together in a branded package for the practice and personalised for the patient. This is then mailed to the patient or the practice.
While the basic contact lens model works, Ralph is now trying to move the service into new areas of business such as drops, supplements, dry eye treatments or any product that requires a regular delivery. He is also looking to grow the number of independent practices he works with from 300 to 600 by the end of the year.
Ralph hopes to do this by explaining how the service can help practices, patients and suppliers. He claims that practices save anything up to four hours a day by not having to complete the paperwork necessary to compile individual orders and replenish stock from various vendors. It also means patients are on a direct debit to pay for their lenses, which also reduces dropouts and improves cash flow. ‘The practice just tells us who needs what and at what frequency. We place the order with the supplier against the customer’s order number and the practice is billed.
Kevin Bartlett, practice manager at Tompkins, Knight and Son Optometrists, Northampton, sees the benefits to the practice as simplicity. ‘Adaro allows the practice to use one online system for managing all contact lens and solutions deliveries as well as any supplements such as Macushield. This means we only have to log into one account to view and manage all the delivery information for our patients – no need for colleagues to remember multiple passwords.’
Improved cash flow
It doesn’t change any of the relationships with the customers at all, says Ralph. The Adaro system does away with the need to carry a large range of stock lenses, thereby aiding cash flow. Bartlett, who organised the arrangement between Adaro and Tompkins, Knight and Sons, agrees. ‘Using Adaro is enabling us to improve efficiency to deal with patient delivery-related enquiries more quickly – less time spent on the phone to the patient or supplier websites looking for the answer. Time is being freed up for our staff to spend more time with the patients in the practice – a better service for everyone. We are also decreasing the amount of solution stock held in the practice so less value is sat in a cupboard.’
As Adaro will bundle any products from any manufacturer, it also means the practice can specify particular solutions and use contact lenses from any supplier, says Ralph. This has a dual benefit of making sure the patient uses the right solution, potentially reducing dropouts, and it stops the patients going online or to a supermarket to buy solutions or replacement lenses.
‘Unlike direct-to-patient deliveries sent from the manufacturers, Adaro packs are branded as the practice ensuring that we are engaging with our patients in between their visits,’ adds Bartlett. ‘The enclosed delivery note has space for a marketing message to encourage the next purchase. Leaflets and flyers can be included with Adaro packs, handy for AMD patients for whom monitoring on an Amsler grid is recommended. We know they lose them or forget to check and so with each delivery of Macushield the patient receives a new Amsler grid, also practice branded, reinforcing the message that this simple check is important.’
Ralph says in this way the patients benefit from a steady supply of lenses and solutions delivered on a timescale and frequency that suits them. They also get the best products as the practitioner is free to prescribe the best option and not be tempted to prescribe the most convenient.
Adaro has proven extremely efficient in scenarios where some manufacturers can let us down, says Bartlett. ‘When a product is delayed, Adaro chases and advises and for “out of stock” issues trial lenses to keep the patient going. No chasing is required from us and the first we know of any problem is when Adaro customer services representatives contact us to let us know what has happened and how it is being resolved.’
Suppliers also benefit, says Ralph as they only have to make a single stock delivery to Adaro rather than multiple destinations. ‘We get a single delivery from the supplier each day, so it’s saving them money.’ Adaro bundles the product with the prescribed solutions, brands it to the practice and then personalises it for the patient before sending it to the patient or practice.
The service started off doing home delivery but has since developed. ‘When practices realised customers had personalised bundles coming through they asked us if we could deliver them to the practice.’ This was evolved further to weekly deliveries and more practice branding on products for bigger customers and vouchers and offers printed on the branded delivery notes.
This allows complex orders such as a patient with a J&J lens in one eye and an Alcon lens in the other bundled up with different solutions for each lens. ‘They are making up their own bundles. The big players can’t do that,’ Ralph adds.
‘Using Adaro means that we can use any lens/solution manufacturer combination,’ says Bartlett. These are delivered to the patient as a bundle. It has removed the need for patients to collect solutions from the practice separately, ensuring they receive a convenient service.’
It also has clinical benefits. ‘By ensuring the lenses and solutions are sent to the patient at the appropriate replacement intervals, we can further encourage patients to avoid overuse or keeping a solution bottle open past its “use by” date helping us to improve compliance,’ he adds.
New opportunities
While on one level the Adaro system is about logistics, Ralph says it can also have other effects on the way practices work. ‘I want my customers to think more about health plans,’ he adds. This could lead to new opportunities. ‘If a patient suffers with hayfever he may need some drops during the spring.’ Other areas such as dry eye are perfect for this system, he says, and it’s great for retention and fulfils a patient need.
Adaro currently has 300 practices using the £3 per package service and Ralph is aiming to increase that to 600 by the end of the year. He’s relying on early adopters and word of mouth to spread the message that Adaro is suited to practices taking on the medical model of optics. He says by using Adaro, independents can get a head start on new areas of business without having to manage all the stock requirements. ‘The independents love it’. Certainly the 300 who currently use the service seem to if Bartlett’s comments are representative.
‘There has been no difference to our relationships with most suppliers as all orders placed with Adaro are made through our existing accounts and billed directly to us – just delivered to Adaro instead.’ One exception is Sauflon, which doesn’t currently support Adaro. ‘Some of our patients are being moved away from Sauflon products to alternatives so that they can also receive the benefits of the full service.’
Perhaps Sauflon’s new owner may re-think that particular policy.
