Training is essential for contact lens sales staff

Contact lens manufacturers are exploring ways in which the knowledge and quality of sales and technical staff can be measured through the introduction of third-party accreditation.

In an exclusive interview with Optician, to be published soon, CooperVision's UK & Ireland general manager, Michael Wilkinson, said it was essential that eye care practitioners could be confident that the advice and information they received from sales staff was of a sufficient standard.

Wilkinson, who took the helm at CooperVision just under a year ago, said this contention had been shaped by his experience in other industries. 'Having worked in other businesses such as pesticides I assumed that there would be some formal level of training that everyone should have to get up to and I'm surprised that there isn't a way of qualifying the sales people who go out and sell the products,' he said.