By Rachel Lajunen
Ottawa residents can now consult family members abroad when they purchase a new pair of glasses. This is a possibility that is being offered by Albert Opticians’ new video conferencing camera.
The Centretown business has been offering the new service since early October.
Co-owner Michèle Fournier says she doesn’t know of any other optician in Ottawa offering the cyber service.
Here’s how it works: a client books an appointment after narrowing down their frame selection. Then, an optician takes pictures of him or her wearing the frames from any one of the three video conferencing cameras in the store. Their pictures are then displayed on a computer screen and saved on the store’s Web site for about a week, depending on when the client accesses the picture. From there, the client’s photos can be e-mailed to friends and family.
Fournier became interested in the service after noticing how time consuming frame shopping was for her customers.
Some customers would come back several times with a friend after the initial consultation because the frames were difficult to describe, she says.
If their friend has video conferencing equipment at their home or office, they too can participate in the frame choosing process by logging onto the businesses’ Web site at www.albertopticians.com. They can help a friend choose from one of the 3,000 frames in the store ranging in price from $85 to about $1,000.
Fournier says the service also helps people who wear stronger prescription glasses. With the new system, these clients can choose the frames on their own. They are photographed wearing their selected frames and once their picture appears on the screen, the client puts on their prescription glasses to see a clear image that was blurred earlier.
The cyber service is not for everyone.
Take customer Lynn Reynolds, who bought a pair of Frédéric Fekkai sunglasses from Fournier without using the computer system. Reynold’s took her professional advice because she “knows the style.”
“I probably wouldn’t think to ask an opinion of friends and family but I’ll ask the professionals,” she says. “I like to try them the old-fashioned way.”
Jim Veitch, owner of Winter Jack Opticians on Elgin Street agrees. He prefers a one-on-one approach with clients because it has been effective for his business.
“I’m from the old school,” he says. “When I go to the bank, I want to give my money to a teller, not a machine.”
Veitch doesn’t see the new system as a threat to other optical businesses but as something that some companies may use as a means of attracting a greater clientele, he says.
“Each company has its own way of doing business,” he says. “If it’s their niche, more power to them.”
The system is not a necessity for other businesses but a tool that eases the process of choosing frames for the customer, says Fournier.
“I don’t think it’s a ‘have to’ situation but, hopefully it will help the clients in our end,” she says.
The new system costs approximately $20,000. Fournier says it took three months to clean out all the glitches within the current system.
The business changed cameras several times before deciding on the current Kodak video conferencing cameras, Samsung flat-screen monitors and Kodak Picture-Works Live computer software.
Not all businesses will be able to afford the new system, says Veitch.
It’s too early to estimate expected profits from the investment, Fournier says.
However, she says in about six to nine months these statistics will be known, after they are measured through surveys and questionnaires from customers using the new system.
The free service is available to customers by appointment. She adds that the service is also for quick walk-in clients, those who have chosen their frames and want to send a picture of themselves wearing their new frames to a friend or family member.