BUSINESS New Hartford Eye Associates Sees the Value in Virtual Try-On Galleries By Marge Axelrad and Andrew Karp Sunday, April 25, 2021 11:56 AM RELATED CONTENT Modern Optics ReVision Optometry Takes Toplogy’s TOP for a Test Run ACEP’s Smart Mirror Helps Dispensers Sell Features and Benefits of Products Shamir’s Spark Mi Up Allows for a Safer Patient Experience Village Opticians, Early Adopter of OptikamPad, Continues to Rely on the Technology Clear View Vision Care Leverages Zeiss’ Technology to Set Itself Apart from the Pack Luxottica’s PromoBoxx Helps Patients See Brand Stories Clearly Hoya Spectangle’s Position of Wear Measurements Offer True Personalization Online Appointment Booking Also Creates Learning Opportunities for Patients New Hartford Eye Associates New Hartford, NY Digital Technology Snapshot: My Frame Gallery/Frames Data In Central New York State’s Oneida County, New Hartford Eye Associates, a Vision Source practice, has succeeded in cultivating a great reputation among the customers and patients in the markets it serves. For four years, the practice has won the Best Optometrists designation from local media, its doctors and staff creating a destination for patients in the upstate region. Denys Meade, New Hartford’s practice manager for 15 years, has started to embrace new types of technology.Scroll down to read more... Denys Meade, Practice Manager, New Hartford Eye Associates New Hartford encourages its patients to “Experience Modern Eyecare.” An example is an online gallery, culled from the brands they feature in the practice, a service powered by Frames Data’s My Frame Gallery. Meade said that it is something that can encourage patients to scroll through selections and choose eyewear models and shapes and colors that appeal to them, then save them to a Wish List, so they can be set aside for the patient’s on-premises appointment. It helps give the opticians a sense of what the patients’ inclinations are, so they can provide further guidance for fit and size. Meade recalls using My Frame Gallery for a virtual trunk show as well, to emphasize three different frame lines in the annual “Glitz, Glam, Glasses” event which for eight years was held in person and in 2020, needed a new approach. She emailed the link to the online gallery to customers, posted to Facebook and put it on YouTube. It was a huge success. And since then, the practice has incorporated a wider mix of its product selection into its Online Gallery—and still maintained a second Online section to highlight special promotions. “Business is different, but we have brought the Gallery into the practice’s normal intake process, acclimating patients to the new system with instructions on how to use it and getting them used to the program becoming a new part of their yearly checkup and eyewear purchase.” Patients really love it, she added.