Today we received a large promotional pamphlet from Transitions, the world leader in colour changing self-tinting lens technology. We have discussed the benefits and performance of Transitions lenses before and if you are interested in refreshing your memory, you can do so by clicking here. This particular promotion is aimed at promoting Transitions lenses and offering them to every single customer who enters an optometry practice or optical shop. There is a grand prize of $20,000 offered for the person who purchases a pair of Transitions and wins the “Live Your Vision” photo competition during the months of June and July. But then there is also a prize for the optical practice where the client bought her/his Transition lenses. Great news? Maybe, maybe not! You see as professionals, we should only recommend what we feel is of benefit to you our client, not something that promises us to win great prizes.

No doubt that Transitions lenses are a great choice for many people. And we like them too, we really do. And we recommend them to many of our clients.

So, if we feel, after asking you many questions in relation to your expectations, lifestyle, work requirements etc., that you may benefit, we most certainly discuss Transitions lenses with you. No problem so far.

But…..

…..in our practice it goes without saying, that we will only recommend what we feel is best for you and your eyes, not what wholesalers and/or manufacturers want us to sell you. If that happens to be Transitions lenses, then so be it. You can rest assured, should we feel there are better solutions for you than a Transitions lenses, then we will recommend those. You see, the problem we have with a promotion like this is that Transitions (the company) are sending around “Mystery Shoppers” (officially they are actually called “Pseudo Shoppers”), whose job it is to check up on the eyecare professional to see if they really recommend their product to everyone entering the shop regardless of the reason for the visit.

Instead of recommending Transitions lenses to everyone, we will continue to offer them to all our clients who may truly benefit from them, visually and cosmetically. That is a promise! Somehow the “would you like fries with that” approach doesn’t appeal to us.

One thing should be said though: Transitions do have a wonderful guarantee, at least until the end of this year! If you do buy a pair of Transitions lenses, be that on recommendation of your eyecare professional, or just because you wanted to try them, and if you are not entirely happy with their performance, Transitions will replace them with clear lenses at no cost to you.

I know that a post like this may not necessarily make us the “best friend” of Transitions the company. But – that is not really our concern, is it? Our concern is to give you, our client, what we believe is our best possible advice in an ethical manner. It’s as simple as that!