We recently passed our 20 year anniversary of manufacturing eye vitamins. So it's a good morning to reflect on how we manage to continue our success, year after year, while other vitamin companies and resellers close shop. And the answers are more than boasting (and it's not really boasting if we're telling our VisiVite family is it?). No, the answers help you to confirm the thoughtful choice you made when you trusted us with your eye health.
I founded Vitamin Science, the company that makes VisiVite vitamins, in 2001 with an idea to make it easy for people to find premium quality eye nutrition that was targeted to their specific needs, and most importantly, was based on both the leading eye and nutritional science. But the truth is that there are now many processes and people that play a critical role in our success - and YOUR success.
And the three core pillars of what makes VisiVite eye vitamins special are: 1) Consistent Science, 2) Consistent Quality, and 3) Consistent Message. It is the consistency of what we do that has enabled you to trust us with your eye health for so many years.
1. It begins with the science.
As a physician, I have special training to be able to decipher the results of published research. I'm a curmudgeon when it comes to what has been definitively proven versus what is popular this month, no matter how convincing a writer can make it seem. I'm a fan of the gold standard scientific publications - placebo controlled, prospective, randomized trials. And I'm oh-so-dubious about case reports ("I knew a person that this helped.") and its cousin, the after-the-fact-correlative-observation ("People who traveled to California in September had such and such..."). In short, there is good, hard science that is the core of VisiVite's foundation, and there is schlock science that fills up pages for eyeballs and ad dollars.
2. Quality - You've got to test
When VisiVite and other nutritional products were being presented at professional meetings, such as the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Society of Retinal Specialists, it was shocking to me that other companies did not test their own products for purity and potency. In short, they trusted their manufacturer to deliver what was on the label. But eye vitamins are no different from other nutritional supplements. And study after study has found that two-thirds of supplements, including from large companies on drugstore shelves, do not contain what is listed on their label. Since our inception, we've tested using independent third party laboratories. Because frankly, I wouldn't be able to put my head on my pillow each night not knowing that VisiVite customers weren't getting the purest ingredients that were meeting our label claims. Fortunately, we have a dedicated team of highly knowledgable manufacturers whose superb processes are the envy of the industry, and that go far beyond the minimum requirements of GMP (Good Manufacturing Process) guidelines.
3. Messaging and Communication
If you've been with us for a while, you know that we are all personally interested in your eye health. Even though we've grown into a much larger company with many moving parts and people than I ever envisioned in 2001, you never feel like a number. And when you have great products that have stood the test of time, it makes it a lot easier to feel good about what we do every day. But here is where I think we most excel. Sure, I keep you in the loop with my emails about eye and body health, and sometimes chime in on my thoughts about life or the state of the world. But if you've been lucky enough to interact with our customer service team, you've likely enjoyed one of the most pleasant and helpful interactions all day. Our crew that ships our thousands of orders does so not only in snow, rain, or gloom of night, but has done so with an astounding 0% error rate, through the Covid pandemic. In contrast with other companies that hire and fire each year, we've had the same customer service experts and state-of-the-art shipping facility since our beginning. And that consistency shows.
So thank you for an astounding 20 years as the trusted caretaker for your eye health. Although I'm now much more in the background than I was in 2001, our team of more than one hundred dedicated individuals continues to deliver to you the science-based, premium quality nutritional products for your eye health as if you were a member of our own families. And frankly, you are.
