Customer Service Centerpiece

Customer service is the essential cornerstone of Sterling Optical's operation in the Virgin Islands.  The action of this philosophy starts when our patients are greeted at the entrance and are invited in with the mind set that our patients will be treated as our guests, our family members and our boss.

It is a great honor to be given the opportunity to serve them.

Each patient is addressed by their names and title while they are in our environment.  They are provided with all the information that is necessary to have the experience in our environment fear free and most fulfilling.  Our product offering is exacted to meet our patient's needs.  All children are dispensed polycarbonate lenses.

Living in the tropics bring challenges in regards to eye care; with high exposure to sunlight, one can observe higher incidents of pyterigium and cataracts.

For this reason, Transitions lenses and polarized sunglasses are a major part of our product offering.  We have a 75% penetration rate of Transitions lenses; since we live on islands in the Caribbean which are surrounded by the sea, our air is charged with sodium chloride, average temperatures are 85 degrees, and the pressure of humidity.

Our frame inventory is comprised of seventy to eighty percent frames made of titanium, stainless steel, and plastic; this is the case because other frames corrode tremendously in the environment.

Our employees are continuously trained and undergo continuing education, so they can respond to our customer's needs with the most updated techniques and technology available.

Our goal is improved vision with the highest level of customer service possible.  Superlative customer service, superior quality products and competitive pricing has led to tremendous success.

Corporate Citizen

Being a good corporate citizen, helping the community in which we live, is a major tenant of our lives.  We feel that by investing in the education of our youth, we would be making a capital investment in the future.

Six years ago, we initiated a scholarship fund to help graduating seniors on the islands with their college expenses.  In the first year, we helped four graduating seniors.  In 2008, we expanded to help nine students by giving each student $1,250 to help with their college expenses.  Several students have since graduated with their undergraduate degree, with many going on to graduate school.

Lisa Adams and Joel Mahepath bought the Sterling Optical franchise on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands in July 1997.  A second location was subsequently opened on St. Thomas in March 1999.  Prior to Sterling Optical's opening, a monopoly existed in the eye care business in the Virgin Islands.

On St. Croix, which is our home base, our patient base is approximately 23,000 patients in a population of 50,000 people or between seventy-five to eighty-five percent of the market of people needing eye care.  For the first time, instead of spending hundreds of dollars for a pair of eyeglasses, people had the opportunity of purchasing a complete pair of glasses starting as low as $99.

Lisa Adams-Mahepath, O.D.

Lisa grew up and attended grade and high school on St. Croix.  She attended Farleigh Dickerson University in New Jersey for an undergraduate degree and attended the Pennsylvania University of Optometry where she obtained a Doctorate in Optometry.  She has served as a member of the Board of Optometry in the Virgin Islands for seven years.  Dr. Adams-Mahepath has been associated with the National Board of Examiners of Optometry serving as a clinical examiner, senior clinical examiner and assistant chief examiner in several locations around the country, including Puerto Rico, Pennsylvania, Tenessee and Texas.

Joel Mahepath

Joel Mahepath spent fourteen years in the pharmaceutical industry before his entry into the eye care business eleven years ago.

His last position was managing director of Virgin Island Pharmacia, a subsidiary of Pharmacia.  He also served as an adjunct professor at the University of the Virgin Islands, teaching in the business program both at the undergraduate and MBA level.

Joel Mahepath has a BS, MBA and is a DIBA (candidate - NOVA South Western University).