Hearing Aid Practitioners: Six Tips to Lower Operating Expenses

Hearing aid practitioners, whether owners of a single outlet or a chain of stores across a geo-specific service area, are feeling the pinch, just like all small business owners.

So, where can you cut back? Well, cutting back on services creates backlogs of evaluations and unhappy customers. Cutting back on marketing, which may seem like a natural, is actually the worst thing any small business owner can do during difficult economic times. This misstep will actually bring even fewer customers through the front door.

IS THIS CALL NECESSARY?

So, where can the hearing aid practitioner, or any small service provider, turn to cut some costs while still delivering the highest quality services. Time to pull out the company books to scour your operating costs. Guaranteed, you’ll find places to cut corners that clients won’t even see.

HVAC Tune-Up

What’s it cost to heat and cool your store? Well, depending on square footage, I’ll bet it’s a few hundred bucks a month, 12 months a year. A store that’s too hot or too cold isn’t inviting so creating the right environment is critical to keeping clients on site and comfortable.

A simple heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) tune-up can save hundreds, even thousands, of dollars annually. Caution: hire a company with HVAC certified technicians to make sure you’re getting the job done correctly.

Depending on the technician’s analysis, it may actually pay to replace the wheezing air-conditioner on the roof or the clanky old furnace in the basement. However, before you write the big check, get a second opinion and a second estimate from another HVAC professional.

Update Signage

Your outlet signs, seen from the street, are a constant reminder of your store’s presence for all of those vehicles that pass by each day. And sure enough, some of those drivers will be looking for a hearing aid  - and soon.

The signs visible from the street are excellent tools for driving store traffic. Of course, your signs must be in compliance with local zoning regs so check them out. Also, your signage should announce special services like “Walk-Ins Welcome.”

Clean, professional, compliant with local zoning regulations and eye-catching – never under-estimate the importance of signs, visible from the road, to pull in foot traffic.

Renegotiate Your Lease If You Rent Your Store

If times are tough, call the owner of your store and explain the situation. Offer to renegotiate the lease to keep your business viable.

Here’s the thing: if your store is in a strip mall or professional office building, the landlord would rather have some rent coming in than having to face the expense of finding a new tenant. A FOR RENT sign on a retail outlet is also bad for other businesses that make up the complex.

Don’t expect the store owner to do back flips but at least see if there’s some wiggle room. For example, renegotiate the lease with increasing rents so in the first or second year you’re paying less but as each year goes by, the rent increases and the property owner breaks even after six or seven years.

It’s important to avoid painting yourself into a corner, and in fact, don’t expect much negotiation from the landlord. However, consider cost-cutting options – handling your own trash pick-ups or window cleaning, for example. If you can save a few bucks here and there, it adds up, and may enable you to keep a valued staff member on payroll.

Telecommute the Staff

The back office – your bookkeeper, administrative assistant, hearing aid tech and others who don’t work directly with customers can often work from home simply by adding software to your in-store system.

Repairs can be done at the tech’s home and paperwork – most of which is digital – can be done anywhere there’s a high-speed digital connection. Offer up this benefit instead of a cash raise. You won’t have any trouble convincing store workers that missing the morning traffic jam is an improvement in quality of life.

Rotate Practitioners’ Schedules

If it comes down to letting go a valued professional, offer the option of sharing a position with other practitioners. Most co-workers will accept a small cut in their hours to enable you to keep a friend and co-worker on staff.

Cut Communication Costs

If you’re paying for a bank of cell phones, unlimited long-distance and caller ID on a business telephone, you’re spending money you don’t have to. Why pay for caller ID on a business phone? You’re going to answer any way, right?

If you’re paying for unlimited long-distance, but your service area only covers 25 square miles, you’re paying more than you have to for telephone service – even if your wholesaler is  a couple of time zones to the west.

Today, with the use of email, you can conduct a lot of business digitally and cut the costs of your telephone bill. Oh, and get rid of the cell phone – especially if there’s always someone in the store! Why pay the extra $100 a month so you can call a tech when you can email her free?

Think and save.

My Christmas Gift to You: An Ever-Expanding Customer Base

Happy Holidays

An expanding, stable customer or client base is the foundation for any business’ long-term success. Without these repeat buyers and consumers, the small, hearing aid dispenser must constantly market and mine for new business.

Remember the old adage: it’s much easier to keep a client than it is to find a new one. So, how do you keep your existing customers coming back? Here’s how I’ve done it and, after 35 years in hearing technology, these marketing and promotion strategies work.

They build businesses. Your business. Merry Christmas.

1. Reminder cards. Most small professional service providers send out reminder cards. I get one from the vet telling me it’s time for annual inoculations. Now, don’t get me wrong, my vet’s great, but I also know these reminder cards are sent out to drive business. (That reminds me, I have to make an appointment.)

But here’s the thing: I look at this reminder from my vet but all it tells me is that it’s time for an annual update for pets. Missed opportunity. These cards should not only serve as reminders that it’s time for the annual hearing evaluation, these same cards can be used to announce a special “Friends” sale, offer a discount, free services. In other words, don’t just tell your clients it’s time for a tuning.

Use these reminder cards as an opportunity to sell your services and introduce new products, lines and solutions to hearing problems. It won’t cost you any more in postage, but it will motivate more people to call for an appointment.

2. Offer free after-care and plenty of it. Things that have worked for me:

- free maintenance and cleaning for life

- free battery swaps for life

- free hearing evaluations for life

- reduced costs of tuning (save 20% on your next hearing aid tune-up)

- send out a newsletter every couple of months to keep the company’s name in front of existing customers. This shouldn’t be a sell sheet. Instead, keep it informational, educate your client base on the need for on-going exams, tunings and updates in technology.

3. Conduct free, in-store seminars. First time hearing aid buyers don’t have a clue what questions to ask of a hearing professional. They don’t know about the various options available to them, they don’t know the cost of a mid- and top-tier device.

A simple, one-hour chat in the store (with light refreshments) delivers prospects to the retail outlet and educates a group all at once instead of having to instruct each consumer individually.

4. Contact customers by telephone. I use MS Outlook to create an automated reminder system to call certain customers on certain days.

The client will have questions. New hearing aid wearers also want to know you care and that you provide them with reassurance during the transition phase of adapting to hearing devices compared to impaired, organic hearing.

So, during week one, I call a new buyer twice to answer questions, explain the need for patience and that, in time, hearing with an aid will be the norm.

Week two? One call. If the customer still has problems at this point, I ask them to come to the store. Some minor tuning often solves big problems.

After two or three weeks go by, I make one final call to make sure the customer has adapted well to his or her hearing instruments and whether additional attention is required. This series of calls assures my customers but also provides solid gold marketing input. I can adjust my services to better accommodate my client base using the input I gain from these personal calls.

5. Keep your web site current. In fact, expand the services offered on your web site. Be sure to provide a printable map of your location, written directions, announce upcoming events, new products, sales.

If you freshen up that stale, old website you built five years ago, and print your website’s URL on all of your hard-copy marketing, you can provide a number of on-line services including interactive email from customers with questions (live chat), the ability to make an appointment for a hearing eval or tune-up, post general, hearing health questions on your blog and so on.

True, you aren’t looking for business 10 time zones away from your store, but localized search has changed the way people find the service providers they need. With this in mind, ask your website designer to optimize the site for local search. This’ll deliver more qualified leads to your store front.

6. ‘Tis the season. Always send out holiday cards. You have the names and addresses in your database so it’s simply a matter of printing up the labels and adding a stamp.

Point to ponder: I’m not sure about this. I send Christmas cards to my clients. There are holiday-neutral cards available from any small, local printing company that can print your company name and contact information, making it even more cost effective to say Happy Holidays to your best customers. A personal choice.

7. Reach out. Some of your clients may not be able to get to your store easily. They may be home-bound, in a nursing home or simply without transportation. Okay, pack up your gear and go to the customer. Not only is this a compassionate, humane thing to do, it also serves your business reputation well.

The idea is a simple one: stay in touch with your existing customer base in as many ways as you can. Yes, it may take more time. It may even reduce your margins by a small amount (though that will be more than offset by increased foot traffic and volume).

You’re a community professional with a reputation to manage and a client base to maintain. These seven tips will get you there.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my readers. And a special thanks to those who have e-mailed me with their questions and their support. I read every e-mail and respond to all.

So, let this holiday season be the one where we become partners in customer care, quality service and business development.

Warmest regards,

John M. Adams III
jma3@hearingtutor.com

Staying In the Game: Work Longer, Hear Better

Let’s face it, hearing aids are expensive. A consumer can easily drop $3,000 on a pair of mid-tier instruments, and how many times have you had prospects come to your store, see the price tags and leave before a screen is even done. To these people, quality hearing is a discretionary purchase.

However, that’s not always the case. More of us are seeing customers in their 30s, 40s and 50s – people with long careers ahead of them. I see people in their 80s still going to work. Retirement is for old people.

The Workplace Benefits of a Hearing Device (Or Two)
If the employee can’t hear the supervisor, following directions is going to be…ahhh, tough. How about impossible? Productivity declines, the individual with hearing loss becomes less useful to the company and, in some cases, these valued employees become isolated in the work place. This isn’t good for business; it’s not good for morale.

Employers want older workers. They’re more reliable, less likely to quit, take fewer sick days and really throw themselves into the job. Older workers bring experience and solutions to the business and should be viewed as a valuable resource, whether we’re talking a C-Level executive or a floor manager. These employees want to work and they can work – if they can only pick up a little gain in noisy factory or quiet office environments.

As my readers know, I do NOT advocate the hard sell. Our job, as professionals, is to assess and advise and, ultimately, hope the buyer recognizes our good advice. However, part of my job as a hearing aid dispenser is to educate the people who walk into my stores and part of that education includes Lesson 1: How To Stay On The Job Longer With Improved Hearing 101.

Perceptions in the Workplace
Numerous studies have been published showing the general population view hearing aid wears as old and “broken.” Let me tell you, some of my clients could kick your butt in a game of one-on-one so broken they are NOT.

SELL Quality Like Unitron.

However, in the upper offices, where the managers perform their daily functions, the stigma of a hearing aid remains, and this prospect is a put-off for today’s busy executive looking for a hearing solution.

For those worried about co-worker perceptions and chances for advancement, you can recommend a virtually invisible CIC for those with mild to moderate hearing loss and a discreet, low profile BTE for those with more severe hearing loss.

Or, you can go a completely different route. Cast of the shackles of hearing aid stigma and go glam with a fire engine red BTE, a branded device (how about the Steinway model?) or hearing devices that look like the dimples of a gold ball for your links lounger who always manages to discover the 19th hole.

You’ll find some customers want discretion. Others want to show the world some attitude. (How long before we see hearing devices emblazoned with the Harley-Davidson logo? How about the Versace line of fashion elegance for the ear. It’s either in the pipeline, or soon will be.)

Sell the Lifestyle, Not the Device
I don’t want to quit my job. Do you? I also don’t want to be laid off because all I hear are pops and clicks.

When the hearing professional first sits down with a new customer, one of the first things to ask is if that client works, will continue working and under what conditions. Then, start explaining the advantages of CIC, ITC and BTE devices, wireless connectivity, automated convenience, wearing comfort and the ability to be a productive, fully-engaged employee for many more years.

Yes, when presented with a pair of high end, high quality devices, expect the consumer to gasp, turn blue and maybe faint dead-away. Once revived, the client needs to be shown the advantages of investing in a higher end unit that is highly customizable, multi-channel, discrete or a neon sign hanging behind the ear cup, durable, even water proof for river guides who experience hearing loss.

The case is a simple one and irrefutable. If your consumer can’t hear, misses key voice mails and says “What?” 12 times in a 10 minute conference, get that person hooked up based on his or her preferences and perceptions of self-image.

Work longer; stay happy and healthy
That’s what most of us want. Retirement isn’t an option, either because of family finances or because the word “retirement” isn’t in the customer’s vocabulary.

Keep those experienced, productive, problem-solvers on the job longer. They’re an invaluable resource to any business.

And the hearing aid technologist – the professional who knows quality and understands the needs of his or her customers – is going to find the right device to suit the business needs regardless of the customer’s age.

Retirement? Not just yet.

Reputation Management: Protecting Your Business' Good Name

As a hearing aid retailer, you have a special place within your community. Your outlet should present an attractive, well-maintained appearance and you and your staff should look professional at all times.

The Artis Product Line From Siemens

First impressions are lasting impressions so as people drive by your shop, you want them to know, each time they see your sign, that you’re a reputable business with the focus on client service and satisfaction.

Small Town Gossip
Word spreads fast in a small town where everyone knows everybody so a bad experience with your dispensary won’t stay a secret for long. In a small town, where you depend on the local population to support and grow your business, bad news travels fast. And this is NOT the kind of word of mouth advertising you want floating across your community.

Instead, a satisfied consumer is a non-paid, non-commissioned salesperson for your high standards of professionalism. So, how do you keep your reputation as a reliable source for hearing solutions? Here are some suggestions.

1. Business ethics. This involves virtually all aspects of interaction with clients. For example, you might be able to sell a couple of $3,500 units even though you know two $1,000 units would suit the needs of the client just fine.

The ethical hearing technologist offers the right solution to the patient’s hearing loss. All interactions are transparent and the consumer is educated as you move through the purchase cycle.

I believe that the hearing aid technologist is a resource and guide for the first-time hearing aid buyer. Explain options, pros and cons to various devices and, in the end, let the client make the decision based on your impartial recommendations. Ethical business practices builds a retailer’s reputation – small town or big city, it doesn’t matter.

2. Clearly explained policies. This is a no brainer and saves time on returns and services. Explain your store’s policies with regard to trial periods, returns, product maintenance costs, services – lay it all out, hide nothing. Your client base will grow with happy, satisfied consumers who are telling their friends and neighbors about the great service and cost savings you deliver.

You are the professional.

3. Stay current. Read the industry journals, product literature and other information like that found here at this blog. This will equip you to offer the most and latest features at the lowest cost.

Also, attend seminars, tele-conferences and other information gathering events to keep up with the latest from the best names in hearing aid technology. Remember, you’re the expert. Your consumers turn to you for the best advice and that requires you know what’s happening in the fast-paced world of hearing technology. It changes daily in a highly- competitive market.

4. Join local civic groups. This is great for a couple of reasons. Groups like the Chamber of Commerce, the Better Business Bureau and other local business and service groups are a great way to network with other businesses in your region. You may be able to hook up with a couple of other hearing professionals to develop business and professional synergies.

Membership in these organizations also builds consumer trust – critical to long-term, retail success.

5. Help your community. Free hearing evaluations are just one way you can help your community. Sponsor community events. Sponsor a sports team. Donate time to various charities in the community.

It’s not only good for your business and for your community, it’s good for your heart. Helping others and building good community relations isn’t about advertising. It’s about being a good corporate neighbor.

6. The customer is always right – except when she’s wrong. You know hearing evaluations, you know causes and sources of hearing loss, you know what technological solutions are available. In other words, you know the problem and you provide the solutions.

When working with a new client, that individual might want a CIC, even though she experiences severe hearing loss and you, the professional, know that a CIC won’t deliver the gain the customer needs.

Look, the customer is always right, but you’re the professional. You have the information and the facts. So, by explaining the limitations of CICs, you direct that customer to a low profile BTE.

Of course, there’s a wide range of products to suit the needs and preferences of every consumer. The key? Let the consumer make the decision based on your expert advice. If you believe that the unit the customer selects will do the job, fine. Conversely, if you can not in good conscience, support the client’s purchase of a particular device, you have an obligation to steer that buyer to a more suitable choice.

Your business reputation is the foundation for long-term success. Guard it like gold.

It is.

Assessing Your Customers’ Needs

Hearing aid technologists are in a unique position within the hearing aid industry. We’re the highly-trained, certified face of the industry. We’re the professionals who interact with customers.

And that’s a big responsibility – one that should not be taken lightly. It’s often up to the hearing aid dispenser to fit customer and device for the least obtrusive, most satisfying hearing experience.

Naturally, after the completion of a full hearing evaluation, you have the metrics needed to make a good fit. But the astute retailer doesn’t stop with the eval results. There are a number of considerations to take into account before fitting device and consumer – considerations that must be evaluated before making any recommendations. Of course, the final choice must offer the best opportunity to improve consumer hearing and quality of life. But within those results a number of options are available based on the needs of the wearer.

Budget
Let’s cut right to the chase. Most first-time hearing aid buyers are stunned with sticker shock, unaware of the gigantic strides that have occurred with the advent of digital hearing aid technology. Expect it.

Usually, consumers have a number in mind. It’s important to explain the options and performance features a higher-priced model affords, but hey, there’s no room for up sell in the hearing aid retail community. The final choice of devices should take into account the buyer’s budget, delivering the most useful features at the lowest cost.

Assume the cost will be the client’s number one concern.

Life Style
Hearing technologists are seeing hearing aid buyers who are younger than in the past. Chalk it up to a noisy world, MP3 players and monster truck rallies. And even the older consumer continues a healthy, active life for many years.

During discussions with the client, it’s important to learn about life style. Active, out-there people will require more durability and maybe even water-proofing for the 80-year-old whitewater kayaker (oh yeah, they’re out there).

Because we have so many options today, it’s simple to determine the right device for active wearers and couch spuds.

Self-Image
This is often overlooked, even by experienced technologists. A customer may have concerns about appearance, perceptions of others and even self-image concerns. I’ve had buyers tell me they feel “broken.”

A couple of different ways to go here. First, today’s manufacturers offer devices in a bright array of colors, removing the stigma of wearing a hearing device or two. Or second, there are CIC options for some consumers and even BTE units are low-profile.

It’s funny. Some customers come right out and tell you, “I don’t want some big clunky thing that everybody can see.” Message received. Others may be embarrassed to discuss their emotions regarding this purchase but with some gentle questioning, you see what that individual wants/needs to maintain the highest levels of self-esteem.

Consumer Concerns
It’s essential that the hearing aid technologist answer all consumer questions in terms the consumer can understand. If the client doesn’t know what signal-to-noise ratio is, explain it.

Also, I always tell my clients to expect a transition period. Even the best devices won’t replace normal hearing so wearing a hearing aid does take some getting used to. My advice is wear the hearing aid for a couple of weeks and track problems. Then, come in for an adjustment.

The hearing aid technologist, more than any other figure within the entire hearing industry, is in the best position to assure that each consumer is fitted with the best-suited device based on cost, level of activity and a host of other factors.

In this case, you can’t just “go by the numbers.”

Selling a Better Quality of Life With Hearing Aids

Today's hearing aids are virtually invisible...or not.

If your eyes start to go, you get them checked, you get a pair of glasses and life goes on. Not so with hearing loss. Oh, brother. Studies have been conducted that indicate that people who wear hearing aids are viewed as old, feeble and (I love this) broken!

People with hearing loss are no more “broken” than people who wear glasses or other adaptive devices – an artificial limb, for example. And as a hearing aid technologist I take umbrage at my clients being called broken. They aren’t broken, the just don’t hear as well as they used to.

Industry Trends The ReSound Dot. HOT!
For those of us who have been fitting and selling hearing aids for three or four decades, we’ve had the opportunity to see a fundamental change in, not only hearing aid tech, but also in the way hearing aid wearers perceive themselves. For decades, hearing aids were big, clunky things that gramps complained about. They spewed out feedback like a Jimi Hendrix guitar solo and they were beige and blah.

Hello new millennium. Now, hearing aids are almost all digital meaning that manufacturers can fit more and more features into smaller and smaller casings. The result?

Hearing aids that:

provide comfortable, natural sound.

are lightweight yet loaded with features and plenty of juice to boost your hearing.

comfortable to wear either completely in the canal (CIC), in the canal (ITC) or behind the ear (BTE) configurations – something to please all of your clients.

are totally, 100% automated so your clients don’t have to sweat the small stuff.

are available in a discrete profile or in kandy-apple red if you want to make a statement to the world.

are available with higher standards of quality, longer battery wear and – get this – a lower price. The unit that cost $3,000 just a few years ago now costs half that as the R & D expenses are recouped. Works that way with all electronics. Remember when laptops were $2,000 minimum? Today, you can buy a good one for less than $500. Same with hearing aids.

You Aren’t Selling Hearing Aids, You’re Selling Quality of Life
This one fact may make the difference between the success of your store or practice and the “crash and burn” effect. If you view your job as selling ear gear, you’re only telling half the story.
The ability to hear is a quality of life issue. If a client can’t hear, you may discover a sense of isolation. Even anger. That’s why I always tell my clients, “You aren’t buying a couple of hearing aids. You’re buying a higher standard of living.”

Imagine hearing the grandkids giggle or the wind rustling the leaves after a decade of almost total silence. Can you put a price on that?

Further, individuals who compensate for hearing loss are more productive in the workplace, they can work longer (if they want to) and they can become part of the community and family once again. You don’t sell hardware, even if it is top-of-the-line. You market a better quality of life for all of your clients and those who live and work and play with these men, women and children.

Explain the Benefits
Ear Bling. Make YOUR Statement

Chances are the client that just walked into your shop doesn’t want to be there but has finally recognized that it can’t be put off any longer. I can usually recognize these folks by their scowls and the spouse dragging the client through my front door.

Before I conduct a hearing evaluation, before I discuss options, prices and guarantees, the very first thing I do is explain how much better life will be when the client can hear again and get back in the game. Just a few minutes of going over benefits rather than tech specs seems to do the trick.

In short, sure promote the product but more importantly, promote the improvement in quality of life. The money spent on a pair of hearing aids will only sting a little and for a short time.

The ability to enjoy the sounds long-absent in the client’s life is something that will be enjoyed every minute of everyday.

Once clients understand that (1) they aren’t old, feeble and broken, (2) today’s hearing aids are cool or discrete and (3) there’s been a huge leap forward from the unit gramps wore in his shirt pocket, the client becomes your ally in improving hearing and improving life.

And you’ve made a new client and a new friend.

Free Hearing Screens: Helping the Community; Helping Your Business

People don’t usually think about their hearing – until it’s gone! Then, we have a crisis on our hands – a crisis that could have been avoided if the client had sought help from a hearing professional earlier. That’s why free hearing screens are a win-win situation for small business owners dispensing hearing aids and prospective consumers.

A complete hearing evaluation can take as long as 60 minutes to isolate the source and extent of hearing loss. That may be too much time to spend on a possible prospect. But, remember a couple of critical points: (1) you’re building a reputation in the community and (2) those walk-ins will come back to you when it’s time for another evaluation and a sale.

Hearing aid technologists can streamline the process by having clients fill out a simple questionnaire about perceptions of their own hearing loss. This can cut the evaluation time in half.

I’ve seen self-testing frequency generators in some outlets, though keep the kids away and set the machine’s sound generating volume to below 80dB max so no damage can occur as the result of a burst of sound.

Make Hearing Screens a Family Affair
First, hearing evaluations are just good business and, well, a nice neighborly thing to offer so I provide free screens year ‘round with an appointment. Other hearing aid retailers sponsor special events with balloons and such to encourage new customers to stop in for a hearing check.

I like this approach, too, because I see more families taking advantage of free hearing screens and that, of course, means earlier evaluations for our kids. Absolutely critical.

Newborns are routinely tested for hearing loss at birth and fitted with hearing aids as early as eight weeks when loss is detected. This is essential to “normal” development and a “mainstream” life. To learn to speak, children mimic the sounds we make. If they can’t hear these sounds, or they can’t hear them clearly, language problems develop which lead to learning and cognition developmental delays.

Hearing specialists can identify hearing loss in youngsters as young as two months, provide these patients with pediatric devices and educate the parents on how to mitigate hearing loss in their child so the child is able to mainstream throughout life without problems of integration within the society as a whole, i.e. no need to learn to sign if the child hears clearly enough to learn to speak.

Free hearing screens work for everyone – families, seniors, workers exposed to noisy environments, individuals affected with hearing loss caused by trauma or disease. All benefit.

You and your business benefit, as well. First, you’re helping members of your region. FREE. This identifies your hearing aid dispensary as an upstanding community citizen. Second, you build an unpaid sales force of happy clients who spread some positive word of mouth around town. Finally, you build your business with quality care, impeccable service and engaging prospects one-on-one.

So, offer free hearing evaluations as part of your business’ service offerings. It may take a little extra time out of your day, but long term, this is how you build a business.

Why Would a Hearing Aid Dispenser Sell One Hearing Aid?

I see it all the time.

The client comes in for an evaluation and shows hearing loss in both ears. However, the cost of two hearing aids doubles the price and the client objects. It hurts enough to pay $1,000 for a basic unit. It hurts twice as much when you have to buy two units so clients will tell the hearing specialist that s/he doesn’t want to pay for the second device. One will due.

Localization
The problem, here, is localization – something about which the client is probably unaware. It takes two working ears to locate the source of a sound. As the sound waves move through the air, they’re picked up by the two ears at slightly different times because of the positioning of the ears on each side of the head. This is called binaural hearing.

Clients who try to save a few bucks by purchasing a single device should be counseled against this practice. Sure, the client may be able to hear the TV but the listening experience is never going to be natural. Or comfortable.

Buy Down
Look, as a hearing aid technician and salesperson, you know the high cost of these digital marvels and you understand the quality of life issues associated with hearing well – and that includes the ability to locate the source of sounds.

When faced with a client who insists on the single device, I always recommend buying a lower priced model – but buy two of them. This improves the ability to locate sounds and to create a more natural listening experience.

The extra money spent on a second hearing instrument will be forgotten in a few days. The ability to hear naturally…well, can you – the hearing aid professional – put a price on that? I can’t, though the buyer will certainly try.

Never make the client feel silly or “cheap” for trying to save on better hearing. However, point out that if the client suffered vision loss, s/he would do whatever was necessary to reverse that loss. Same applies to hearing. When it’s broke, fix it. Fix both ears with two devices.

Hearing aid professionals who sell a single device to their clients may think they’re doing these folks a favor. They aren’t.

Your clients want to hear out of both ears and that means two devices – even if they don’t know it when they walk into your store. Part of your job is educating the consumer so push back gently when a client insists on the purchase of a single hearing aid.

After all, you’re a professional and you want what’s best for your customers. That’s how you grow a successful hearing technology retail outlet – by doing the right thing for your clients – even if they don’t know it.

John M. Adams III
jma@hearingtutor.com
http://www.hearingtutor.com