Product and service
Mar 5th, 2008 | By Steve | Category: IndustryHearing aid vendors supply both a product (the aid) and a service (fitting, maintenance, etc). To my mind, these are two completely separate things.
I’m writing about this because I popped into my local Scrivens branch last weekend - I was waiting for my Wife and just happened to notice the “Hearing Care” sign in their window - to ask for a price list. I knew from previous experiences with other suppliers that it was unlikely that they’d have a price list and sure enough, the answer to my request was, “We suggest you book an appointment with the audiologist for an assessment as everyone’s needs are different”. I said that I knew which aids I wanted and was trying to find where I could get them cheapest - still, I would have to see the audiologist.
Scrivens are selling products, I know which one I want, so why can’t they tell me the price at which I can buy it? I can understand that “everyone’s needs are different” but if Scrivens sell 10 Oticon Epoch hearing aids to different people they are still selling the same product - the only difference being the programming for the individual’s hearing loss. To drive that point home, Scrivens also sell glasses - the glasses are all laid out in the store with prices on the frames and a list of lense types. Why do hearing aids have to be different? Are the vendors scared of their own inflated prices?
To go back to the original point - vendors are offering a service and a product. It should be possible to pay for either of these separately. I should be able to pick up a pair of Epochs if I want them and get them programmed somewhere else. Of course, many customers may not be aware that if they buy a hearing aid it will need to be programmed to their individual loss - and it’s right that vendors make people aware of this BUT that should not stop people being able to purchase an aid only if they so wish.
I’d love to see some transparent pricing on the high-street this year. I think Specsavers are starting to get the idea - let’s hope everyone else will follow.
I still don’t know the price for a pair of Epochs!
Wow, reading your post tells me, the problem is universal. Here in the U.S. we have the same exact problem. No public pricing. What they are doing is charging on the basis of who and what you are. If you look like a fool, they will charge u the highest price. If you look like you’re savvy, they will negotiate the price.
The most important thing here is to be a savvy consumer. Know your hearing aids and know you’re prices. Look online for prices. Yep, its a problem that the audiologists office will not give u a price until u make an appointment and have spent the initial appointment fee. Its ridiculous. It’s worse than the car salesman.
Here in the U.S. the best you can do is go to a college speech and hearing clinic where the profits are very low. I was at the clinic yesterday and I was looking at the Destiny which they had priced at $2100 american dollars for one ITE model with all the whistles included.
Honestly, I knew that was a good price because i’ve read about people paying as high as $3500 an aid. The audiologist who was supervising a student said to me, thats a good price because in her “private practice” they charge $3000 for the aid. Thats a $900 profit! so what the heck is the manufacturer making? I immediately replied thats the reason we come to the college speech and hearing clinic which by the way, is open to all people of all financial means.
We need to group together as a community and protest the manufacturers and the audiologists. After all, the audiologist does have a right to make the profit, but we also have a right to know the prices upfront.
Pearl
U.S.A
There are, certainly, two separate things involved in the sale of a hearing aid. The cost of the aid is one and the fitting, maintenance, etc. is the other. What you have failed to understand, however, is that the second is tied intimately to the first. It is from pricing the second that the price can be set for the first. There’s also the fallacy that you know best what you NEED for a hearing aid. Let me address the problem of pricing first remembering that my response is based on the US marketplace.
In order for this response to have meaning, readers must CLEARLY understand the difference between a hearing aid sales person (working for or owning a business whose entire raison d’être is to sell a product) and an audiologist (a licensed medical professional who, in addition to selling hearing aids, is also called upon to render medical judgments upon which surgery may or may not occur.) The latter have advanced degrees in the science of hearing while the former may have no post-high school education save a short course in product marketing. having received an advanced degree in the science of hearing).
In the US, there are a number of ways to address the cost of the fitting and service but I believe that unbundling those costs would cause the overall outcome to be MUCH more expensive. When your hearing aid dispenser sells a national brand (some hearing aid dealers actually make their own from imported parts!), you will be covered for a period of time by the manufacturer’s warrantee. If you’ve paid the seller ONLY for the instrument, what incentive is there for the ’servicer’ to ensure you receive your full warrantee benefits? If they do, they’re spending their time for free - a situation which would not leave them in business very long. If they charge you, well - you pay for something that would otherwise be free. Most US sales now have at least a one year warrantee with many now having two. So when your aid has a major malfunction, where do you want to take it? If the seller has given you the ‘bare bones, I’ll never see you again’ price, it’ll be up to you to find some good-hearted soul to help you out.
And what about something simple like having a battery door replaced? Now it might cost $10 but in the unbundled scenario, that could easily be $25 or more. What if your aid is clogged with wax? Now with many dispensers, cleaning is included FREE for a year or two - and with some, it’s for the LIFE OF THE AID! If you had to pay $35 every time you needed it cleaned, you’d likely be poking it with pointy instruments a lot more often leading to - you guessed it - more repair costs.
These things are just part of the pricing conundrum. Service and sales really are difficult to separate once you examine the issue in its totality. Sure, we all want to comparison shop and with the internet, this becomes ridiculously easy - but when it comes to hearing aids, people never seem to compare apples and apples. If you go to one of the big online companies which promises to refer you to a local dispenser (not always an audiologist), that price might in fact be higher than if you had gone directly - simply because there’s a middle-man in the process. If you call four local dispensers and you buy the lowest-priced one, are you sure that it has the very same features, warranty period, free service period, and other benefits that the higher priced places were providing?
And that brings us to your decision of the Oticon hearing aid. Why did you decide on an Oticon? Have you had a complete audiogram and compared the results with the parameters recommended by the manufacturer for the particular model you’ve decided on? Do you know how this would compare to an aid in the Siemens, Phonak, GNResound, or other lines? Each company has aids that are really ‘the perfect fit’ for specific types of hearing loss but some dealers are limited by marketing agreements to sell ONLY a particular brand. Still further, there are many options based on lifestyle that might be particularly relevant. If you’re 90 and living in a retirement home you certainly don’t have the same need for, say, directional microphones as a 45 year old who’s living an active lifestyle. What options have you selected for your Oticon - and on what basis? And, in the final analysis, someone who wants to tell a medical professional how to treat them should probably seriously consider the implications of their actions. “The doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient….” You might know what makes you feel good but do you know what will make you feel BEST?
This is not to say that all hearing aid dispensers are the paragon of virtue and won’t, as the first respondent suggests, attempt to judge you based on your appearance. The hearing aid industry is rife with scams and shams. However, there are ‘markers’ that one can look for. It may have become obvious that I personally believe an audiologist to be a better choice than someone whose entire existence depends on sales. Certainly, though, being a Better Business Bureau Accredited Business can speak volumes about an organization’s commitment to fair and honest business practices.
In response Pearl’s comment, I’d disagree with the argument that ‘profits are low’ at a college speech and hearing clinic. “Non-profit” status in the medical environment does not mean “we do things inexpensively”. What it means is, “After we get through paying everybody and buying all the toys our hearts can ever imagine, we promise not to have any money left over.” In short, they agree that there will be ‘no profit’ but that is not to say that they can’t charge the same as anyone else for a hearing aid and use the money they earn there to start some other service in the facility or to pay their receptionist 20% more than the prevailing wage. In my area, the “non-profit center” charges the same or slightly higher prices for hearing aids than others in town. There’s no reason for them not to!
Oh: and if either of you can tell anyone before you buy your hearing aids just how long a training period you’ll need, how many adjustments you’ll come in for before you’re happy with your hearing instrument, how many times you’ll come in for a broken battery door that (at least in the case of some dispensers) will be repaired at cost, how many times your aid will become clogged with wax and be unplugged for free (again, varies by dispenser), and how many times it will break and they’ll need to spend time with you having it repaired, re-fitted and re-programmed, I suspect the dispenser would be happy post prices.
And one other thing: since YOU have decided what the best hearing aid is for your type of hearing loss and lifestyle, there will be no refunds or returns if you’re unhappy. That’s only fair, right? Gotta keep that overhead down somehow!
go to specsavers or ring and ask for a price list!!!!!!!
its an absolute disgrace that other companies do not have price lists…they will charge you what they think you can afford ..many of them will sell the exact same product to customers at greatly varying prices..SO DRESS DOWN!!!!
ask for a 5 year warranty this will keep your service costs down to zero ..put the aids on your home insurance against loss or damage..buy batteries from specsavers as they have them on 2 for 1 like their hearing aids
dont get hooked into a specific product some manufacturers are trying to make hearing aids “sexy” much to the dismay of the royal national institute for the deaf and all sane people in the uk…
good luck its a minefield out there!!!!!!
I’m unfamiliar with SpecSavers because I’m over here in U.S…Why do people to go SpecSavers if they can get hearing aids through the NHS? Is it that people want to avoid the wait time? Have more choices for hearing aids? In other words, why pay when its free? There must be something I’m not getting here…
David
David,
The wait time is probably the biggest reason people buy privately - NHS wait times vary from hospital to hospital and can be anything up to 18 months. The other reason is that, as far as I am aware, the NHS does not supply the latest technology.
Steve
Ed,
Firstly, thanks for taking the time to write that in-depth reply.
I agree with your overall point about the product and service being linked together being beneficial for the customer in many cases. I agree that it is impossible to quantify things like training period, broken battery doors and wax clogging. You are also absolutely right that audiologists are much better equipped to select the correct hearing aid for an individual’s needs.
My original point was more about customers being given transparency and options. Why is it not easy for me to find out the price of an Epoch and then find out the service package benefits and price that I can optionally have on top? I may have trialled an Epoch with a different vendor but declined to pay their prices - I may have already been through the hearing test and trial period and want to find if I have cheaper options elsewhere.
And just to clarify one thing: I am not actually looking to buy Epochs at the moment - I merely used them as an example to see what information I could get.
From my experience of hearing vendors there is always an assumption that the customer knows nothing about the product that they wish to buy and this is not always the case. Many people will take the time to do their research and find out which models are best suited to them and then use that research as a basis of their purchase - hopefully they would have the good sense to also listen to an audiologists recommendations.
Hopefully, looking to the future, customers will be given more information about hearing aid products that will help them to make informed purchases. I really hope that this website can play a small part in that.
Steve.
Thanks, Steve.
From a consumer standpoint, you’re right: there should be a way of comparing apples and apples. From a dispenser standpoint, however, the honest person gets undercut and loses sales to the shady one. In my area, a (now deceased) ‘hustler’ would run incessant television ads saying “I can get you the best possible hearing aid at the lowest possible price!” What the heck does that MEAN? I could never parse that sentence to anything understandable.
(In fact, he was buying hearing aids from China at USD $39 and selling them for whatever he thought the client could pay!)
He would NEVER publicize a price so anyone else who went ahead and did so would lose because he’d tell the client that he could ‘beat that price by a mile!’…. Thus, the honest audiologist/dispenser is soon out of business and you’re left with only the shyster…. It’s not a good alternative for anyone.
In the medical community (at least in the US), a ’second opinion’ is always a smart choice for major things. I’d suggest that the same applies here. You might spend extra money for a second hearing test but then you’d be able to compare not only audiological results but also recommended products and technology. Rather than pre-determining that you want, for example, a Phonak because the first person told you that, you can let the second person make a suggestion as well. Then you re-talk with each and ask for a comparison and justification. Business buyers will ask a salesperson, “Why is your product/service better than your competitors?” I think this is a good practice to follow in hearing aid sales as well PARTICULARLY for a younger person who’s going to be involved in the process for a long time.
Two things to remember in the process:
#1 - They’re making a commission on the sale so if they’re unwilling to explain their choices, move on.
#2 - Word of mouth referrals are the very best source of sales. Tell them you’ll praise them to the high heavens if they treat you right. If they don’t ‘get it’, then you should be somewhere else.
Just some more things to think about….
Ed
david
all the nhs aids are behind the ear and the technology is way behind what can be purchased privately ,nevertheless its a lot better than it used to be..some ote fittings are done on the nhs also.
the private market in the uk is flat and falling several companies inc amplifon and ormerods have made staff redundant as a cost cutting exercise .
specsavers have certainly rattled the competition with their value for money pricing which others have tried to match resulting in job losses .
specsavers must be feeling the pinch themselves but i think they will prevail in the long term since unlike their rivals they are not in it for the quick buck.
Ed,
I guess buying a hearing aid is the same as buying any other product: do you go to a recognised high-street retailer and pay slightly more for a trusted service or do you look for the cheap option and hope that you don’t get screwed?
I think the key point from your second comment is that knowledge is king for a succesful hearing aid purchase. Some customers, like me, will strive to get the maximum amount of knowledge possible before making a purchase. Other will simply want the cheapest / most expensive option. Other’s simply don’t care about the technology and the cool features of an aid - they just want to hear. Vendors need to be prepared to cover all those bases.