MARKET RESEARCH

Reducing Hearing Instrument Returns with Consumer Education

Counseling tool reduces return rates by 46%

issue surrounding counseling, other than method and has clearly stated that one ones ability to offer it, is the time or two sessions with a dispenser is simn the U.S. market, the average return for credit for all hear- required to provide such service. In the ply not enough to assure optimum customer satisfaction. This is ing instruments is 18.6% because there are simply too while returns for some pro35 many issues to cover in the grammable products exceed 29.4 30 time typically spent with the 30%. 1 Clearly, returns for end-user. Essentially, the endcredit significantly impact 23.3 25 20.1 user is in need of a manual to the profitability of manufac20 cover the myriad of issues turers and dispensers and which could come up during significantly impact the retail 15 11.5 his/her first year of hearing price to the end-user. 10 7.0 6.1 instrument usage. This manuHearing instrument dis2.6 al could take the form of an pensers traditionally seem to 5 interactive CD-ROM or an have placed more emphasis Internet databank, in which on technological advantages None 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 2 3+ the individual asks the quesin instrumentation than on Time spent in counseling (in hours) tion, and the search engine consumer education. While a delivers the answer to the variety of articles over the Fig. 1. Amount of time spent counseling new users of hearing end-user. Alternatively, it years have suggested how instruments. could simply take the form of consumer education should 80 a guided reading program utibe an integral part of the dis68 65 lizing a comprehensive book. pensing process, recent 70 In lectures6,7, I have also recstudies have confirmed that 59 55 60 consumer education results ommended that dispensers in increased wearer satisfacconsider hiring psychology 50 45 tion and decreased returns and social work interns to run 40 of hearing instruments. 2,3 counseling sessions. Knowles Electronics MarWhile aural rehabilitation 30 keTrak research has demonhas been around for 20 strated that the modal time decades, it has not made its 13 spent counseling new users way into general dispensing 10 of hearing instruments is practices. Pamplin and one-half hour (Fig. 1). HowDancer4 report that ...one of None 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 2 ever, to achieve higher levthe oldest and perhaps most Time spent in counseling (in hours) els of customer satisfaction, essential building blocks of it is imperative that the disrehabilitative audiology, that Fig. 2. Customer satisfaction as a function of time spent with new penser spend more time in of counseling, has remained users. explaining the care of the in an embryonic stage even though the need for effective counsel- same way that we wouldnt give a new car product, wearing schedules, expectato a young teenager who had never dri- tions, coaching the user and family on ing is well documented. Probably the single most challenging ven and was without proper knowledge use and acclimatization, as well as and training, it seems logical to provide exploring feelings the individuals might counseling services as part of a dispens- have concerning their hearing loss. Sergei Kochkin, PhD, is ing practice since clients otherwise have MarkeTrak data in Fig. 2 indicates that director of market no independent barometer against which there is a strong relationship between research and market to measure expectations and perfor- amount of time spent with new users development at Knowles and customer satisfaction with the mance with amplification. Electronics, Inc. and is Because time is at a premium for the hearing instrument. If the dispensing an officer on the board of directors of the Better average dispenser, methods must be professional spent little or no time Hearing Institute. found to counsel the end user and their counseling the new user, customer satfamily. Abrahamson 5 has suggested isfaction can be expected to be only group aural rehabilitation as one such 15%, while if they spent two hours or Reprinted with permission from The Hearing Review, Los Angeles, CA. All rights reserved.
% satisfaction
% new users

By Sergei Kochkin, PhD

more one can achieve close to 70% sat- to prescribe three chapters to the new hearing instruments compared to 8.8% isfaction, independent of technology. user to read with their family before the receiving the book (treatment group). By combining effective counseling 30-day trial period was up. For instance, These differences are significant at the which includes consumer education if the subject appeared to present them- 95% confidence level (Chi Square=11.48, with advanced technology (e.g., pro- selves with emotions which might pre- df=1, p<.05). Nine-out-of-ten (88%) subgrammable, multiple memory, multiple vent adjustment such as denial, adverse jects receiving the book reported readsignal processing, multiple channel, reaction to spousal pressure, anger or ing the book. Subjects who read the multiple microphone), it is the authors frustration, then they were asked to assigned chapters returned their hearing opinion that customer satisfaction lev- read chapter 1. Certainly, the new user instrument only 3.8% of the time comels can consistently approach the 80- was not discouraged from reading more pared to a 47% return rate for subjects 90% range. Without education and of the book if they wanted to. receiving the book but not reading it. Each hearing care professional was counseling, even the most sophisticatsupplied with a form for recording the Conclusions ed technology can fail. In the absence of a formal This small study conductmultiple-session counseling ed at 31 individual dispensing 47 50 program as described by sites demonstrates that a Abrahamson, what would guided consumer education 45 seem ideal is to offer a new reading program had a dra40 hearing instrument wearer a matic impact on return 35 self-help manual with guidratesin fact a 46% reduction. ance on how to use it. HypoThe data corroborates the 30 thetically, it could assist in strong relationship between 25 accomplishing the following counseling time spent with 20 objectives: the new user and customer 16.3 satisfaction in MarkeTrak, as Solving time constraint 15 well as the clinical observaproblems for both 8.8 10 tions of experienced audioloclients and practition3.3 gists.2,3 The use of a guided ers; 5 reading program as a proxyBringing unreal expecControl Group Received Received program Received program counseling method utilizing a tations into alignment program & read it but did not read it comprehensive hearing with true hearing instrument manual would instrument perfor- Fig. 3. Return for credit rates for subjects receiving the consumer appear to hold promise in mance; education program versus those not receiving the program. impacting return rates. It is Tailoring the educationhoped that other investigators al counseling to the treatment (received book, received no will replicate this study in other settings, unique needs of the consumer; Achieving increased wearer satis- book), name of the subject, age, gender, including its use with different brands degree of hearing loss (dB HL) in better and styles of hearing instruments. N faction, and ear at 500, 1000 and 2000 Hz, whether the Thereby decreasing return rates. To my knowledge, there are no pub- hearing instrument was returned for References lished studies in this industry on the use credit or purchased after the 30-day trial, 1. Hearing Industries Assn.: Quarterly Statistics . Alexandria, VA: 1999. of a proxy-counseling program using a and whether the subject read the pre- 2. Report DiSarno NJ: Informing the older consumera book as the key tool in the educational scribed chapters. model. Hear Jour 1997; 50(10), 49- 52. process of consumers receiving hearing 3. Northern J & Beyer C: Reducing hearing aid returns through patient education. Audiology instruments. With the objectives in mind, Results 1999; 11(2), 10-11. a comprehensive consumer handbook8 Thirty-one dispensers participated in 4. Today Pamplin F (III) & Dancer J: Feedback from memon hearing loss and hearing aids was the study with an average of 9.3 subbers of ADA: the importance of counseling in used in an experimental study to deter- jects per dispenser for a total sample amplification. Feedback 1998; 9(3), 17-18. mine if a guided counseling education size of 289 subjects; 51% received the 5. Abrahamson J: Patient Education & Peer Interaction Facilitate Hearing Aid Adjustment. In S program could positively impact return book while 49% did not. This study was Kochkin & KE Stroms (eds.) High Performance confined only to subjects purchasing rates of hearing instruments. Hearing Solutions (Vol 1), January 1997. programmable hearing instruments. 6. Kochkin S: From Customer Satisfaction to Customer Bliss. A Knowles Electronics Seminar for disThe average age of all subjects was 70; Method and audiologists., 1998. One manufacturer of hearing instru- 54% were male. The average dB HL loss 7. pensers Kochkin S: MarkeTrak V: Hearing Aid Industry ments in the Midwest recruited 31 dis- at 500, 1000 and 2000 Hz was 34, 41, and Tracking Survey; Customer Satisfaction Revisited. pensing professionals to participate in a 54 respectively. Seminar at the annual Hearing Industries Assn. Committee Day meeting in Minneapolis, MN, June Return rates are shown in Fig. 3. For study in which new users were random1999. ly assigned to an experimental group in this study a purchase is defined as a 8. 23, Carmen R (ed): The Consumer Handbook on Hearwhich they received Richard Carmens subject purchasing at least one hearing ing Loss and Hearing Aids: A Bridge to Healing. (ed.) Consumer Handbook on Hearing instrument; thus, if an individual tried Sedona, AZ: Auricle Ink Publishers, 1998. Loss and Hearing Aids: A Bridge to Heal- binaural hearing aids but returned one ing, or to a control group in which they during the 30 day trial, they were still Correspondence can be addressed to HR or received their normal counseling and classified as a purchase. Slightly more Sergei Kochkin, PhD, Knowles Electronics, education. Dispensers were asked to than 16% of subjects not receiving the Inc., 1151 Maplewood Drive, Itasca, IL carefully observe the new user and then book (the control group) returned their 60143.
return for credit (%)

OCTOBER 1999

THE HEARING REVIEW