The Time has come for Rechargeable Cells
And Rechargeable Hearing Aids
Rechargeable hearing aid cells and “rechargeable hearing aids’ are coming of age for economic and ecological reasons. Economically, rechargeable hearing aid cells can be recharged between 300-400 times reducing the operational cost of wearing hearing aids. The hearing impaired in third world countries and the poor in our own country who are not eligible for social programs that supply batteries may find it difficult to afford the cost of disposable batteries. Ecologically, rechargeable batteries reduce substantially the wastes, costs and toxicity involved with the manufacture, distribution and disposal of non- rechargeable cells.
The economics of rechargeable hearing aid batteries are simple. All that is needed to use nickel metal hydride hearing aid cells is a charger. Chargers range in price on the retail level from about $50.00. The chargers can be powered by A/C, long lasting lithium batteries (AA or AAA), NiMh (nickel metal hydride) AA or solar power. Lithium and A/C chargers are generally used in First World countries and solar chargers in the Third World. Enclosed rechargeable cells in hearing aids have been produced minimally by domestic manufacturers for years. We are now seeing several international manufacturers introduce “rechargeable hearing aids” to their product lines.
Rechargeable hearing aid cells and “rechargeable hearing aids” are becoming more of an economic necessity as manufacturers continue to add processing benefits to their instruments. The increased drainage brought about by this processing shortens the usable life of zinc-air cells necessitating greater consumer expenditures and anxiety brought about by short battery life. I doubt that there is a dispenser who has not had to explain why hearing aid batteries have such a short life. Indeed, because of the relatively short useful life of zinc-air cells many dispensers find themselves in the position of giving batteries free of charge to quell client indignation or including up to three years worth of free batteries with hearing aid purchases.
Let us assume that a hearing aid user has two hearing aids that require #13 cells, that disposable cells last an average of two weeks and that the disposable cells cost $4.00 for a package of 4. This means that over a three year period (156 weeks) the user’s expenditure would be $156.00 plus possible sales tax, shipping charges or transportation. The cost for rechargeable hearing aid cells for the same period would be less than $20.00.
Every marketed manufactured product has four associated costs. They are initial price, operational cost, maintenance cost and disposal cost. The hearing aid industry as a whole is passing along to consumers not only high operational costs but high maintenance costs as well because of hearing aid failure associated with disposable batteries. American society as a whole and certainly not willingly, is assuming their disposal cost.
Ecologically, disposable hear aid cells contribute not only to increased refuse but waste of resources and other materials as well. If we use the same example as above where a hearing aid user requires 2 cells every two weeks that means in a 3 year period the user would consume about 20 packages of 4 batteries compared to 1 (one) package of rechargeable cells. Eighty cells have to be manufactured, 20 extra cards have to be manufactured and printed, 20 extra cards that have plastic wheels, tabs placed on each cell, that they be packaged in plastic boxes, boxed in cartons and shipped. This process unnecessarily consumes resources and electricity during manufacture and fossil fuels as well during the entire distribution process.
In a Seattle Times article of April 7th 2007 titled “Recharge, recycle, resolve to reduce battery discards” by Tom Watson the author states “in a perfect green world all batteries would be rechargeable.” According to Rayovac less than 5% of all batteries sold in the U.S. are rechargeable. Watson goes on to state “Most disposable button batteries, on the other hand contain added mercury. These include watch, hearing aid and digital thermometer batteries. It is illegal in King County (Seattle) to place button cells in the garbage.” “Because of toxics they contain, energy used to make and transport them, and disposal issues, the 3 billion dry-cell batteries used by Americans each year can be more negative than positive for the environment.”
To read this article in its entirety, go to www.seattletimes.com and in the search function type in “archives.” The article will be found under the April 7, 2007 date.
The use of rechargeable hearing aid batteries does not involve a major paradigm shift for many present users of hearing aids. Many users of hearing aids probably use rechargeable devices now. Such devices include cell phones, PDAs, laptops and so forth. People who are fit with hearing aids for the first time, that can use rechargeable batteries, would welcome the lower cost of operation that rechargeable technology affords them.
There are no dexterity issues with rechargeable hearing aid batteries. All rechargeable cells have the same dimensions as disposable cells. It is easier to use a charger than it is to put a cell into a battery door. Patients that are physically challenged, possibly because of low vision, strokes, peripheral neuropathy, etc., have more options now than previously. Rechargeable hearing aids (BTE and ITE) are available from a variety of manufacturers. It is easier to place a whole hearing aid in a charger than to continuously replace disposable cells.
In addition, a patient using rechargeable batteries would never have to be concerned about not having batteries at hand. All chargers have the capacity to charge two batteries simultaneously and in many cases the batteries can be recharged in about 3 hours. Worst case scenarios include having either an extra charged battery or batteries on hand or a package of disposables available.
Every manufactured product has a cycle. Batteries used to power hearing aids have changed over the years. Each successive innovation has had a beneficial effect on hearing aids and subsequently on the market for hearing aids. Rechargeable batteries and rechargeable hearing aids can be viewed as either a sustaining innovation (continuous product improvement) or as a disruptive market innovation. History has shown that as improvements in products continue there is greater adaptation of those products by the public. Product innovations bring down barriers to usage by reducing costs, increasing convenience, increasing utilization and increasing satisfaction. Disruptive innovations usually begin at the low end of the market and in time, further their reach up market, as the disruptive products gain acceptance. Disruptive products then begin their own product cycles.
Regardless of how history views rechargeable innovations, dispensers presently have a window of opportunity to not only differentiate their practices but to position themselves differently from the competition. In addition, by furthering the rechargeable paradigm, with the elimination of toxic disposable batteries from the environment, dispensers can begin the process of occupying previously unoccupied competitive space. In doing so they would not only continue to help their patients but further the concept of “thinking globally, but acting locally.”
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Friday, June 1, 2007
Hear and THere
Hear and There
By Batteryjac.com
By breaking any process down to its component structures, it’s easier to look at each step in the process to not only determine if there are flaws, but areas within that process that are open to improvement. No process is more important to dispensers, than the hearing evaluation and its associated presentation of hearing aids. Evaluations and presentations seem to change continuously as technologies advance for both testing equipment and hearing aids.
Still, in reality, there are four steps or areas that always have to be kept in mind during the presentation and they follow a simple sequence:
Pain-Claim-Gain-Brain
The underlying rationale for this process is the ever famous pleasure-pain principle. Enhance pleasure and avoid pain.
Savvy marketing and advertising people for many products follow this line of reasoning. It lends itself particularly well to live as well as video presentations.
Spend a week or so critically looking at commercials that come across the television screen. Pay particular notice to commercials (in reality stories) that have anything to do with the health or pharmacy industries. You will see the Pain, Claim, Gain and Brain sequence continuously. The reality of the situation is that as a seller of a product you are always addressing an emotional issue. Any product purchase always addresses the pleasure-pain principle. Aside from flight or fight, the emotions (pleasure-pain) form the bedrock of human experience. After the pain and claim sequence of any presentation, the gain section, automatically flows to an emotional issue in the old brain, the emotional brain, not the analytical brain.
PAIN
Probably more time is spent on the Pain part of the presentation than any other part. We have all learned the testing procedures and how to conduct the case history after the test for maximum impact. As scientific as the air, bone, masking, speech analysis are, they go along way in explaining patient’s pain to them if the time is taken to properly explain the results. The emotional pain must be emphasized during the testing procedure as much as possible. Think of the Hertz commercials. In every new ad that comes across the TV screen, Hertz emphasizes the different aspect of the pain of not renting a car from Hertz.
CLAIM
The part where we state our claim (we have a solution for your pain) and the particular benefits associated with any hearing aid(s) can be the trickiest part of the presentation procedure. This is the area where in many cases you have pre-determined (technology level) what you want to sell to the patient. You have to be sure that the patient is receptive to that solution and capable of paying for it. You probably want to make your claim as broad as possible so as not to paint yourself into a corner. Your claim must alleviate the pain. It is here where you are building expectations for your product. The overstatement of your claim can only lead to failed expectations with associated results.
NOTE: It is here where we have to recognize the possible limitations of amplification for the patient without losing them, unless of course you don’t want them as a patient, which is entirely possible. In some cases, where amplification can only have very limited benefits, it’s probably best to refer them for expert medical (probably an ENT or neurologist) advice so that they don’t reflect poorly on your practice because of the limited benefits of amplification. Look at the rate of success that you have had with those patients that have limited speech comprehension. That should be your guide. Sometimes it’s better to let a fitting go. You must consider the possible impact on your business of having this person for a patient, i.e. positive, neutral or negative.
GAIN
The gain section of your presentation must fit directly into how your claim alleviates the pain. The more specifically that you can tailor the gain into your claim, the easier it is to provide the solution that eliminates the emotional pain. You cannot sell technology. You can only sell to an emotion. Analytics do not count. Nobody buys technology. They only buy solutions to get rid of pain (pleasure-pain). Nobody cares how an aspirin works. Nobody cares how the drive train works in a Hertz rental and nobody cares how a hearing aid works. It doesn’t matter whether you use the master hearing aid function on an audiometer or a demo model of a hearing aid. You have to demonstrate how amplification can provide the necessary information within your claim. Just as in any commercial, you have to get that smile that shows the alleviation of the pain and how much better life (emotional brain) can be with the acceptance of your claim.
By Batteryjac.com
By breaking any process down to its component structures, it’s easier to look at each step in the process to not only determine if there are flaws, but areas within that process that are open to improvement. No process is more important to dispensers, than the hearing evaluation and its associated presentation of hearing aids. Evaluations and presentations seem to change continuously as technologies advance for both testing equipment and hearing aids.
Still, in reality, there are four steps or areas that always have to be kept in mind during the presentation and they follow a simple sequence:
Pain-Claim-Gain-Brain
The underlying rationale for this process is the ever famous pleasure-pain principle. Enhance pleasure and avoid pain.
Savvy marketing and advertising people for many products follow this line of reasoning. It lends itself particularly well to live as well as video presentations.
Spend a week or so critically looking at commercials that come across the television screen. Pay particular notice to commercials (in reality stories) that have anything to do with the health or pharmacy industries. You will see the Pain, Claim, Gain and Brain sequence continuously. The reality of the situation is that as a seller of a product you are always addressing an emotional issue. Any product purchase always addresses the pleasure-pain principle. Aside from flight or fight, the emotions (pleasure-pain) form the bedrock of human experience. After the pain and claim sequence of any presentation, the gain section, automatically flows to an emotional issue in the old brain, the emotional brain, not the analytical brain.
PAIN
Probably more time is spent on the Pain part of the presentation than any other part. We have all learned the testing procedures and how to conduct the case history after the test for maximum impact. As scientific as the air, bone, masking, speech analysis are, they go along way in explaining patient’s pain to them if the time is taken to properly explain the results. The emotional pain must be emphasized during the testing procedure as much as possible. Think of the Hertz commercials. In every new ad that comes across the TV screen, Hertz emphasizes the different aspect of the pain of not renting a car from Hertz.
CLAIM
The part where we state our claim (we have a solution for your pain) and the particular benefits associated with any hearing aid(s) can be the trickiest part of the presentation procedure. This is the area where in many cases you have pre-determined (technology level) what you want to sell to the patient. You have to be sure that the patient is receptive to that solution and capable of paying for it. You probably want to make your claim as broad as possible so as not to paint yourself into a corner. Your claim must alleviate the pain. It is here where you are building expectations for your product. The overstatement of your claim can only lead to failed expectations with associated results.
NOTE: It is here where we have to recognize the possible limitations of amplification for the patient without losing them, unless of course you don’t want them as a patient, which is entirely possible. In some cases, where amplification can only have very limited benefits, it’s probably best to refer them for expert medical (probably an ENT or neurologist) advice so that they don’t reflect poorly on your practice because of the limited benefits of amplification. Look at the rate of success that you have had with those patients that have limited speech comprehension. That should be your guide. Sometimes it’s better to let a fitting go. You must consider the possible impact on your business of having this person for a patient, i.e. positive, neutral or negative.
GAIN
The gain section of your presentation must fit directly into how your claim alleviates the pain. The more specifically that you can tailor the gain into your claim, the easier it is to provide the solution that eliminates the emotional pain. You cannot sell technology. You can only sell to an emotion. Analytics do not count. Nobody buys technology. They only buy solutions to get rid of pain (pleasure-pain). Nobody cares how an aspirin works. Nobody cares how the drive train works in a Hertz rental and nobody cares how a hearing aid works. It doesn’t matter whether you use the master hearing aid function on an audiometer or a demo model of a hearing aid. You have to demonstrate how amplification can provide the necessary information within your claim. Just as in any commercial, you have to get that smile that shows the alleviation of the pain and how much better life (emotional brain) can be with the acceptance of your claim.
Hear and THere
Hear and There
By Batteryjac.com
Another round of postal increases is here and the costs of advertising and communicating with your market and customers are increasing yet again. A simple way to mitigate these increased costs is by using much of the free advertising and communication mechanisms that are available to you. These are e-mail, Craigs List, the blogosphere and press releases.
E-Mail
This is the simplest and most vital link between you and your customers. Many seniors and certainly many of your new patients use e mail on a daily basis. E mail is the “killer app” for the Web. If you haven’t as yet begun to collect e-mail addresses from your patients you’re probably shooting yourself in the foot. E mail can be used to confirm appointments, reminder cards for checkups, periodic newsletters, thank you cards, appointment follow-ups, birthday greetings and even additions to your blog. Also, you can forward to your list pertinent information that may come across your computer.
A couple of inexpensive email “houses” are Microsoft’s www.bcentral.com/ , www.emailfactory.com/ and our personal favorite for small (that’d be most dispensers) businesses is www.intellicontact.com/about/
If you don’t have area in your website for people to give you their e mail addresses and perhaps sign up for newsletter do it now or get your webmaster on it. Make it easy for your patients and potential patients. Instead of using the “Contact Us” link set up a separate page for e mail sign-ups. The acronym KISS applies here. Remember, you must have permission to use a person’s email address for commercial purposes otherwise it is illegal and considered spam. Review legal requirements for all commercial e-mail. It would be well worth your while to visit http://spamlaws.com
Craig’s List
Craig’s List is probably the most under utilized resource for hearing aid dispensers. Probably because when it first started it wasn’t used by our age demographic. It is free for one listing. The only hassle is that you have to renew your listing every week. In some areas or cities you can have multiple listings for a slight charge. Always provide a link to your website.
Just go to www.craigslist.com. Try it. Go to your city and in the “search area” type in “hearing aids” or “hearing aid batteries,” “amplified phones” or what have you. Craigs List is like chicken soup. It can’t hurt.
Blogs
The blogging resource is becoming more relevant to people almost daily. Blogs have been set up by many individuals, groups and of course commercial enterprises. It is a way other than through a website or e mail to disseminate information, opinions, events and most importantly, blogs allow for feedback from your customers.
Just go to www.google.com and insert “blogs” into the search function. You’ll be able to review many group blogs to get an idea as to what is possible. Also, you’ll see a banner ad or a listing for www.blogger.com which is the Google place for creating your own free blog site. Your own blog site enables you to electronically publish many short pieces of information that you would want to get out to your customer base. You always want to keep the blog fresh and timely so that people have the opportunity to always find out something new and perhaps pass it on via e mail. When you have your blog make sure to link it to your website, show it on business cards, practice brochures, etc, etc. The more sources you give your customers and potential customers for information the greater the transparency of your practice and reasons to come to you.
Press Releases
Press releases are probably the least used but arguably the best form of publicity for individual dealers and state hearing associations. Individual dealers generally advertise either in a local edition of dailies or in local newspaper weekly editions. State hearing associations because of their State wide nature would have access to major dailies, periodicals as well as TV and Radio resources. Every state organization should probably have an easily accessible page on their websites for press releases that media outlets can go to for information. Remember that all media is in need of editorial and that many times they must seek information for publication. There is no reason not to provide good information for the public through the media.
Positive releases can only further the awareness of the local or general public for the benefits that hearing aids provide. There are many caveats associated with press releases however. The most important thing to remember about press releases is that they are a premier marketing tool that can position your practice or state organization the way you want it positioned. We would suggest that if you are not familiar with press releases visit www.press-release-writing.com (they have a free newsletter) or if you need or want a professional organization to do releases for you visit www.prnewswire.com.
By Batteryjac.com
Another round of postal increases is here and the costs of advertising and communicating with your market and customers are increasing yet again. A simple way to mitigate these increased costs is by using much of the free advertising and communication mechanisms that are available to you. These are e-mail, Craigs List, the blogosphere and press releases.
This is the simplest and most vital link between you and your customers. Many seniors and certainly many of your new patients use e mail on a daily basis. E mail is the “killer app” for the Web. If you haven’t as yet begun to collect e-mail addresses from your patients you’re probably shooting yourself in the foot. E mail can be used to confirm appointments, reminder cards for checkups, periodic newsletters, thank you cards, appointment follow-ups, birthday greetings and even additions to your blog. Also, you can forward to your list pertinent information that may come across your computer.
A couple of inexpensive email “houses” are Microsoft’s www.bcentral.com/ , www.emailfactory.com/ and our personal favorite for small (that’d be most dispensers) businesses is www.intellicontact.com/about/
If you don’t have area in your website for people to give you their e mail addresses and perhaps sign up for newsletter do it now or get your webmaster on it. Make it easy for your patients and potential patients. Instead of using the “Contact Us” link set up a separate page for e mail sign-ups. The acronym KISS applies here. Remember, you must have permission to use a person’s email address for commercial purposes otherwise it is illegal and considered spam. Review legal requirements for all commercial e-mail. It would be well worth your while to visit http://spamlaws.com
Craig’s List
Craig’s List is probably the most under utilized resource for hearing aid dispensers. Probably because when it first started it wasn’t used by our age demographic. It is free for one listing. The only hassle is that you have to renew your listing every week. In some areas or cities you can have multiple listings for a slight charge. Always provide a link to your website.
Just go to www.craigslist.com. Try it. Go to your city and in the “search area” type in “hearing aids” or “hearing aid batteries,” “amplified phones” or what have you. Craigs List is like chicken soup. It can’t hurt.
Blogs
The blogging resource is becoming more relevant to people almost daily. Blogs have been set up by many individuals, groups and of course commercial enterprises. It is a way other than through a website or e mail to disseminate information, opinions, events and most importantly, blogs allow for feedback from your customers.
Just go to www.google.com and insert “blogs” into the search function. You’ll be able to review many group blogs to get an idea as to what is possible. Also, you’ll see a banner ad or a listing for www.blogger.com which is the Google place for creating your own free blog site. Your own blog site enables you to electronically publish many short pieces of information that you would want to get out to your customer base. You always want to keep the blog fresh and timely so that people have the opportunity to always find out something new and perhaps pass it on via e mail. When you have your blog make sure to link it to your website, show it on business cards, practice brochures, etc, etc. The more sources you give your customers and potential customers for information the greater the transparency of your practice and reasons to come to you.
Press Releases
Press releases are probably the least used but arguably the best form of publicity for individual dealers and state hearing associations. Individual dealers generally advertise either in a local edition of dailies or in local newspaper weekly editions. State hearing associations because of their State wide nature would have access to major dailies, periodicals as well as TV and Radio resources. Every state organization should probably have an easily accessible page on their websites for press releases that media outlets can go to for information. Remember that all media is in need of editorial and that many times they must seek information for publication. There is no reason not to provide good information for the public through the media.
Positive releases can only further the awareness of the local or general public for the benefits that hearing aids provide. There are many caveats associated with press releases however. The most important thing to remember about press releases is that they are a premier marketing tool that can position your practice or state organization the way you want it positioned. We would suggest that if you are not familiar with press releases visit www.press-release-writing.com (they have a free newsletter) or if you need or want a professional organization to do releases for you visit www.prnewswire.com.
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