CommentThe First Fact, in the fitting of hearing aids, is that all Hearing Aid Acceptance and usage, and Hearing Loss and Perception, is SUBJECTIVE.What is meant by subjective is that every person is unique. No two People, with the same hearing loss, perceive and respond the same. Everything about the Client is different. Everything. Their hearing loss. their perception, their experiences, their needs, their expectations, their patience, their movitvation, their tolerances,their social life, their professional life,their dexterity,their health, their attitude, their personality, their cognitive skills, their economics, their mentality,their habits, their cooperation,their flexibility, their background,their heritage,their thresholds,their curiosity, their intelligence, but most of all, their expectations.
If all of the above almost sounds insane, so can the experience be, of trying to fit hearing aids.
Most Hearing Aid Dispensers burn out after a few years. Young Audiologist switch and become Missionaries. It is easier trying to convert Agnostics
to anything, than trying to fit hearing aids.
Some Dispensers,whatever their title is, do everything they can, to sell hearing aids. That is their job and their living. To sell hearing aids. They may want to pretend they are something different for ego purposes, but what they are is hearing aid sales People. Period. If they give them away, such as when they work for the Veterans Administration, they are Providers, and they are so lucky it is unbelieve. Except because they basically don't sell hearing aids, they don't really make any money. As a result, if they have any sense, they do the next best thing, and get a job as a Sales or Customer Service Rep, for a Hearing Aid Manufacturer. The pressure is off, and they can make a decent living.
Dealing with Seniors is not easy. Dealing with Seniors, and their Family Members, with a Hearing Loss, can be very challenging. I'm being kind, and very diplomatic.
I have never worked so hard, for so little, in my life.
The mortality rate (Heart Attacks) and suicide rates for Hearing Aid Dispensers, has to be only second to Neural Surgeons, that loose most of their Patients.
A lot of Hearing Aid Candidates and lst time users, either thing,assume,or have been told, that their mission or purpose in life, is to list everything they find wrong,inadequate,or disappointing, with their inital experience with using a hearing aid.
Att the lst follow-up interview, the new user seems intent on finding every reason possible to not using a hearing aid. Most lst Time Users are in Denial. Then they don't want to use hearing aids because of what they think that means. Getting old, or at least revealing they have some type of problem, and they are not perfect.
Intelligent People, and Mature People, realize they have a problem, and are motivated to do something about it.
It is always obvious who doesn't recognize they have a problem and are motivated to do anything they can to resolve that problem, than those People who have been pressured by their Spouses or Family Members, in trying a Hearing Aid.
In any event, the follow-up meetings can be a real contest.
The Hearing Aid Dispenser (regardless of what their title is), who is really a Salesperson, usually on commission, which only means they are probably better qualified than anyone else to sell hearing aids and have the guts to work on a commssion basis, depending totally on their skills and experience to satisfy their Clients, as opposed to a salaried Person, who could care less about anything, and reflects it, wants to sell Hearing Aids, usually to People who don't want to buy the Product.
Thats why Intelligent Dispensers prefer to do business only with those People who use Hearing Aids and appreciate what they can do, and understand, and accept, what they can't do, or what their limitations are.
The best, and only thing, that a Dispenser should do, is to tell the TRUTH. Undersell and Overdeliver.
Instruct Hearing Aid Users, that they will not understand Speech in a Noisy Environment, such as a Restaurant, the same way that no one else does. Tell the User that the purpose of Noise Reduction Features and Directional Microphones, are really only benefitical in making the wearing of a Hearing Aid more TOLERABLE in Noisy Situations.
The Hearing Aid User is not going to understand what an inarticulate Minister is Preaching in Church. The Hearing Aid User probably is not going to be able to use a cell phone or any telephone, as well as they would like, with their Hearing Aid.
Any Hearing Aid, is really only effective in a quiet room, with one on one conversation. Whats wrong with that?
False Presentations, Result in False Expectations,and Frustrated Users.
The Truth in selling hearing aids, like in selling anything else, or just in living your life, is always the best path to travel.
Anyone that tells a Hearing Aid Prospect,or Current User, that any Hearing Aid replaces normal hearing, is either uninformed,uneducated,inexperienced,dishonest,or just a thief.
Not only is it always best to do what is to the best interest of the hearing aid client, not the Dispensers, but it is good business.
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