Question
What are the benefits of offering extended hearing aid warranties to my patients?
Answer
If the price of an extended warranty is priced competitively below normal repair costs and includes value added office services like batteries, cleans and checks, electroacoustic analysis, otoscopic exams etc. etc. it just makes good sense to offer this coverage. The patient can have peace of mind protection a year at a time. To put it simply, you would pay Esco for only the warranty coverage and then you add your services cost to the warranty and sell that bundled to the patient. Hence, minus the cost of the warranty anything you make on selling the policy is yours to keep.
In my office, as an added incentive, I would credit the patient up to $100 per year toward their next major purchase. I would do this up to a total of 5 years or $500. This applied credit combined with the ability of the patient to cancel anytime during the year helps shorten that sales cycle of 5 years, and keep a patient loyal to my practice.
I know that some professionals may think that once the warranty runs out at the end of two or three years, it’s time to sell the patient another set of hearing aids. In my opinion, this is shortsighted because patients are not necessarily thinking the same thing. They made a big investment in hearing instruments and they are not expecting to turn around in a few years and do it again.
Consider MarkeTrak data on how often consumers obtain new hearing aids. After the initial two or three year warranty expires, that patient is still going to have another two to three years before they even think about buying another set of hearing aids. What do you do during that timeframe to keep them loyal and to find additional revenue for your practice? That’s where extended warranties fit in.
This Ask the Expert was adapted from an interview with Charles Stone - read the full interview here. Learn more about Esco at www.earserv.com or the ESCO Expo Page.
